The historical context

After years of occupation by German Forces the Luxembourgish population thought that war had ended with the liberation by American Forces on September 1944. On December 16th 1944 however the north of the country was struck with full force when the Germans attempted a last desperate attack. Clervaux, a picturesque town lying in a horseshoe-shaped bend of the river “Klierf” was overrun by the Germans. During three days American soldiers from the 28th division fought valiantly in this small town and managed to slow down the German advance. By this courageous action they helped delay the attack on Bastogne and decisively contributed to the outcome of the battle.

About 100 men, cooks, clerks and men from other units who had been trapped in Clervaux when the offensive began were billeted in the ancient castle. They were armed only with carbines and M1’s plus a single .50-caliber machine gun.

Clervaux, right in the middle of the path of the German Army

Why did I choose Clervaux

The spectacular geographical situation of the town and the castle and the dramatic events of the battle were a combination a serious modeller could certainly not fail to be attracted to.

The writings mentioned different scenes and actions in the castle. Since the château housed the regiment’s message center, there was a Halftrack in the inner courtyard with a radio, an SCR-193, by means of which the men could maintain contact with the division command post in Wiltz. In the dungeon beneath, there were eighteen German Prisoners of War and some seventy-five civilians, mostly elderly men, women and children who fled from the artillery grenades starting to rain down on the town. Integrating all those well established individual stories in one single scene was an intriguing challenge and once I started sketching some ideas I couldn't let it go any more.

Because the castle would be the centerpiece of the diorama and without a doubt the toughest part to build I decided to start with it. My reasoning at this point was also that without a properly constructed castle, the whole diorama would fail. In hindsight it was pretty astonishing that I was brave enough to tackle such a project despite my absolute lack of experience. It all started with this mockup of the Castle's front build on Christmas Eve 2004. You know the outcome by now.

The build of the castle went well, very well. It made the covers of magazines and won Best of Shows on modeling expositions and yielded an interest on modelling forums I never had dreamed off. It culminated in the publication of Capturing Clervaux- a modelers tale, my first book.

The Diorama

I did not stop there and continued right away with the build. I had planned the diorama based on the village parts outlined in this picture. Remarkably my initial measures proved to be very accurate at the end and only needed slight changes. The only substantial change, something I did not plan right anyway because it was to far down the years, concerned the planned battle scene at the opposite ridge of the castle. In order to respect the topography on site I had to build the diorama at a height of 2 meter (6 ft) from the ground, which is simply impossible, and would need to make it another 2 meter (6 ft) longer, a space I do not have.

The storyline

Having portrayed the soldiers in the castle in a relaxed mood, playing piano and resting, I couldn’t really now transform the village into a battle field. After much deliberation I choose to show more civilians and soldiers heading towards the castle looking for shelter right before the decisive attack and shelling would begin. Military wise the village center will be considered a no man’s land for a short period of time, the Americans hunkered in the castle and the Germans deploying on the opposite ridge.

One after the other I added the modules, made no pause at all, didn’t need any, until I was finally finished after 8 years. The diorama has an overall size of 3 x 2,2 meters (10ft. x 7ft). Motivated by the success of the diorama and the first book, I published a second book, Capturing Clervaux – the final hour, and thus concluded with beauty this very special period of my life.