Hello again Forum.
Sapper has been rather busy, not bad for a old man!

Mine Clearing.
That's twice I ran over that German!

It was at this time, right in the middle of the battles for Overloon and Venraij, that we first encountered a new type of German anti-tank mine. We called them Rigler mines, or R mines, something like that. Long rectangular boxes, sandy coloured, with a lid that fitted snugly over the top. One of our officers called me in and told me to get a motor bike and give him a lift down the sandy tracks, through the pine woods, to where an officer, two Sergeants and a squad of Sappers of my platoon, number two platoon, were lifting these mines in a corner of Overloon.

Setting off through the woods with the officer on the pillion there were deep furrows in the sandy soil that the bike wheel could not get climb out of, on the way, I had to run over a recently dead German lying in the centre of the deep rut , I just could not avoid him, nor could I get past him. Squelch! In the corner of Overloon, hundreds of these mines had been lifted and stacked "criss-cross" everywhere, in ditches, on top the ground, all over the place.

While we were there Enemy mortar fire was coming down, a very dangerous place to be with mines stacked up everywhere. For the whole area was infested with mines and we were surrounded with high explosives. The officer with me, told the other officer, Lt Barnard to send a reliable man off on his own to try and take this new mine apart, we had no idea if they were booby trapped, or if they had any ' anti-handling devices' that the mines might have been armed with.

After talking the matter over for a while with Sgt Rees and Sgt Watts, I set off to take the officer back through the pine woods and had just run over the dead German again. "Squelch" When, from behind us, there was a huge explosion. We dragged the bike round and set off back, only to find that all the mines had blown up, and everyone with it. We did not know if the officer and N.C.O.s had decided to investigate the mines themselves, or if they had been hit with a mortar bomb. ( I am convinced a mortar dropped on the mines) When we arrived at the scene they were all dead. Killed instantaneously. They would have known nothing about it, for it must have been very sudden, and catastrophic.

The Company history “The Route forward” suggested it was an accident. I do not think so, having just been talking to all those there, minutes before they died. The mines they had been lifting were everywhere, after lifting, there was no place to put them where they could be kept safe, except in ditches etc. Any mortar dropping there, would have set them off, and that I believe, and convinced, is what happened. For all those Sgts, and the Officer were experienced men, and were not likely to do something that would cause this explosion. We buried then in the corner of Overloon and put wooden crosses on their graves. Sadly more of the original company had departed, for now, we were very few familiar faces
Sapper Brian.