Hello Sapper Brian!
please excuse my delay in thanking and answering your answers to me. I had hoped to have some more information available at this time to post.
Thank you VERY much for your interesting answers. They certainly helped. I will see if I can get details about sapper Davies's death through other sources. It is very understandable that through the 'fog of war' things were/will be unclear and go unrecorded. For us (amateur) researchers it is a pity 'so little' was recorded. But it is obvious people had a lot of other things on their minds at the time. Alsao understandable that smaller units from your Coy were all over the place all the time. yet, there is a challange to find out as much as we can!
I know Weert a little bit as I did some NCO training there (is that also a British term?). It was also the place where you made a Dutch boy a rich man, I remember....
Reason I asked about the Molenbeek is because I found the following picture in the book THANK GOD AND THE INFANTRY by John Lincoln. He was an officer with the Royal Norfolks Regiment, which was heavily involved in the fighting for Venray and Overloon. The battles are graphically described in this book. The Molenbeek is mentioned often, as well as the fighting over it and the mining! One platoon crossed it and a field and ordered some German stretcher-bearers that they had taken prisoner to take some wounded Norfolks back to the rear, to something called RAP. This was a Field Dressing Station? Anyway, the Germans refused and the British learned they just fought their way through a minefield without setting a single one off!
Many of these kind of stories in the book...also about the times it didn't go as well. Again, the following picture is of the overturned bridging tank near the Molenbeek. Maybe it brings back memories.
OK, Linking to my server doesn't seem to work anymore. I will get my people on it....pic will be available asap.
I checked the address you gave of Byonic Bill and he is still listed in the telephonebook. I wanted to give him a call but haven't found the time yet. Hopefully will do so this weekend.
I hope to be in the Venray area either this month or next, so I will get you some pictures/cards to show you what it looks like. I tried the internet but that didn't come up with any good pics. Here is the link to the official site of the Museum in Overloon though.
http://www.oorlogsmuseum-overloon.nl/
I hopeto have some more information to post on Venray/Overloon soon!
Thanks again and warm regards,
Stevin
[ 06. December 2002, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: Stevin Oudshoorn ]