Introduction/Greetings

[F95476]

Good Day Everyone at MLU,

First off, my name is Dan Moore. The user ID (alias) I have chosen is my fathers Service # from WWII. I have found it to be an easy "handle" for me to remember, and provides a level of privacy, which I hope I will not need as much after reading some of the admin notes here.

My father and his brother were both NCM's in the 23rd Field Coy, RCE during WWII. They are both deceased now, my father when I was 10 yrs old and my uncle died before I got a chance to know him as an adult. Any photo's, written material, etc that my father may have had were destroyed by fire, so anything I have found out about his war experience has been through my own research. Both of them were in 2 Platoon of the Coy, and while I have not seen anything about their individual actions, I am most impressed by the units actions after having looked at a couple of rolls of microfilm of War Diaries from National Archives. I was not aware that the unit received a commendation from 101 American Airborne for their work on the Waal River. This after the rescue effort at Oosterbeek/Driel for which only a Thank You letter was sent by the Brits!?

I am going to put a request in to the Personell Records Unit to get a copy of Dad's service record. I got one in the early 90's but am going to re-request as I have since found out that more information can be released if the veteran has been dead for more than 20 yrs. At the time of the initial request he had only been gone 15 yrs.

I see from posts last year that John Sliz was doing some research here for a book which I understand is to be published later this year. I have exchanged some e-mails with John and look forward to the book.

Here is a great web site on the Market Garden operation.

http://www.marketgarden.com

The webmaster has indicated to me that he plans to put more information in about the 23rd.

I am also attaching an image of a pin that was Dad's. He had given it to my aunt who in turn gave it to me. Apparantly, these pins were made by a Dutch jeweller for some or all of the members of the 23rd. Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has seen one like it or any surviving veterans of the unit who may want to talk.

Cheers to all.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Hi Dan
If you are posting pictures don't preview..They disapear when you post..Try again ..I'd like to see this pin..
Again ,welcome aboard..
Post the info you have on the board and our local historian genius will probably pick up on the info and post the particulars here..Name rank and serial # of course ..unit..regiment..etc is all good stuff..
Mark Tonner is the local whiz on the historical stuff..

Originally posted by F95476
Good Day Everyone at MLU,

First off, my name is Dan Moore. The user ID (alias) I have chosen is my fathers Service # from WWII. I have found it to be an easy "handle" for me to remember, and provides a level of privacy, which I hope I will not need as much after reading some of the admin notes here.

Hi Dan, and welcome to MLU ... and I really like that you use your Dad's Service Record Number as a "handle". I wish I had thought of that myself for my Uncles

This forum is well monitored and the admin Geoff Winnington-Ball, and Hanno, and other Members, are VERY quick to jump on anything in here thats out of line ... like spammers trying to get in, etc. New members are all "approved" now. In the time since this forum has been up, I think only one person has ever been banned! This place is amazing. This forum is almost the only one where I use my real name (even though people keep giving me new ones : )

You mention that a fire ate any papers and records, that happened in my family too, twice! I was able to get records from the National Archives ... and also got a lot of information from the Regimental Museum about my Uncle/s. Does your Dad's and Uncle's regiments have a Museum and have you contacted them? If not, that might bring you some answers.

Other people in this forum (an amazing bunch of people with amazing information and libraries in their heads as well as their bookshelves )

Regards the pin photo you tried to post, if you're still having trouble, I'm sure someone in here will offer to post it for you. All you'd have to do is email them the photo. Maybe I can even do it as I'm just learning how to resize images for posting in here as well, if they're too big. People in here are great at helping each other. Just ask ... and ye shall receive

Take care,

Karmen

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by F95476
I was not aware that the unit received a commendation from 101 American Airborne for their work on the Waal River. This after the rescue effort at Oosterbeek/Driel for which only a Thank You letter was sent by the Brits!?

Welcome, Dan!

Re. the action of 23rd Field Coy RCE at Driel, you might want to read the threads Sapper Question and Stormboats.

Regards,
Hanno

[F95476]

Here is another attempt at attaching the pin image. If it doesn't work this time, I will await further info from Geoff Winnington-Ball.