T/14656349 Victor Stanley COLES, RASC: 17/03/1945 Op Varsity, Odd casualty - any ideas?

Casualty Details | CWGC
In the context of “Operation Varsity” I am currently researching the circumstances of the death of Driver Victor Stanley Coles, 716 Airborne Light Coy, RASC (Service No. 14656349). He died on March 27th, 1945 – Long after the fighting on the LZs and DZs was over. Engagements on that day took place around the edges of the airborne landing area – quite far from the area where he was killed. He was buried in a single grave, grid reference 191474 – that is on the southern tip of LZ “P”. I marked the spot on the two maps attached by a small red dot. My working hypothesis at the moment is: He was trying to recover material/supplies and could have been killed by … a mine? Unexploded ordnance? An accident?

 

Could this have been the circumstances




Source: Headquarters, Royal Army Service Corps

 

Hello Temujin,
thank you very much - I believe you solved the riddle. And my question is answered comprehensively. Amazing! This forum is such a great way of connecting with knowledgeable people!
With best regards
Alex

 

Your welcome Alex, glad I could solve your problem.....but don’t know if I’m “knowledgeable”.....I”m just lucky that at my age I can “remember anything”...BUT, with the wonders of “bookmarks”,, everything I find I bookmark, and then it’s just remembering “in which bookmarked document is that information stored”....

Cheers

 

...clever information management makes knowledgeable people... it is usually not a matter of knowing things off the cuff but rather a matter of knowing where to look up things...

 

Possibly worth noting if you are not already aware:

The name of the injured officer, and further documentation of this is recounted here: 716th Light Composite Company, RASC

Page 4 of the Reminiscence document by Captain D S Bremner also refers to the "heavily mined" position in which 716 LCC were located. link: 716 (Airborne) Light Composite Company RASC | ParaData

Anecdotally a family member of mine also spoke of having his trailer destroyed by a landmine in an incident in this area, however this was unrelated to the event as described in the war diary's, as in that specific case, nobody was injured.