Danish officers in the Royal Engineers in WW2?

Hi there,

As you know, I am still searching for pictures of the fallen Commonwealth soldiers on Schoonselhof, Antwerp, Belgium.

I just found that two of the RE officers (one has as sub-unit 24 Airfield Constr. Coy.) are from Danish decent.

I was wondering if the entire unit was build around Danish personnel?

I am still searching for pictures of the two officers. They most probably were wounded in the same incident (V-bomb?) on or about 26 November 1944.

Their names:

Captain Svend Christian Thaysen and Captain Svend Olaf Pock Steen

 

He was 24yrs old, assigned to 24 Airfield Constr. Coy and a possible clue in:

From: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2256062/sven-christian-thaysen/

Note he was 52yrs old and unit not id'd. Family text:

From: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2256013/svend-olaf-poek-steen

There are two threads here for D-day that state the unit was 24 Airfield Construction Group. Thaysen was the unit's only death in WW2.

Large numbers of the Pioneer Corps were deployed to Antwerp. Perhaps the two RE officers were working with them? Mention of the Pioneers is in: The Pioneer Corps, British Army of the Rhine 1943-46 – The British & Commonwealth Military Insignia Database

Only one Pioneer who died on 28/11/1944 is buried in the cemetery.

 

Niko,

A few minutes ago I asked Google this: danes serving in the royal engineers ww2

There area variety of helpful replies on the first two pgs. Yes, the Danes could have been UK residents who volunteered or emigrated to the UK from the Danish overseas territories e.g. Faroes. or had been residents abroad, such as Canada and the USA.

One website geni.com shows that Svend Christian Thaysen was probably born in Denmark in 1920 and his parents were born there too.

A similar site shows that Svend Olaf Pock Steen was born in Denmark; his parents died there too. He was in RE Bomb Disposal. From: Steen, S.O.P. | The Royal Engineers Association and contact details for research: Contact Us | The Royal Engineers Association

There is an item referring to both officers on the public Facebook site for the RE Historical Society, possibly by you, but not currently displayed here. See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/415846245454101/