The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Overloon, popularly known as the English cemetery, contains 281 graves. Each with its own story. In this report series, the Overloon War Chronicles Foundation highlights such a special story every time. This time grave number 9, section I, row E.

Frank Edgeley (1924 – 1944)

Operation Nutcracker and the mine

Ubique Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt

(Source: motto of the Royal Engineers, translated from Latin to English: Everywhere, Where Right and Glory lead)

It feels desolate, this area near Vortum. The sappers still control this area today in the role of infantry. It is cold, the temperature is just above zero, but the perceived temperature is far below that.

Frank is born on Sunday 23 December 1923 in the town of Burslem, part of the town of Stoke-on-Trent in northern Staffordshire.
He is the son of Ernest Edgeley and Florence Edgeley-Dickinson, who were married on 29 June 1919 at St. John’s Church in Burslem.
Frank’s older brother Ernest, officially Ernest Arthur, was born in 1920 and Frank’s younger brother Bernard is born in 1926.
Stoke-on-Trent is an industrial city with a lot of mining. In the centuries before that, the pottery, ceramics and porcelain industry was also of great importance to the town and the area. The 6 towns that have formed the new Stoke-on-Trent federation since 1910 (Burslem, Fenton, Longton, Hanley, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent) are nicknamed the Staffordshire Potteries.
But in the 1920s, the pottery industry is already in decline.
 
Father Ernest works in the mines, but a few years after Bernard’s birth, the family moves to the small town of Bagillt, in the far northeast of Wales. Bagillt is a real mining town with several mines located around the town at the time.
Ernest will work at the Bettisfield Colliery, the Bettisfield coal mine, the largest and most important mine in the region.
 
 
Pigeons are Ernest’s great hobby and he also knows how to get his 3 sons to join in.
Frank attends Bagillt Council School in Bagillt, followed by Flint Central School. After his school years he starts working for Courtaulds, a producer of artificial silk and yarn. Later Frank also works for the large British iron and steel producer John Summers.
When Frank is 16 years old, his mother Florence suddenly dies of a stroke. It is a great shock to the family. Ernest will remarry in 1943 to a widow who already has two young children at that time. Together, Ernest and she will have seven more children and move to Pen-y-Maes in Holywell.
 
Young Frank wants to join the army. On 16 July 1942 he volunteers for military service, when he is 18 years old. He enlists in Richmond, North Yorkshire.
Frank’s older brother Ernest Arthur serves as a driver in the Royal Artillery. His younger brother Bernard will later also enlist and serve as a fusilier (gunner) in France.
 
Frank eventually becomes Sapper in the Royal Engineers commando unit, 253 Field Coy. (253 Field Company of the Royal Engineers), part of the 3rd Infantry Division.
The Royal Engineers are responsible for all kinds of tactical and technical tasks at the front and behind the front. Such as building bridges and defenses, laying minefields and clearing minefields, carrying out road repairs and even constructing a military airfield, as well as placing explosives when destroying targets. Also, sappers are combat trained as infantry, so that they can also carry out defensive or offensive operations directly at the front. The basics for the Royal Engineers are Live, Move, Fight. In that exact order.
Training takes place at the Royal Engineers Depot in Chatham or the Royal Engineers Mounted Depot in Aldershot.
 
In the run of 1944 it becomes increasingly clear that a western front will be opened by the Allies. Frank’s commando unit is also preparing well for the journey to the front.
Shortly after D-Day (6 June 1944) the time has come. Frank’s company also sails across the Channel to land on the beaches of Normandy, on the beach codenamed Sword Beach.
 
After the conquest of Caen takes a lot of time, the British arrive in The Netherlands via Northern France and Belgium.In the period after the Battle of Arnhem, Frank and his company arrive in the area of Deurne and Someren.
From 1 October they move in a northerly direction. Via the villages of Asten, Bakel, Gemert and Mill they arrive at the Vogelhoek near the village of Escharen. At that time, it is unknown what their next mission will be. These days are filled with training including mine training as well as road maintenance. On 10 October it is announced that they will be deployed during the British part of the Battle of Overloon and Venray. The next day, 11 October, they arrive in the village of Oploo.
Frank has brought his camera from England and regularly takes pictures of local residents wherever he goes. This is also the case in Escharen and Oploo.
 
After the liberation of Overloon, the British want to advance towards Venray, but get stuck towards the Loobeek. On 16 October Frank’s company succeeds in building a bridge over the Loobeek over which the British can cross the Loobeek in the end.
Destroyed houses are also flattened by the British to use the stones to fill holes in the roads or paths. At the same time, minefields are being laid in Mullem and Vierlingsbeek in order to withstand a possible German attack from the east.
Venray is liberated, but then the British offensive temporarily stops as a prelude to the next phase.
 
This is the time during which Frank, like others from his company, is allowed to go on leave, back to England, back to the family. He takes the photos he has made in France, Belgium and The Netherlands back to England and leaves them with his brother Bernard when Frank needs to return to the war front again. Frank is never afraid, but he is now slowly becoming more nervous as the day of departure approaches and he doesn’t really want to go back to The Netherlands at all. Does he have a frightening premonition about things to come? But he has no choice and after saying goodbye he leaves again for The Netherlands, back to the area around Overloon, back to the front.
 
October and November are tough months for the British in this Dutch area, also for Frank’s company. The weather remains bad, lots of rain and it’s cold. And there is mud everywhere.
After the Battle of Overloon and Venray and the weeks of consolidation that follow, the British again attack on Tuesday 14 November to roll up the German bridgehead Venlo. The code name for this operation is Operation Nutcracker. On the German side, General von Obstfelder is still the man responsible for the bridgehead Venlo and he thinks the tide has turned after a few days. On 20 November, the 15th Scottish Division attacks, followed two days later by the 11th Armored Division. The 86th Corps then holds the bridgehead in Venlo until 3 December. Then all Germans are finally driven back across the Meuse.
 
On Sunday 12 November, in preparation for Operation Nutcracker, for a week Frank’s company successfully takes over positions in the area of the village of Vortum as infantry. A/P mines (anti-personnel mines/mines directed against persons, AVD) are placed in defense and patrols stop a number of German attacks from across the Meuse.
 
On Tuesday 14 November sappers will be commissioned to lay kilometers of Sommerfeld tracking systems in a number of other places in the Venray region. Sommerfeld trackings are large rolls of nets 3.5 meters wide and 23 meters long with steel rods for reinforcement. They are rolled out over ground that must first be cleared of obstacles and landmines and then leveled. The nets are then pulled tight by a tractor, bulldozer or other similar vehicle and then pinned down. This creates an artificial path over which the vehicles can then drive more stably and faster. These nets are also used intensively to construct runways at temporary airports.
It is an icy day and the precipitation of the past few days has not made the trails any better.
 
On the second day of Operation Nutcracker, Wednesday 15 November 1944, it is even colder than the day before.The sun does not show itself all day and the temperature is just above freezing. The perceived temperature is well below that. The sappers are once again rolling out and securing the nets over the ground. Further sappers are busy clearing the next piece of soil from mines and leveling the bottom a bit.
 
On that same Wednesday, in the area near Vortum, Frank and his company are still in the role of infantry troops, repelling German attacks. But in the evening during one of these actions, disaster strikes. Two company men are killed in a minefield: Lance Corporal Charlie Broughton and Frank Edgeley.
 
Frank’s body is transferred to a temporary cemetery on the territory of the Huijsmans family on the Rieterdreef in Overloon. At that time, from 28 October, 10 British soldiers were already buried there. After Frank, 3 other Britons will be temporarily buried in the same location. On 12 May 1947, the remains of all 14 soldiers are transferred to the CWGC cemetery in Overloon. There they are reburied in section I, row E, grave numbers 1 to 14. Frank is buried in grave 9.
 
Frank’s brothers Ernest and Bernard both survive World War II. Father Ernest maintains permanent contact with the Huijsmans family after the war. Frank’s brother Bernard and his family also visit Frank’s grave in Overloon and meet children of the Huijsmans family.
 
Frank Edgeley is only 20 years old when he dies in the minefield.
A boy with dreams for the future and plans for when the war would be over. His plans for the future are forever disrupted on that Wednesday 15 November 1944.

You can read how it continues in the full version of “Faces from the Past” below. 
 

See the extended list in the full version.