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SARNIA REMEMBERS: A Soldier of the Cross

As part of our Sarnia Remembers series — now in its ninth year — The Journal is publishing a series of stories honouring veterans and fallen soldiers from Sarnia-Lambton.
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Private George Esser, Can. Army, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada

On November 3, 1944, the news that George, their 19 year-old-son, had been killed in action in the Netherlands reached Issac and Anna Esser at their Sarnia home. That he had died so young was crushing. What made the truth even more shocking was that no one in his family—neither his parents nor his nine siblings--knew he was overseas in his birth country at the time.  George's family assumed that since it was so late in the war, he was still training in Canada with the Canadian army.

There was no doubting, however, the official telegram that the Essers received from the Director of Records in Ottawa days after George's death.

George was born in The Netherlands in 1924 and, nearly two years later, his parents, his three sisters, and he immigrated to Canada. After spending some time in Petrolia, the Essers moved to Plank Road and later to London Road in Sarnia. The family continued to grow and the Esser clan, including George, attended London Road School and then SCITS.

George liked to work with his hands and had a mechanical mind, so after completing grade nine at SCITS, he chose to work rather than to return to high school. He was a farm labourer for one year but found time to take a night school course in woodworking.  After that, George worked at a sash and door factory in Sarnia, mainly as a machine operator. Then for six months, he worked in the local C.N.R. car shops.

In November 1942, he turned 18 and made the decision to enlist. George stood five feet nine inches tall, had blue eyes and brown hair, was single, and stated he was a woodworker, an occupation he planned to continue after the war. He also mentioned that he had a number of relatives in Holland and that his family had heard from his father's brother only once since the Nazi occupation. 

George received Basic Training in Stratford and then at the Advance Training Centre in Petawawa. Following this, he attended the Canadian Army Trade School (CATS) in Hamilton where he obtained qualifications in carpentry and bricklaying. 

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The Esser family home on London Rd.

At the outbreak of World War II, the military set requirements for volunteers, one being that they had to be, at minimum, 18 years of age. For overseas service, the minimum age was 19. On July 12, 1944, George, now 19, embarked overseas to the United Kingdom, where he became a member of the Canadian Engineer Reinforcement Unit (CERU). In mid-August 1944, he was transferred to the Winnipeg Grenadiers. On September 23, 1944, he arrived in France, as a member of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, R.C.I.C., with the rank of private. 

At this time, Canadian forces were nearing completion of their fighting along the “Long Left Flank”, that had them engaged in such vital tasks as clearing coastal areas in the north of France and Belgium of German occupiers; opening the English Channel ports for supplies essential to the Allied advance; and capturing the launching sites of German V-1 rockets. Beginning in late August 1944, in a series of stop-and-start advances against stiff resistance in fortified positions, that continued into early October, the Canadians liberated ports and villages including Rouen, Dieppe, Dunkirk, Boulogne, and Calais. 

In early September 1944, Allied forces captured the inland port of Antwerp, Belgium, the second greatest port in Europe at the mouth of the Scheldt River; however, German forces still controlled the 45-mile-long Scheldt estuary (the Belgian-Dutch border area) that connected the port of Antwerp to the North Sea. Beginning in early October 1944, the Canadians were entrusted with liberating the estuary. 

George was part of the Battle of the Scheldt which took place in northern Belgium and the Netherlands from October 1 - November 8, 1944. It became one of the most gruelling struggles in the war as Canadians fought to liberate the German-controlled estuary—but it was also the beginning of the Liberation of the Netherlands.  George probably thought of his relatives still oppressed by the Nazi Regime and his desire to release them.  If nothing else, this would have provided him with some hope, for fighting on  the front was brutal. The Germans were well-fortified and heavily entrenched  and  bitter winter temperatures in a wet and muddy quagmire proved challenging.

The Allies prevailed, but the cost of victory was high—the Canadians suffered more than 6,300 casualties. It was during the Battle of the Scheldt, one month after arriving in France, that George lost his life in his native Holland. 

No details of his death were provided other than he was officially recorded as Overseas casualty, killed in action, in the field (Holland).

The family later received the news that George’s remains were buried on October 25 at a location recorded on the Army Field Service Card as “Newchurch Cemetery MR 626193, Huijbergen, Holland.” His remains were later carefully exhumed from the original place of internment and reverently reburied in Bergen-op-Zoom, Holland.

Jennie Kapteyn, who was only five when George was killed, regrets not knowing much about her brother. “My parents and older siblings didn't mention George that much,” Jennie stated, “and I was just a child when we learned the news. It must have been very painful for them.”

In 1983, Jennie and her four sisters visited George's grave in Holland for the first time. In  Bergen-Op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery they saw their brother's headstone. On it are inscribed the words A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS WHO DID NOT LOSE THE BATTLE.

 


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