April 18, 2015
During the Second World War, approximately 709,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the Canadian Army. Of these, 24,525 soldiers lost their lives in the struggle to liberate the occupied countries. There are over 1000 soldiers, sailors, and air force personnel with no known grave. Those soldiers who died between the crossing of the Seine in August 1944 and the end of the war, and whose graves were not known, had their names engraved on the Groesbeek Memorial, which stands in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. Private Albert Laubenstein was one such soldier—until now.
Private Laubenstein, whose name is recorded on panel 10 of the Groesbeek Memorial, was one of the 50 casualties suffered by the Lincoln and Welland Regiment during the Battle of Kapelsche Veer on January 26, 1945. His body was interred in a battlefield grave but, in the chaos that followed the end of the war, that grave was lost and his remains were not recovered until June 2014, on the southern bank of the Maas River, in the Netherlands.
Private Laubenstein was born on March 28, 1914, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He enrolled in the Royal Canadian Artillery in 1940 and served in Canada before going overseas in November 1941 where he joined anti-aircraft artillery units. He transferred to the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps in October 1944, and was a member of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment until his death.
Kapelsche Veer Island was a significant German bridgehead in the Netherlands and the site of continued fighting from December 1944 to January 1945. The 4th Canadian Armoured Division was assigned to expel the entrenched German forces from this position, and the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, part of the division’s 10th Infantry Brigade, was assigned a leading role in the attempt. In the early morning of January 26, 1945, the Lincoln and Welland Regiment launched its attack on the German positions. Most companies involved did not reach their objectives. The Lincoln and Welland Regiment suffered 183 casualties, 50 of which were fatal, including Private Laubenstein. The fighting went on for another five gruelling days before the well-entrenched Germans were finally dislodged.
In June 2014 a metal detector hobbyist discovered the remains of Private Laubenstein on the southern bank of the river Maas near Sprang-Capelle, Netherlands. This discovery was immediately reported to the Recovery and Identification Unit (RIU) of the Royal Netherlands Army who undertook an exhumation. A few artefacts were recovered along with the remains, including the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, one ribbon (1939-1943 Star), eight 9mm cartridges, and a silver signet ring. A gold letter “G” affixed to the ring was also found with the remains and is likely an heirloom from Private Laubenstein’s father, George, who died in July 1942.
The Government of Canada, the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are dedicated to honouring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by ensuring that, whenever possible, they will be identified and buried in a known grave.
Nearly 28,000 members of Canada’s Navy, Army, and Air Force who died in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War have no known or maintainable grave. Every year, some of the formerly missing are discovered, and the DND and the CAF are responsible for using historical and scientific methods to determine their identity. The Directorate of History and Heritage (DHH) works to identify unknown sailors, soldiers, and Air Force personnel whenever remains of Canadian service personnel are found. For those remains which can be identified, DND and the CAF make every effort to provide the fallen members with the dignity and respect they deserve.
Identification is the result of a collection of historical research and biological tests which eventually determine the most likely serviceman.
The first step in identification is to search records, such as military personnel files, burial registrar documents, war diaries, maps, and regimental histories to create an historical profile of the unknown person. Purely historical identifications are rare, however, and DND and the CAF usually seek biological evidence to support other research.
Biological anthropologists study the remains to determine the number of persons, their ages and heights, their dental presentation (with assistance from dentists trained in forensic odontology when indicated), their overall health and if possible, clues as to how they may have died. The resulting profile can further reduce the final list of potential candidates; genetic testing of the remaining candidates can lead to an identification or reduce the candidate pool further. Depending on the case, evidence available and circumstances, dental evidence may be the primary identifier allowing a designated authority to render a positive identification.
In the case of Private Laubenstein, a combination of dental records, historical context, and artefacts helped reach an unmistakable confirmation of his identity.
After the attack on the Kapelsche Veer bridgehead in January 1945, six soldiers of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment were considered missing and had no known grave.
Between 1999 and 2002, the Dutch RIU recovered and identified three Canadian soldiers of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. The soldiers previously identified and buried with military honours at Bergen-Op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery were:
- Private George Barritt,
- Private Charles Beaudry, and
- Private Victor Howey.
Three Lincoln and Welland Regiment soldiers remained unaccounted for after these identifications. These were:
- Private Albert Laubenstein,
- Private Stanley Stokes, and
- Private Lorne Watchorn.
When conducting the previous investigation more than a decade ago, the Dutch RIU requested medical and dental records from DHH for all six missing of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. These records were pivotal in identifying Private Laubenstein in June 2014. Canadian Army dental records showed that extensive dental work, including the use of distinctive gold inlays, had been performed on Private Laubenstein, which allowed the RIU to identify the remains almost immediately.
Members of the Royal Canadian Dental Corps (RCDC) were then asked to validate the identification of Private Laubenstein.
By analyzing the post-mortem evidence of the remains and the dental records of those Canadian military members who lost their lives in the Sprang-Capelle area still unaccounted for, RCDC forensic dentists were able to validate the conclusions made by the Dutch RIU. Through this international cooperative validation process, the remains found near the Maas River were confirmed as those of Private Laubenstein.
Private Laubenstein will be interred on May 6, 2015, at the Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery, in Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands, next to his regimental brethren, Privates Barritt, Beaudry, and Howey.
There are 1,118 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War commemorated at this cemetery, including 968 Canadians. Attending the funeral will be Private Laubenstein’s nephew, Glen Laubenstein (Victoria, BC), and Glen Laubenstein’s daughter, Sarah Penton (Winnipeg, MB), as well as representatives from the Government of Canada and the CAF.
