We regret to advise of the death of Sapper John Erhart Schaupmeyer (Ret’d) of Mayerthorpe on 17 February 2013 at the age of 97 years.
John was a veteran of the Second World War and served in the Royal Canadian Engineers with 5th Field Company, RCE. He was the third of the seven children of German immigrants farming near Edmonton, AB. He and two brothers, Godfrey and Charlie, enlisted despite the animosity of some who distrusted their ancestry.
John landed in the assault phase of the Normandy invasion with 5th Field Company, RCE tasked with the removal of mines, explosives and obstacles on the beach. He continued fighting through France, Belgium and Holland. At the end of the war, John married a Dutch woman and stayed in Holland as caretaker of the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. The couple later returned to Canada and took up farming in the Mayerthorpe area. A brief account of John's D-Day experiences is captured in a tribute to one of his comrades, Sapper Walter Richard Coveyduck, who received a Distinguished Conduct Medal, second only to the Victoria Cross for his role in the fight. Another account was published in the lead-up to the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in the Globe & Mail on 5 June 2024:
"Sapper John Schaupmeyer was among the combat engineers who landed, in the sector code-named Nan Red. They were supposed to destroy obstacles at low tide. However, the rough sea delayed them and now the cold rising water made it harder to set off explosive charges.
“We did our best, opened a small gap before the tide took over and covered these mined obstacles,” he wrote.
With the infantry coming behind them, Sapper Schaupmeyer and his fellow engineers ran to a seawall to shelter from the German shelling. “We were pinned down at this point. We carried no rifles, only long knives as rifles hindered our work on landing. We could have used them now but they were all hung on our armoured bulldozer.”
He saw a large infantry landing craft approach under enemy fire. However, its passengers couldn’t disembark quickly because the waves had entangled the gangplanks. One sapper, Walter Richard Coveyduck, waded into the water to hold down the ramps and help the soldiers get off the ship, “away from that deadly spray of bullets.”
John was a trapper, farmer, carpenter, stone mason and soldier over his lifetime of work. He attended many war anniversaries in France, Holland and at home. He always stopped at gravesides to remember his fallen comrades. He was an active member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 126, Mayerthorpe, AB. Along with many Legion decorations and his war medals, John was a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.
A Gathering of Family and Friends to celebrate John’s Life will be held on 22 February from 2:00 pm. until 4:00 pm. at the Mayerthorpe Legion. In lieu of other tributes, donations may be made to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch in Mayerthorpe or to the Mayerthorpe Cemetery. {dcJun19gd}
