Memorial

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Pvt Cecil S. Steiner enlisted in Los Angeles, California on 12 January 1944.

Pvt Cecil Steiner was on a mission with his company to attack enemy positions in the Kiekberg near Groesbeek. The company was subjected to machine gun and mortar fire during which Steiner was hit by small arms fire.

He is buried next to his brother Walter.

According to a newspaper article in the The Sacramento Bee of 16 March 1946, the parents of the Steiner brothers just came into possession of this photograph. The picture, together with other ones, originally was planned by the sons as a gift for Christmas 1944.

In August 1944, Lt Steiner, who was stationed in France, obtained the address of his brother, then in England. He flew to visit him and the brothers had their photographs taken together by an English photographer. After the death of Lt Steiner an enlarged picture of the brothers was received by the parents. Because of censorship, however, there was no address of the photographer on the picture or package. When Mrs. Steiner was looking over possessions of her sons in January 1946, she happened to hold the paper in which the photograph was wrapped to the light. Beneath a seal she read the address of the photographer in Leicester through the paper. She wrote to the photographer and he sent, with his compliments, two dozen postcard prints of her sons. The pictures had been ordered and never called for due to the son's orders to actions and their deaths.