recall battles fought
in taking of Europe
Residents of Howell
recall battles fought
in taking of Europe
BY DICK METZGAR
Staff Writer
Harry Brachfeld, Norman Chai-mowitz and Harold Flax have several things in common. All three men grew up in the New York City area and all three currently live at Surrey Downs, an adult community in Howell, where they are still very active.
All three were also in the thick of the bloody action that surrounded D-Day, the massive invasion of Europe that began at Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944 by Allied troops, even though they did not know each other at the time. All would suffer wounds during the subsequent heavy fighting that was the beginning of the end of European domination by Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Sunday will mark the 60th anniversary of the historic D-Day landing. In a recent interview, all three men said they have been reluctant to express to the outside world over the past half century what they experienced during one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. They all said they are now doing so because they believe that the current and succeeding generations should be aware of what actually happened to them during that period of their lives.
Brachfeld, 89, who grew up in Manhattan, was drafted into the Army before the Japanese sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, thrust America into the global war against Japan and Germany. He and his brother, Martin, 86, and stepbrother, Herbert Brightman, 85, were drafted together into military service on Brachfeld’s 26th birthday on Feb. 26, 1941.
With the Army’s 4th Signal Corps, Brachfeld recalled that he was with one of the first waves of soldiers to hit Omaha Beach, one of the five Allied landing sites in Normandy.
"Actually, the Navy Seabees (engineers) went in the first wave to clear obstacles and mines from the water near the beach," Brachfeld said. "We went in right after the Seabees."
Brachfeld said it was on the third day following the invasion when he was struck in the right temple by shrapnel. He said he was taken to a field hospital where the shrapnel was removed.
"There was a lot of confusion and action going on at the hospital, so on my second day at the hospital I decided to go AWOL (absent without official leave) from the hospital and rejoin my unit. I was a tech sergeant at the time and was welcomed back by the guys in my outfit with open arms."
The war did not end for Brachfeld or Flax and Chaimowitz after the beaches were secured following the D-Day landings. They would fight on as the Allies swept through France, Belgium and into Germany, including the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 when the Germans launched a massive last-ditch counterattack in an effort to drive back the Allied forces.
The Ger-man counterattack would ultimately fail, but it was extremely costly in lost lives for the Allies.
"I took part in five or six major battles as we drove through Europe," Brachfeld said.
After serving 41/2 years in the Army, Brachfeld returned to civilian life on June 15, 1945, after the war against Germany ended on May 8 on VE-Day (victory in Europe).
Brachfeld, who would follow his father in the butcher business after the war, and his wife of 62 years, Ruth, had their honeymoon in Georgia in 1942, where he was training.
Chaimowitz, 82, who hailed from Howard Beach, Queens, N.Y., was drafted into the Army in late 1942 at the age of 20. He also landed on Omaha Beach on the third day after D-Day with the 112th Infantry. He would eventually spend eight months as a prisoner of war.
"There was still sporadic fighting near the beach when I landed," Chaimowitz said. "We started to move inland and we had to fight our way through the hedgerow country in France."
Chaimowitz said he was taken prisoner by the Germans in late July 1944 during fighting near the Ardennes For-est, a region that touches parts of Belgium, Lux-embourg, Ger-many and France.
He said he still has vivid memories of mistreatment by his German captors.
"We were interrogated and struck on the head by the Germans," Chaimowitz said. "We were kept in railroad boxcars for three solid days without food or drink."
He said the prisoners were forced to work in the salt mines and clean up urban areas after those areas were bombed by the Allies.
During the fighting, Chaimowitz said, he was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. He said that eventually all soldiers who were Jewish, like himself, were placed in separate barracks.
He said he remembers being liberated from Stalag 7A, a prisoner of war camp south of Munich, Germany, in early 1945, when he was taken to a hospital.
"I remember that Gen. (George) Patton himself was there when we were freed," Chaimowitz said. "I’ll never forget him standing there with his two white-handled pistols at his side."
Following the war, Chaimowitz would eventually operate his own trucking business before retiring 17 years ago.
Flax, 83, from Floral Park, Long Island, N.Y., who was also drafted into the Army in 1942, took part in the second day of the invasion in southern France at Marseilles with the 3rd Infantry.
Flax saw action during the last part of the campaign in North Africa against the Germans, and action in Sicily before landing in France.
He was wounded in action while his infantry unit was driving through France.
"We were crossing a field when we were fired upon by a German Tiger tank," Flax recalled. "I was wounded in the back by a fragment. I also caught malaria, which I think I got while I was in North Africa."
Flax was discharged from military service in October 1945 and would eventually be employed in the textile business. He has been retired for 12 years.
To this day, these veterans agree they are fortunate to be around to celebrate the 60th anniversary of a historic event in U.S. history.
"Somebody up there likes us," they all agreed.