32 Friday, October 26, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS LOOKING BACK $35 Jewish efforts recalled in two WWII battles 00 ■ Pre-Season GAS FURNACE Cleaning & Safety Check. a complete furnace servicing of 22 adjustments, tests, inspections, and check-points that mean energy savings. This Special Includes: VInspect flue pipes and draft diverter V Test for combustion leaks VInspect air filters i( Clean interior of vestibule VI Check blower belt tension, alignment & tube ✓ Clean and adjust thermostat ip/Check blower motor and lubricate ✓ Adjust burner for efficiency `/Check blower for cleaniness V Check gas valve tiTest for gas teaks in furnace V Check furnace operation `/Test and adjust pressure regulator V Inspect wiring on furnace ' f Clean and adjust pilot assembly V Check thermocouple VCheck gas filter for pilot if Check heat exchanger jClean and adjust all controls . V Check draft at breaching it/chech -00Erattexi -Of tiefety controls V-eheck for combustible _ material near furnace - An inefficient furnace means extra dollars on your energy bill. Let our professional service crew clean and safety check your furnace before the cold winter months. We install and recommend Carrier energy efficient furnaces. The Energy Savers ALLEN'S HEATING & COOLING 30035 Greenfield Southfield, Michigan 48076 557-0988 THE CHANGE IS WORKING .. . KEEP IT WORKING! RE-ELECT Judge Jessica Cooper 46th Judicial District - Franklin Village. Bingham Farms. Beverly Hills. Southfield. Lathrup Village CIVIC AFFILIATIONS: Jewish Family Services, Board of Directors Temple Emanu- El, Board of Trustees Haven—Domestic Violence Shelter, Board of Directors Oakland County Task Force on Child Abuse. Nat'l Council of Jewish Women, Business & Professional Chapter American Jewish Congress, Lawyers Committee B'nai B'rith Barristers • Jewish Welfare Federation Anti-Defamation League ORT Liberty Chapter •i R.? „Loge 967b Sty So:.111'ield MI -18C75 BY ARI BERNSTEIN Special to The Jewish News One of the pivotal battles of World War II was fought in Egypt in November 1943. At stake in the minds of the Allied commanders was the future of the Suez Canal. For Jews of the yishuv in Pales- tine, the consequences of an Axis victory was even grimmer: Nazi occupation and death. The Battle of El Alamein and its classic confrontation between two great generals, Montgomery and Rommel, has been the subject of books and films and will be long remembered. What has been for- gotten is the Jewish contribution to Monty's victory. One interest- ing sidelight of that contribution is its foreshadowing of _Israeli_ military expertise. Almost from the beginning of the war, the British used Jewish fighters from Palestine for the riskiest assignments. In his 1943 book, The Forgotten Ally, Dutch writer Pierre van Passen de- scribes what he calls "Jewish suicide squads." It is from that source that I have selected two examples. In June 1943, five months be- fore Montgomery's "big push," an all-Jewish engineers battallion commanded by Major Felix Lieb- man of Tel Aviv was assigned to lay down an anti-vehicular minefield over a 12-square-mile area near Mechili. They had just begun when thy were spotted by German scout planes. The engineers were promptly as- saulted by some 60 German bom- bers. For three days Liebman and his men were bombed and strafed by wave after wave of Stukas, while the Germans assembled a force of over 100 tanks, largely Italian, with which they surrounded the Jews on three sides. The air as- sault subsided and a German tank drove up with a white truce-flag and a demand that the engineers raise their own white flag and surrender. Major Liebman told the German tank officer who brought the message, "We have no white flag," and so saying pro- duced the only flag he had, the blue and white flag of Zion. "This we are going to fly," he said. "You are a Jew," the German said, apparently astonished. He then saluted Liebman and drove away. The massed enemy armor -at- tacked in three columns and the Jews waited until they were al- most upon them. Then the engineers opened fire with anti- tank guns and destroyed 19 tanks, seven of which were accounted for by one sergeant. Two more tanks blew up when they hit mines. Caught off guard by the ferocity and accuracy of this resistance, the main tank column halted, wheeled around and started to pull out. But Liebman had planned for that and at once 60 Jews rushed from hidden dugouts and attacked the fleeing tanks 'with grenades and Molotov cocktails. Some of . the fighters jumped on the tanks and fired pis- tols into the machinegun open- ings. Five more tanks were dis- abled for a total of 26. Enraged, the Germans called off the tank assault, opting for a fveoism.Aocor.i.;:x4P,...t..,„r,..r,. 41.. ek .'4 kt AC- A:. 4a. r," to; ..;Z4 •<, massive aerial bombardment, much as they had done at the Warsaw Ghetto. For ten days exploding bombs and mines turned Mechili into a $2geihinom of lethal shrapnel and twelve- foot-deep craters and boiling des- ert heat. Then, on June 20, the tanks returned. Again they were repelled with heavy losses — 41 tanks were hit by anti-tank fire — but only 90 of the 500 Jews were still alive. Another ten days passed in like manner, repeated bombings and tank attacks. On July 2, with only 45 men left, the Jewish engineers were fi- nally rescued by a column of Free French commanded by General Koenig (whose dispatches ulti- mately became the source for van Passen's account). With tears in his eyes, Koenig embraced Major Liebman and said, "You held out till the end." When he saw the blue and white flag beging taken down, General Koenig wondered why. He was told it was against regula- tions to fly that flag. Koenig re- sponded that he was in command and that he didn't care about such regulations. He ordered the flag attached next to the French tricolor on his own car. Then he shouted to his soldiers, "Legionnaires, the Jewish flag. Salute!" The night before the Battle of El Alamein began, an all-Jewish company of 85 men under Com- mander Osterman-Averni was sent by Montgomery to create a diversion behind Rommel's lines. It was hoped that they might be able to destroy the munition dumps and supplies of gasoline at the highly-fortified town of Bar- dia where some 9,000 Italian soldiers — an entire division backed by German artillery — were installed. Osterman- Averni's account of the mission, published in Hebrew in Hamashkif, is quoted at length by van Passen. The Jews arrived by sea on British destroyers and were rowed ashore under cover of darkness. They moved stealthily from guard post to blockhouse, taking each position without fir- ing a shot, using daggers on the guards and sleeping soldiers. At one point, they were surprised by a caravan of Italian trucks. Osterman-Averni writes, "It did not seem to enter the drivers' heads that an enemy party was marching along right in their midst."' The group set itself up in "a well-built concrete blockhouse" after disposing of its Italian garri- son. An hour after dawn British artillery opened up along the entire front and the Battle of El Alamein was underway. Italan soldiers streamed out of their blockhouses and were cut down by the Jews' ten machineguns and 65 tommy guns. At first the Italian officers thought that their own men were shooting each other by mistake. Then, realising the truth, they sent two companies to deal with the unknown quantity 10-1 of intruders. The two companies 'ma were dispersed by a well-aimed grenade volley.