D - Day and other WW2 Heros.
I remember in 1944 when I was nine years old, my mother's distress when she received the news that her first cousin Monty Rosenfield. had been killed in the battle of Anzio in Italy. Monty had already been wounded and awarded the M M, the highest award for bravery a non -commissioned office could get no matter how valiant his actions. A few months later, as soon as he recovered he volunteered to return to the front line, when he could easily and honorably have served his country in a safe environment.
Monty was only nineteen when he left Manchester to join the International Brigade to try to save Spain from its fascist Church supported dictator, Francisco Franco. After resisting the British attempt to prevent him ('non intervention') he trekked over the Pyrenees to join the British Battalion. He was wounded while fighting to save Spain from a dictatorship that lasted for two generations.
At the beginning of WW2 although volunteering for active service Monty, a corporal in the British Army was obstructed from serving overseas until the International Brigade protested this as discrimination.
After his return to the front lines by his own insistence, this courageous man gave up his life for Britain, for Jews and for the 99 per cent in another act of bravery.
I never met Monty but I remember hearing about him from our mother when he was killed in action at Anzio in 1944. He had been wounded previously and I remember hearing how he joined the International Brigade and went to Spain to fight the Fascists.
I remember his brother Arnold (known as 'Arkie) who was a newspaper reporter and subsequently editor of one of the English Daily newspapers. He came to visit us when he was working on some story in Dublin and I, about sixteen at the time, was fascinated having a real live reporter telling us entertaining stories behind the stories. I also remember him tossing back a Scotch or two Dad poured him (just like they did in the movies!)
Monty was awarded the MM (Military Medal for bravery) and I believe another medal posthumously.
I became interested in the environment in which he grew up and found:
I became interested in the environment in which he grew up and found:
A PhD research thesis on Manchester Jewry, which I found very interesting and gave some acute insights as to what it was like to be a young Jew growing up in Manchester at the time
- BTW, Another WW2 hero in the Family was Arthur Cowan, RAF pilot who died in an air crash AFTER the war. He's buried in Dolphin's Barn Cemetery in Dublin.
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