Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Howard Cossman cites many of his fellow Machal volunteers in his company, "mainly from England, were concentration camp survivors, or Kindertransport boys who had lost all their families, and it made them fearless in battle. Many had seen so much death that it did not scare them any more."

After the war, Howard Cossman stayed in Israel for a while, working on a kibbutz as a night guard, but eventually returned to Canada in August, after he became homesick.

Howard Cossman's name is included in an early 72nd Battalion roster of 20th July 1948, as well as on the rosters for the end of September, 15th October, and 28th October.

As with many Machalniks, Howard Cossman's trip to Mandate Palestine took a roundabout router, through several ports of call/
He remembers haPortzim Marie Annik breaking down somewhere in the Mediterranean, and all the volunteers making the most of the situation by swimming in the warm waters
In early July, 1948, he docked at Tel Aviv. and his group of 19 Canadians weres received by members of the Haganah.

Two platoons of the 7th Brigade were sent to remove a observers and snipers from Kaujki’s Liberation Army from Har Kabul in the Western Galilee, overlooking the Arab village of Tamra.
The two platoon commanders were Israelis: Aharoni Landman and Zachariah Feldman, and the two platoon sergeants were South Africans Jeff Perlman and David Susman.
Squad Commander was British Cliff Epstein,
Canadian Hymie Klein was his second in command and in charge of the Spandau light machine-gun group.
The squad included:
* Howard Cossman
* Jack Belkin
* Alec Dworkin
* Alter Leff
* Hank Meyerowitz
* Joe Woolf
as well as two Brits, Hymie Blackman and Joe Korenstein, ans well as an Indian volunteer, Ezra Makmull.
Under cover of 3-inch mortars, they reached the peak with relative ease at about 2:00AM
At daybreak, all hell broke loose when well-placed enemy Bren machine-guns raked their positions.
They held the peak with difficulty
Tthree Machalniks were killed:
* Sydney Leisure of Toronto
* Belgian Benjamin Hirschberg, fram Belgium
* Shlomo Bornstein, a Brit
A dozen men were wounded, including David Susman and Hymie Blackman.

The squad returned to their base camp at Samaria, and for some weeks were engaged in intensive further training, many mountain patrols and one deep penetration raid in which South African Lou Hack was killed.

On the night of October 29, Joe Woolf, Howard Cossman, and their squad set out to clear the Galilee up to the internationally recognized border with Lebanon.
Canadian Hymie Klein was made squad leader, with Joe Woolf as second in command, Cliff Epstein, having been hospitalized with cave fever, was placed in command of another squad.
Two members of “B” company were killed:
* platoon commander Zachariah Feldman
* Shmuel Daks from Britain, who had arrived on the last-minute pre-war Kindertransport from Austria.