Belgian town honors Tifton soldier...

Published October 17, 2009 10:06 pm - Children of the late Harold and Betty Cohen of Tifton recently returned from a trip to Chaumont, Belgium, where a road leading through the village to Bastogne was named “Rue Du Col. Harold Cohen” in honor of the late World War II hero.

Belgian town honors Tifton soldier


Angie Thompson, The Tifton Gazette


TIFTON — Children of the late Harold and Betty Cohen of Tifton recently returned from a trip to Chaumont, Belgium, where a road leading through the village to Bastogne was named “Rue Du Col. Harold Cohen” in honor of the late World War II hero.

The Cohens’ children, Marty Cohen and Peggy Cohen Bernstein, and their spouses, Debbie Cohen and Rick Bernstein were among more than 100 people attending the ceremony.
Residents of the small Belgium town have described Cohen, who died in August 2006 at age 89, as their “liberator.” Cohen, a decorated WWII hero and successful Tifton businessman, was a first-generation American of Russian descent.
In December 1944, the 4th Armored Division, commanded by Gen. George S. Patton, was called on to relieve the besieged American soldiers at Bastogne. Cohen commanded one of the division’s battalions. The battle led him to intense resistance at the small village of Chaumont.
A tank attack by the accompanying tank battalions was repulsed and it was decided that Cohen would lead his 10th Armored Infantry Battalion into the village and root out the Germans one house at a time, including a Tiger tank hidden in a barn. Cohen lost 62 of the men in his battalion during the successful battle to capture Chaumont.
Buddy Bryan of Tifton and Ivan Steekiste of Belgium have worked with officials to honor Cohen’s memory. A “Wall of Remembrance” at a Chaumont hotel is now displayed in Cohen’s honor, in addition to the road named in Cohen’s memory.
Bryan said that more than 140 people attended the “very moving” ceremony, including two elderly women from the village who described how the battle of Chaumont transpired and how Americans, led by Cohen and Col. Albin Irzyk, overwhelmed the Germans who were entrenched along the road.
Bryan said Irzyk gave “a riveting and spellbinding recollection of the battle he and Harold fought so many years ago.” Bryan said Irzyk, 92, arrived at the ceremony in a WWII Jeep and was accompanied by members of his family.
“This was the culmination of a project meant to recognize two American heroes who did so much to bring relief to the encircled Americans at Bastogne,” Bryan said.

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