Homer Lafian

Homer H. Lafian (Հոմէր Լաֆեան) (December 12, 1922 – June 10, 2010) was a technical sergeant in the 509th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division for the United States Army during World War II. Lafian spent 28 months overseas during which he took part in the D-Day invasion and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. In one battle, he single-handedly destroyed six German tanks.

During the War, Lafian also saw the concentration camps of the Holocaust and its aftermath. He had witnessed many corpses set on fire in order to prevent the spread of diseases. Lafian also had the opportunity to witness the Nuremburg Trials and saw Rudolf Hess and Hermann Göring first-hand. Throughout his service during World War II, Lafian met other prominent figures such as the future President of France Charles de Gaulle and Soviet military commander Semyon Timoshenko.

For his efforts in the war, Lafian was awarded numerous medals including the Silver Star (twice), Soldier's Medal and the Bronze Star (twice). Some of his decorations also include foreign medals such as the Belgium Croix de Guerre and the French Croix de Guerre.

Life
Homer Lafian was born in Highland Park, Michigan on December 12, 1922 and attended the local Highland Park High School.

After receiving his high school education, Lafian entered military service on April 1, 1943 and was sent to the European theatre of World War II.

Lafian was discharged from military service in February 1946 and returned to the Ford Motor Company where he worked for 42 years. In the company, Lafian started as a diemaker and later became a United Auto Workers (UAW) Representative with the company. Much of his tasks dealt with labor disputes. Eventually, Lafian was assigned to the Ford Motor Company and UAW Joint Skilled Trades Apprenticeship Committee in which he became the co-chairman.

Lafian got married on November 15, 1947 to May Hachigian of Highland Park, Michigan. He had two children, Barbara Ann Lafian Dmuchowski and Donna May and twin granddaughters, Tia and Tanya Dmuchowski.

Homer Lafian died on June 10, 2010 at the age of 87. His funeral processions were held at the Saint Johns Armenian Apostolic Church and was buried with military honors at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.

Recruitment and training
Lafian entered military service on April 1, 1943. He embarked from Michigan Central Railroad Station in Detroit, Michigan, to Fort Custer Training Center where he was given medical examinations and uniforms. He stayed at Fort Custer for ten days before being shipped to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, for sixteen weeks of basic infantry training.

After basic training, two Army officers from the paratroopers requested volunteers and Lafian was picked. Lafian got accepted into the 82nd Airborne Division, under the command of General Matthew Ridgway. He was later sent to Fort Bragg for an additional four to six weeks of training.

Normandy landings
After he had completed his training, Lafian was shipped to Camp Shanks, New York where he was screened, interrogated and shipped out for the UK. He landed at Swansea where he was sent to the army training camp at Cardiff in Wales to receive additional infantry and airborne training. During this time, he was informed that he had to be prepared for the invasion of France.

According to Lafian, the mission of the 82nd Airborne Division was to cut all rail lines, destroy radio stations, block road intersections and to dynamite anything to hinder the Germans from getting supplies and reinforcements to stop Allied landings at Utah Beach. Lafian, who managed to infiltrate near Utah Beach, describes what the landing that took place in detail:

European campaign
150,000 Allied troops were ashore and had taken approximately eighty square miles of France and successfully set up their base in the area. Lafian was made Technical Sergeant in the 509th Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division after his combat jump. As a non-commissioned officer, he had 120 men under his command. Lafian describes the conditions the soldiers were in after continuous combat: "When our Division was finally relieved after thirty-three days of continuous front line combat, we were in rough shape. No less than 57% of our combat infantrymen had been either killed or wounded. We had about 5,245 of our troopers listed as casualties."

As fighting became more intense, Lafian's unit became attached to the First Army under General Omar Bradley and George S. Patton's 3rd Army. Lafian would eventually be a part of the First Army for eighteen months. The unit had to endure numerous battles during which nearly all of the combatants lost their lives.

Lafian, who destroyed six tanks during the campaign, describes the event as follows:

As the unit pushed on to the French town of Colmar near the German border, they reached Colmar in November 1944 and were ordered to head north and go up the Rhine River where they reached Orsoy, Germany near Rheinberg, capturing a hospital. Across from Orsoy was the ThyssenKrupp factory complex which, at the time, was still making armaments and equipment for the German military. With the Germans abandoning the hospital, the Americans had set up their headquarters there and Lafian was given the lower floor of the building.

While at the hospital, the Colonel arrived and informed the men that a secret mission was to take place. Soon thereafter, Lafian witnessed the positioning of hundreds of artillery pieces towards their lines. An attack was planned to cross the Rhine River and make a final advance towards the Elbe River and on to Berlin.

The artillery began its barrage while American troops were crossing the Rhine River for over 24 hours by the use of boats and pontoons. After a large number of American troops had crossed the Rhine and with the weather becoming cold, many German troops started surrendering. Meanwhile, with the help of Lafian's Armenian, the troops have been in contact with a certain French Armenian member of the French Communist party by the last name of Mooradian. Mooradian requested for the American troops to go into the Ardennes Mountains with him and detonate a large German fuel supply depot hidden somewhere in the mountains. Lafian was among the twelve American paratroopers who volunteered to patrol and find the fuel depot and blow it up with demolitions.

Lafian describes the operation in detail:

Battle of the Bulge
When the German Ardennes offensive began at 5 a.m. on December 16, 1944, complete tactical and strategic surprise was achieved as 24 German Divisions attacked and made gains on the six defending divisions of the US V and VIII Corps. The Germans led the attack with ten armored divisions in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. During this time, Lafian's unit boarded planes and were dropped near St. Vith in Belgium on December 18 or 19. The dropped unit's was to help relieve some of the pressure the 101st Airborne and 10th Armored Division faced. By nightfall on December 24, Lafian's forces were cut off and surrounded in Bastogne. However, Bastogne was successfully defended by the 101st Airborne and the 10th Division.

About 25 miles northeast of Bastogne, in the village of Malmedy, approximately 80 American troops surrendered and were lined up and executed by German troops. Lafian believed that, "the Germans apparently didn't want to take them as prisoners, so they shot them." He would later profess, "I'll be God damned if I'll ever take a German soldier prisoner from now on."

As the battle continued, the surrounded U.S. forces could not be resupplied by air nor was tactical air support available due to cloudy weather. Towards the end of the battle, American soldiers were reequipped with needed supplies. Many C-47 planes had dropped tin foil in order to scramble the German radar systems from picking up the signals of the aircraft.

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
With the Battle of the Bulge over on December 26, 1944, Lafian's unit advanced into areas where there were many POWs. Soon after Lafian and his unit came upon the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Lafian describes the encounter as follows:

After the Allies captured the area, they had bulldozers come and dug out a trench and placed all the dead bodies in mass graves. The military poured gasoline over the bodies and set them on fire because of the concern of diseases spreading among the soldiers. Lafian also witnessed bodies whose skins were torn off suggesting that they were used to make lampshades just like Ilse Koch was alleged to have done.

End of the War in Europe
After the war ended in Europe, Lafian was convinced that he should prepare to go to Japan and help serve the war efforts there. Instead, he was singled out and assigned to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) to be one of General Dwight D. Eisenhowers bodyguards. During this time, he received a medal from General Semyon Timoshenko and had an opportunity to meet Charles de Gaulle. After this assignment, he witnessed the Nuremberg Trials and saw Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess and met the executioner who hanged the others.

Quotations
When reflecting on his participation in World War II, Lafian remarked:

In regards to Armenian Americans and their participation in the war effort, Lafian stated:

Military decorations
Lafian's military decorations include:
 * The Belgian government awarded Homer Lafian the Belgian fourragère. The award consists of three cords terminated by a knot and a metal tag, and is braided in red and green; the colours of the Belgian Croix de Guerre of 1940.
 * The Russian General Semyon Timoshenko awarded Lafian two Russian medals.