Candler, Yitzhak (Yitzhak)
Was born on 4 October 1926 in Akron, and moved to the Sha’arayim neighborhood near Rehovot and was educated in son of Shemen and Givat Brenner at the age of 7. He attended high school and graduated with honors with the Montefiore Professional School in Tel- Aviv, where he was a member of the Haganah, where he was transferred to a nucleus that later became the base for one of the Givati Brigade battalions. He devoted himself to his functions with all his might. With the outbreak of the War of Independence, after he returned safely from one of the Negev’s reward operations, he no longer knew fear. He refused to go on vacation knowing that his presence encouraged his friends. On March 29, 1948, he successfully completed a sniper course in a combat group. “With Yitzhak, every bullet is Arab,” they said. He added: “If we need, we’ll also do two Arabs on the ball.” After the operation in the village of Uriya, Haifa, about the retreat of his comrades to the base and was shot from the ambush. Yitzhak made himself fall, took the “Stan” and the binoculars as he fell, shot his assailants and did not miss. He also took part in activities at Beit Dagon. On April 29, 1948, in the operation of Hametz to encircle Jaffa, which was meant to bring about its surrender, its battalion attacked Tel Arish and conquered the place. The Arab forces attacked, with the help of reinforcements from Jaffa and our forces, who did not manage to complete their organization, and were forced to withdraw under the pressure of the Arab attack. Yitzhak was in a cover position with the Spandau machine gun. The commander ordered him to retreat, but he refused to leave the wounded, gathered them into a field of grain and asked the retreating to take them. According to eyewitnesses, he was later hit in the leg and said he would fight to the end, was hit once more and fell. A monument in his memory was erected in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.
