My Father, Joe Liebman was born in , South Africa in 1910. He joined the South African army in the late 30's.
His claim to fame at that time was that he was the best rifle shooter in the army, winning the annual 'King's Medal' competition an unprecedented three times.
In 1943 he was with the British army in North Africa and the Middle East, before participating in the invasion of Sicily, followed by the invasion of Italy. A member of the 13th Infantry Brigade of the British 8th Army he was assigned to handle 'F Squadrone', a crack Italian parachute and commando regiment, which had already crossed over to the Allied side before the Italian capitulation. A book called 'F Recce Squadrone', written by Carlo Bonciano in 1947 and available in an English translation, describes some of their exploits, including the role played by Joe Liebman. (see also the F Squadrone website http://www.squadronef.it/, where there is a photo of him with an incorrectly spelled name 'Lyebman'). Some of his exploits are also written in the book "South Africans in World War II" (published 1950). There are also numerous newspaper articles from that time (around 1935 onwards) in South African newspapers such as The Star, Daily Mail, Sunday Times etc. You could also check 'Whose Who South Africa' in the early 50's. A more recent book (2010) written by William Fowler, "The Secret War in Italy: Special Forces, Partisans and Covert Operations 1943-45" also covers the exploits of F Squadrone and refers to Joe Liebman.
In 1945 he moved with his brigade into Holland, probably still the 13th Infantry Brigade - and now in the rank of major. He met his future wife near The Hague in 1945 and in early 1946 returned to South Africa, where he was demobilized in June 1946 where they lived until 1961. He passed away in the Netherlands in 1990.

Around 2009 there was considerable activity in Israel around a group of amateur historians led by Meir Mindel from Kibbutz Negba investigating the "Major Liebman" saga, contacting me in the process. And indeed we're dealing with two different war hero stories here: the heroic resistance at Bir-el Harmat, led by Major Liebmann (note: spelling with double 'n') against the Germans in June 1942 and the exploits of 'Major Liebman' (note: spelling with single 'n') in the Italian theater. The former's first name was Felix and was born in Palestine, whereas the latter was Joseph, born in South Africa.

Hope this helps to clarify and let me know if you need more info.

Good luck with the project.

Kind regards,
Dennis Liebman