Beginning our 14th year and 1,200+ postings. A blog for athletes and fans of 20th century Track and Field culled from articles in sports journals of the day, original articles, book reviews, and commentaries from readers who lived and ran and coached in that era. We're equivalent to an Amer. Legion post of Track and Field but without cheap beer. You may contact us directly at irathermediate@gmail.com or write a comment below. George Brose, Courtenay, BC ed.
Once Upon a Time in the Vest
Monday, November 10, 2014
Vol. 4 No.83 All Olympic Track and Field Athletes Killed in War
Last Memorial Day we listed the names of Olympic track and field Medalists who had died in war. This year on Veterans Day, Armistice Day, or Remembrance day depending on where you live, we are listing the names of all Olympic track and field participants regardless of their placings who died as the result of any war. We have also added pictures of those individuals that we could find. We shall continue to embellish this posting as we find more information about these individuals.
If you open the above list you can click on the name of any athlete and a short biography and their individual Olympic results will be available. Sports in the list are abbreviated such as MOP for Modern Pentathlon or ICH Ice Hockey. ART indicates Artist, as for many year the Olympics was also a competition in the arts. This is a long list of over 400 names. It is sad and yet inspiring reading. There are heroes and villains listed. The common bond is their Olympic participation. I recommend a good glass of alcohol and a handkerchief if you choose to go through this list. The wars range from WWI to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is one modern pentathlete who died in the last cavalry charge in modern warfare, a Cuban rower who died in the Bay of Pigs invasion, and a Canadian 400 meter runner killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.
One notable exception from this list is that of Eric Liddell, the 1924 , 400 meter champion and 200 meter bronze medallist from Great Britain/Scotland, who died in Japanese occupied China during WWII. Why he is left off the list is not explained. Other names may also have been left off. Your help would be appreciated if there are others you notice missing.
Of note too, I have seen a list of over 400 international athletes , not all Olympians, who were killed in WWI including 3 Tour de France winners. The Tour was actually underway in 1914 when war was declared. The winner that year died a year later in WWI.
This is the list of track and field athletes only and pictures where available.
Name Nation Date of Death.
1. Stepahn Adamczak Pol. September 1939. Fought in the September campaign, he was killed in action near Katowice.
2. Iwao Aizawa JPN Died in World War II (per Volker Kluge), date and place not known.
3. Laurie Anderson GBR 9 November 1914. Killed in action while serving with the Cheshire Regiment.
4. William Anderson GBR April 1915. Killed in action, France.
5. George Andre FRA 4 May 1943. Rugby international for France. Killed in action (shot down)
6. Nikolaos Andreadakis GRE 1920. Killed during the Turkish-Greek War
9 July 1941. Killed near Gorki during fight on the Eastern Front in World War II. Posthumously, he was moved up in rank to Lieutenant to assist his family with his pension
7. Henry Ashington GBR 31 Jan. 1917 Killed in action in France
Joef Baran Bilewski Poland April 1940. A prisoner in the Soviet camp for Polish officers in Kozielsk, he was murdered in April 1940
in Katyń by the NKVD.
8. Franz Barsicke GER
1944. Killed in action during World War II.
9. Julije Bauer YUG
15 March 1945. Killed in action in Pančevo
10. Artur Baumle GER
6 January 1942. Missing in action Stalingrad/Volgograd
11. Martin Beckmann GER Missed in action since 1944 in World War II.
†.
12. Renon Boissiere FRA 25 September 1915. Killed in action in WWI.
13. Helmut Bonnet GER
27 September 1944. Killed in action during World War II.
14. Werner Bottcher GER
10 November 1944. Missed in action since that date.
†
15. Jean Bouin FRA 29 September 1914. Killed in action, by friendly fire.
16, Hans Braun GER 9 October 1918. Died as a fighter pilot near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France in World War I.
Hans Braun on right
17. Heinrich Burkowitz GER November 1918. Missing in action in November 1918 somewhere in Belgium
18. George Butterfield GBR 24 September 1917. Killed in action, France
19. Jaime Camps Spain 3 August 1921. Killed in action during the Rif War with Morocco
20. Giuseppe Castelli ITA 19 December 1942. Killed during World War II in Russia
21. Joseph Caulle FRA 1 October 1915. Killed in action during World War I.
22. Antoni Cejzik POL 12 Sept. 1939 Killed in action as a soldier in the Mdlin Army near Zaborow (Mazowieckie).
23. Noel Chavasse GBR 4 August 1917. He is one of only three men to have been awarded a bar to the Victoria Cross. Serving as a captain in the RAMC, he was first awarded the VC in 1916 and a bar, posthumously, in 1917
24. Frank Cuhel USA 22 February 1943. A war journalist, he was being transferred to the North African war zone when his plane, the "Yankee Clipper", crashed. His body was not found until three weeks later.
25. Cliff Cushman USA 25 September 1966. Air pilot, his plane shot down in the Vietnam War. Technically still listed as MIA
26. Nemesio de Guzman PHI 1944. Killed in action during World War II
27. Georges de la Neziere FRA 9 October 1914 Killed in Action.
28. Alex Decoteau CAN 17 October 1917. Killed in action in the Battle of Passchendale
29. Herbert Dill GER 19 December 1944. Killed in action during World War II.
30. Foy Draper USA 4 January 1943. Died in an air crash preparing for the Battle of Kasserine Pass
Foy Draper
31. Jimmy Duffy CAN 23 April 1915. In September 1913, he joined the Canadian Army and was assigned to the 91st Argyle Regiment. On April 23, 1915, he was fatally wounded near Ypres, Belgium.
32. Boughera El Ouafi FRA 18 October 1959. Killed by members of the Algerian Liberation Movement
Boughera El Quafi France
33. Alfred Flaxman GBR 1 July 1916. Killed in an attack on the enemy positions at Gommecourt
34. Gunther Gehmert GER 13 June 1940. Wounded in action and died in the field hospital in Montaigu.
35. Lajos Gonczy HUN 4 December 1915. Killed in action in area of Galicia and Lodomeria.
36. Mark Graham CAN 4 September 2006. Killed by friendly fire. Afghanistan.
Mark Graham
37. Juho Halme FIN 1 February 1918. Killed in action in Finnish Civil War.
38. Wyndham Hallswelle GBR 31 March 1915. Killed by a sniper's bullet in France
Wyndham Halswelle
1908 400m Gold
39. Helmut Hamann GER 22 June 1941. Killed in action during World War II
Hamman on right
Harbig left
40. Rudi Harbig GER 5 March 1944. Sent to the Eastern Front, Harbig died in the Ukraine, near Novo Archangelsk.
Rudi Harbig
41. George Hawkins GBR 22 September 1917. During World War I he served as a Gunner with the Royal Artillery and was killed in action when a shell exploded in the doorway of a dugout while he was on outpost duty.
42. Albert Heijnneman NED 20 February 1944. Tortured to death in the Scheveningen prison as a member of the Dutch Underground.
42. Oskar Heks TCH 8 March 1944. Killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
43. Fritz Hendrix GER 30 August 1941. Killed in action on the Eastern Front, near Leningrad.
44. Max Hermann GER 29 January 1915. Killed in action in World War I.
45. Gunnar Hockert FIN 11 February 1940. Fought in the Winter War as a volunteer, and was killed on the Karelian Isthmus the day before his 30th birthday.
Hockert
46. Vaclav Hosek TCH June 1943. Arrested by the Gestapo and killed while trying to escape from a POW camp.
47. George Hutson GBR 14 September 1914. Killed in action only five weeks after the outbreak of World War I.
48. Akilles Jarvinen FIN 7 March 1943. Died when his military aircraft crashed during a test flight.
Akilles Jarvinen
49. Kalle Jarvinen FIN 25 August 1941. Killed in action on the Karelian Isthmus during the Winter War.
50. Jozef Jaworski POL 1 September 1939. Second lieutenant in the artillery, he was killed in action on the last day
of the Battle of Oksywie, near Gdynia, while manning coastal defenses during the German invasion of Poland.
Male
Jozef Jaworski
51. Elias Katz FIN 26 December 1947. Died in Palestine in 1947
Elias Katz third place behind Nurmi
52. Reinhold Keskull EST 1942. Died in a Soviet prison camp, but exact details not known.
53. Frederick Kitching GBR 1914. Killed in action in World War I.
54. Josef Klein TCH 1941. Member of the Czech resistance. Died shortly after release from prison - possibly from effects of torture.
55. Karl Kotratschek AUT 4 July 1941. Killed in action during World War II.
56. Hans-Helmut Krause GER 26 February 1944. Killed in action during World War II as a batallion leader.
57. Willi Kurten GER 18 July 1944. Killed in action during World War II.
Janusz Kusocinski POL 21 June 1940. Volunteered for the Polish army and was wounded twice. During German occupation he was secretly a member of the Polish resistance. Arrested by the Gestapo on 26 March 1940 during the AB-Aktion, he was imprisoned in Mokotów prison, and was executed three months later in Palmiry, near Warsaw.
Janusz Kusocinski
58 Aksel Kuuse EST 27 April 1942. Starved to death in a Soviet prison camp.
59. Frits Lamp NED 27 May 1945. Died while constructing the Pekanburu railroad on Sumatra
60. Henry Leeke GBR 29 May 1915. Killed in action on the eve of his battalion's departure for Gallipoli.
61. Erich Lehmann GER 9 July 1918. Listed as missing in action in World War I.
62. Julien Lehouck BEL 25 February 1944. Member of the Belgian resistance, arrested and hung in Concentration Camp Breendonk
63. Wilhelm Leichum GER 9 July 1941. Killed near Gorki during fight on the Eastern Front in World War II. Posthumously, he was moved up in rank to Lieutenant to assist his family with his pension
Wilhelm Leichum
64. Eugeniusz Lokajski POL 25 September 1944. Killed in action during the Warsaw Uprising by an artillery barrage. Buried in Powązki Cemetery with other Polish Sportsmen who died in World War II. Photographed
the Warsaw Uprising.
†
Eugeniusz Lokajski
65. Luz Long GER 14 July 1943. Wounded in action during the Allied invasion of Sicily, died in an English field hospital.
Luz Long
The list of names goes on and on. It can be referenced
I recently found a review of the following book on the subject:
The Extinguished Flame, written by Nigel McCrery and published by Pen and Sword is due for release on the 14th October 2016. This meticulously researched tome tells the story of Olympic athletes, from all over the globe that gave their lives while fighting for their countries during WWI and WWII. McCrery, who served in the British Police also created the BBC crime dramas Silent Witness and New Tricks.
Alfred Flaxman was a powerful athlete that had competed in the javelin, discus and high jump at the 1908 London Games. He was not only a superb athlete but also a talented artist and musician. His love of athletics was developed when he moved to London to attend the Royal Academy of Music, and he was trained by Eugene Sandow, the father of modern bodybuilding.
He enlisted in June 1915 and was assigned to the South Staffordshire Regiment. He was a popular man and was described by Lt FAM Webster as “a simple gentleman, the best of sportsmen and a very gallant soldier who could bend a horseshoe and rip a half pack of playing cards in half.”
His powerful right arm and throwing ability came to the attention of his commanding officer when he threw a bomb 75 yards during training in northern France at Etaples. Second Lieutenant Flaxman was chosen to lead a company of bomb throwers and during the first day of the Battle of the Somme, he was killed by a German machine gunner while trying to untangle himself from barbed wire. His name appears on the Thiepval Memorial.
Victoria Cross Reference site with permission – Neil Hutton, CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikipedia
Brigadier Paul Aloysius Kenna, was an honoured military man at the time that he represented Britain at the 1912 Stockholm Games in the equestrian events. Kenna had been awarded his country’s highest medal for bravery, the Victoria Cross, when in 1898 at the Battle of Khartoum he went to the aid of a fallen comrade while the army was facing 3,000 enemy troops. In addition to the VC, he was mentioned in dispatches when he led the cavalry in Somaliland during the period 1902-04. He then took a break for the Olympics and two years later he was fighting in Egypt and then Gallipoli, where he was killed by a Turkish sniper.
Frederick Kelly won a gold medal for rowing at the 1908 Games and served alongside his great friend Rupert Brooke in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Brooke, a renowned poet, died in April 1915 from sepsis induced by an infected mosquito bite. Kelly wrote the orchestral composition ‘Elegy for String Orchestra’ in his memory.
Frederick Kelly. Wikipedia / Public Domain
Kelly was wounded twice during the Gallipoli Campaign and was awarded the DSC for ‘conspicuous bravery.’ He moved on to fight in France and was killed on the 13thNovember at Beaucourt-sur-l’Ancre, near the Somme. The orchestral piece that he had written for his great friend Rupert Brooke was played at his memorial service that was held at Wigmore Hall in London.
During the wars, Britain lost 50 Olympians, France 29, Germany 22 and Hungary lost 10 Olympic athletes. Nigel McCrery sums up his admiration for these men saying, “These men were the pinnacle of their generation at the peak of their athletic prowess. Imagine the shock caused across the country by their death. Now imagine the shock it would cause today if at a stroke we lost all the Team GB athletes who did so well at Rio.”
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