Casualties of War

Michael B · #1 07-01-2019, 11:13 PM

It has been a while since I have added any casualties of war signatures. I will have several other posts to add, but I wanted to start with this one. I picked up two autograph sheets from a late 1930's NCAA boxing championship. The seller had 1940, but it would not be possible as one of the people below had already graduated and played in the NFL.

Ted Kara – He competed in boxing at the 1936 Olympics. At the University of Idaho he won 3 NCAA boxing championships. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps. He was a radioman on a plane when it was lost over the Pacific February, 1944. The signature below his is his brother Frank. He was also an NCAA boxing champ. The first brothers to do this.

Keith Birlem – He was a star quarterback at San Jose State. His coach was 1924 Olympic gold medalist in rugby, Dudley DeGroot. He was an all around athlete, also competing in swimming and boxing. Birlem would play 9 games in the NFL in 1939, 6 for the Chicago Cardinals and 3 for the Washington Redskins. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the outbreak of WWII. He rose to the rank of Major and in November, 1943 he was appointed commander of the 508th Bombardment Squadron, 351st Bomber Group. His squadron arrived in England in April, 1944 with their first combat mission slated for May 14. He got an early trial by fire on his 28th birthday, May 4, 1944. He flew as co-pilot on the ‘Vicious Virgin’, part of the 427th Bombardment Squadron, 303rd Bomber Group. They flew a mission to bomb the former GM and Ford Auto plants in Antwerp, Belgium. They were attacked by German aircraft, but arrived safely back in England. The lead plane at assembly that day was the B-17F ‘Son’ co-piloted by Billy Southworth, Jr. , former minor league baseball player, son of the Hall of Famer of the same name and the first pro ball player to enlist in the armed forces prior to WWII. There was an observer in the B-17F ‘8 Ball MKII’, Capt. Clarke Gable. He manned the radio room gun for the raid. He had a cameraman with him who filmed much of the raid and subsequent air battle. The film was used in the movie ‘Combat America’. Three days later, May 7, 1943, Birlem went on a training flight from the air base at Polebrook, Northhamptonshire, England. Another B-17 was also on a training mission that day. Both planes collided and all 20 men were killed. The signature below his is James ‘Monk’ Moscrip who played for the Detroit Lions 1939-1940

Michael B · #2 07-04-2019, 01:36 AM

Freddie Tomlins competed in men's figure skating for Great Britain at the 1936 Olympics. He finished 10th. In 1939 he won a silver medal in both the European and World Championships. He was presented with a gold wristwatch by Adolf Hitler when he won an international figure skating championship in Germany in 1937. He joined the RAF in 1938 or 1939. He was killed June 20, 1943 over the English Channel in a battle with a German Submarine. These are from a pair of family scrapbooks I recently acquired. I would not normally purchase items related to a non-U.S. Olympian, but these were too nice to pass up. One scrapbook was all newspaper articles. The second scrapbook was filled with newspaper articles and clippings, 25 real photo post cards (RPPC's) and 40 photos ranging in size from about 2x3 to 8x10.

Three of these are RPPC's. The deckle edge one is not. The two on the left were taken by German photographers from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany site of the 1936 Winter Olympics. The posed one in his official Olympic outfit, top right, was taken by a photographer from N�rnberg (Nuremberg).

Michael B · #3 04-27-2020, 03:32 AM

I just picked up a lot of items from the 1932 Olympics. A college student from Uniontown, PA attended the games. While there he collected signatures on two of his boxing programs. One of them was signed by 5 gold medalists in boxing including tough ones from South Africa and Argentina. The other program was signed by three boxing medalists and the marathon winner from Argentina, a tough signature. Two of the signatures on these programs were casualties of WWII.

Werner Spannagel - competing for Germany, he finished 5th in the flyweight category. He was eliminated in the quarter finals by eventual bronze medalist and future world champion, Lou Salica. Serving in the Germany Army, he was killed in action on the Eastern Front in 1943.

Farid Simaika - an Egyptian who had moved to the U.S. in 1926 to train. He was unable to compete for the U.S. in 1928 so he competed for Egypt. He won silver and bronze medals in diving at the 1928 Olympics. He is Egypt's first Olympic medalist. He was so well regarded in his homeland that he was invited to King Farouk's wedding even though he was Coptic Christian. He became a U.S. citizen in 1942. He enlisted in the U.S. Army. He had earned his pilots license back in Egypt and tried to enroll in pilot training, but he was too old. He instead enrolled in Officers Candidate School. As he was also an amateur photographer with his own darkroom at home he was assigned to air intelligence. He was also working on a process to distinguish camouflage from real foliage. As a bomber wing intelligence officer, he went on a B-24 reconnaissance mission on September 11, 1943. His plane was shot down near Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia. According Frank Kurtz, 1932 diving medalist, WWII bomber pilot and father of actress Swoosie, an Australian Coast Watcher had come across the bodies of 5 Americans who had been beheaded by the Japanese. He was familiar with swimmers and divers and recognized the head of Simaika.

cfhofer · #4 04-27-2020, 12:32 PM

Winchester Dana Osgood was an All-American halfback for Cornell (1888-92) and the University of Pennsylvania (1893-94) football teams. Pudge Heffelfinger considered Osgood the "Red Grange of the pioneer era". He also competed in wrestling, track, boxing, crew and gymnastics. He coached the Indiana football team and was a player/coach for the Semi-Pro Indianapolis Light Artillery football squad in 1895. He volunteered his services for Cuba's fight for independence and was commissioned a Major in the artillery under General Calixto Garcia. On October 18, 1896 - During the Battle of Guaimaro, Major Osgood was in charge of shelling blockhouses with a Hotchkiss rifle using 12-pound shells. Osgood's artillery unit was under constant fire from small arms. When Osgood stooped over the gun to adjust the sight, he made the remark, “think that will do.” At that moment, he was shot in the head by a sharp-shooter stationed in a church tower eleven hundred yards away. Win Osgood was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970.

Attached is an extremely rare signature of Win Dana Osgood. It is on the back of a football photo acquired from his family's estate (see below). We were able to validate the signature with a copy in the Phi Gamma Delta archives (his collegiate fraternity). I believe this may be the first US athlete killed-in-action.

Michael B · #5 02-03-2021, 11:59 PM

I am always surprised when I find a new signature of an Olympian who was killed in war. I have run across a fair number of them. There are also more than a few I doubt I well ever see. This one was a pickup in early January.

Martti Uosikkinen competed in gymnastics for Finland at the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympics. He won bronze medals in the team competition in 1932 and 1936. He was killed in the Battle of Kollaa on March 9, 1940, 4 days before the end of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War.

Uosikkinen.JPG

It is a photo about 3� x 5. The inscription is Finlande, Kuopio his home town. I found it in Egypt of all places. I watched it for a few weeks hoping they would drop the price. They never did so I grabbed it. A friend in Switzerland who is a very advanced Olympic collector commented that he would have expected to find wrestlers or weightlifters as they were national sports heroes in Egypt back then, but a Finnish gymnast? Who knows what else you will find out there in the world.

Caseyatbat · #6 02-04-2021, 08:28 AM

This is one of my favorite pieces I have had the pleasure of owning. Everybody knows Christy Mathewson was exposed to mustard gas while stationed in France in WW1 which eventually took his life. This is one of Mathewson's Official Military Orders that essentially served as Matty's ticket home from the war. This letter informs Mathewson that his services are no longer required in France and that he will be returned to the United States.

jakebeckleyoldeagleeye · #7 02-05-2021, 07:54 AM

I wonder if there are any Joe Turner's signatures out there? Turner replace an
injured Johnny Mowers in goal for the Detroit Red Wings in 1942.
He joined the Army and was killed in a battle in the Hurtgen Forest in Germany on Dec. 13,1944.