1936 Olympics and WW2 personnel

Brigadier W R N Hinde of 22 Armd Bde was a Silver Medallist in the Polo; may also have been the team captain. It's quite likely that the other team members were also cavalrymen...

Here's one: David Dawnay

 

Using Geoff's Search Engine, 'Olympic' gets 4 hits

 

Nice to see something different on this... How would we research the German side and their survival as well as the British one?
Dee

 

Are we sticking to British or German I found this American Today @ Colorado State University - Campus community and public invited to Glenn Morris Olympic Oak Tree Planting Ceremony May 10

 

You people do know the most outlandish things! All I was aware of was of Gen. George Patton, pentathlon, but that was in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics

 

And a German for good measure, Carl Ludwig who won the silver behind Jesse Owens in the Long jump. Jesse Owens commented about how comfortable he felt in Berlin and on his camraderie with the the German athletes Typical agiprop of the period claiming Hitler was "angry" that Owens received standing ovations from the Germans. The Olympic Games of Berlin 1936- After two failed attempts in the Long Jump Jesse Owens is about to drop out of competition. German athlete Dr. Carl Ludwig Long, better known as 'Luz' Long gives Jesse the crucial hint. In the end Long wins the Silver Medal, Jesse Owens wins Gold, one of his four during the 1936 games. The friendship between Luz and Jesse endured prejudice, politics and ideologies. In WW2 Carl Ludwig „Luz“ Long served in the Wehrmacht and was killed in action on July 13, 1943 at San Pietro Clarenza/Sicily during Operation Husky. He's buried on the German military cemetery of Motta St. Anastasia
http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/42856-5/luz_jesse
Luz Long A Nazi helped Jesse Owens to win Gold Medal. - Stormfront

 

And a nice link here to a few more German medal winners Axis History Forum • View topic - Olympic Winners in German Armed Forces

 

Intresting 3 more Brits this time 1936 Berlin

The sailing events were held at Kiel
Gold medallists in 6 Metre Class
Yacht Lalage

Crew
Miles Aubrey BELLVILLE
b 28 April 1909d 27 October 1980Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Christopher Alan BOARDMANb 11 June 1903d 29 September 1987Royal Corinthian Yacht ClubRussell Thomas HARMERb 5 November 1896d 31 October 1940Royal Corinthian Yacht ClubCharles Symonds LEAFb 13 November 1895d 19 February 1947Royal Corinthian Yacht Club
How the Gold was won
After the last race Lalage was in silver medal position with the gold medal going to Swiss boat Yilliam
The Swiss boat was eventually disqualified promoting the British crew to gold medal position.
The gold medal was one of just 4 that were won in these Olympics.

Details of the Crew
Miles Bellville was a member of the Americas Cup challenge in Endeaver in 1934. In WW2 he served in the commandos as a Major and was awarded the MC and MBE.
Christopher Boardman also was a member of the Americas Cup challenge in 1934. He was helmsman of the Lalage. During WW2 he was a Corvette Commander in the Atlantic. His brother was an Olympic rower who won medals at the 1930 Empire Games.
Russell Harmer served as a Captain in the Royal Signals during WW1 although he was demobilised after suffering a bad injury. He was a Crew Member.
Charles Leaf was the owner of Lalage. Leaf served as a Lieutenant with the Buffs in WW1 and enlisted in WW2 serving in the Balloon Command before transferring as a Lieutenant in the Royal marines at the age of 47.Leaf came from a wealthy family and was a noted archeologist donating many important finds to Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Our Olympic Champions - Burnham on Crouch Website

 

Not even in the heats, apparently:

Athletics at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games: Men's 3,000 metres Steeplechase Round One | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com

 

The Olympic village is just a few kilometers down the B5 from me and is being totally redeveloped with new housing and a Technical High school for TV/Movie/Media.

It must have been a great place to meet all the then top athletes in the world.

Regards
Tom

 

Further to my post 9 above. Miles Bellville was educated at Malvern and Jesus College, Cambridge, where his prowess as an oarsman led to him being elected a member of the Leander Club. A member of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and the Royal Ocean Racing Club, in 1934 he crewed on the _Endeavor_ when Tommy Sopwith challenged for the America’s Cup. At the 1936 Olympic Games he was one of a crew of five who all sailed at Burnahm, and won gold medals in the 6-metre class aboard Lalage. As a major in the Royal Marine Commandos, Belville won a Military Cross in 1942 in the attack on the Vichy French base at Diego Suares in Madagascar, and the following year he was awarded the MBE. A gentleman farmer, he served as Sheriff of Hereford from 1966 to 1969.
Miles Bellville Biography and Olympic Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com

 

Fascinating thread. The subject of 1936 Olympiads came up when walking round a German war cemetery in Normandy last week.

 

It's not really important, but my father (a 17-year-old German Jew living in London beginning in 1934) went back to Berlin during the summer of '36 (seemingly a very dangerous thing to do???) and attended the Games as a spectator.

In 1967 on a family trip to Berlin (when I was 10) he took us to the stadium and regaled us with stories of his great delight at watching Jesse Owens win a gold medal and pi$$ing off the Nazis.

I could never figure out why he took the risk to go back in '36, other than to see his mother and other relatives.

Marc

 

Col Godfrey Rampling RA was a medallist in the 4x400m relay at the 1932 (silver) and 1936 (gold) games. He was also Charlotte's dad!

Obituary on page 28 of this issue of Gunner.

 

Louis Zamperini was in my father's Unit the 7 TH Air Force the 11 TH Bomb Group and the 42 Squadron when he was shot down over the Pacific.

Louis Zamperini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Early life

Louis Zamperini was born in Olean, New York to Anthony and Louise Zamperini. The Zamperini family moved to Torrance, California in the 1920s, where Louis attended Torrance High School. The son of Italian immigrants, Louis spoke no English when his family moved to California, which made him a target for bullies. His father taught Louis how to box for self-defense. Pretty soon, according to Louis, he was "beating the tar out of every one of them... But I was so good at it that I started relishing the idea of getting even. I was sort of addicted to it."
"Before long he was picking fights just to see if anyone could keep up with him. From juvenile thug, he progressed to 'teenage hobo.' Hopping a train to Mexico, he courted danger for the thrill of it. 'I caught a wild cow in a ravine and tore my kneecap till it was just hanging off,' he recalls. 'I snapped my big toe jumping out of some giant bamboo; they just sewed it back on. I’ve got so many scars, they’re criss-crossing each other!'"

(USC News, "The Great Zamperini", 2003)

Louis had a knack for getting into trouble, so his brother got him involved in the school track team. In 1934 Louis set a world interscholastic record in the mile, clocking in at 4 minutes and 21.2 seconds at the preliminary meet to the state championships.The following week he won the championships with a 4:27.8 That record helped Louis win a scholarship to the University of Southern California, and eventually a place on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team in the 5000 metres, the youngest U.S. qualifier in that event.

While attending USC, Zamperini was a member of The Kappa Sigma Fraternity and lived in the fraternity house along with his older brother.
Olympic career

In the Olympic trials at Randalls Island, Louis finished in a dead heat against world-record holder Don Lash, and qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, though neither he nor Lash had much chance at winning the 5000 meter race. Louis has related several amusing anecdotes from his Olympic experience, including gorging himself on the boat trip to Europe. "I was a Depression-era kid who had never even been to a drugstore for a sandwich," he said. "And all the food was free. I had not just one sweet roll, but about seven every morning, with bacon and eggs. My eyes were like saucers.” By the end of the trip, Louis had gained 12 pounds. While the weight gain was not advantageous for his running it was necessary for his health, having lost 15 pounds whilst training in the summer heat in New York for the Olympic Trials. Most athletes on the ship gained massive amounts of weight, not just Zamperini.

Louis finished eighth in the 5000 meter distance event at that Olympics, but his final lap of 56 seconds was fast enough to catch the attention of Adolf Hitler, who insisted on a personal meeting. As Louis tells the story, Hitler shook his hand, and said simply "Ah, you're the boy with the fast finish."
Two years later in 1938, Zamperini set a national collegiate mile record which held for 15 years. He was nicknamed the "Torrance Tornado".
Military career and beyond

Zamperini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in September 1941, and after being commissioned a second lieutenant the following August, he was deployed to Hawaii as a bombardier. He and his crew were assigned to a B-24 which they named "Super Man". After their plane was shot up, they were given a different plane, The Green Hornet to look for a lost plane and its crew. Mechanical difficulties caused the Green Hornet to crash into the ocean on May 27, 1943. After 47 days adrift in the ocean, Zamperini and Russel Allen Phillips were captured by the Japanese Navy. Zamperini was held in captivity and tortured severely through the end of the war and his family thought he had been killed in action, but he eventually returned to a hero's welcome. Zamperini was held in a Japanese Navy camp for captives not labeled as Prisoners of War at Ofuna. Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington was held at the same camp and in Boyington's book, Baa Baa Black Sheep he discusses Zamperini and the Italian recipes he would write to keep the prisoners minds off of the food and conditions. While on a raft in the ocean for 47 days he recounts that their minds became more alert at the end of the ordeal than they had originally been because of the mind conditioning they did daily. One of the things he did was prepare (mentally) complete recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and later added brunches and snacks. He gave measurements or ingredients and oven temperatures. They all were "at the end of their rope" so they prayed continually to God. They caught an albatross and used some of the breast meat to catch fish, it repulsed them to eat (smell) it, a week later they got a second one and forced themselves to eat a bit more than previously, and a week later caught a third one and Louie claims that this one "tasted like a hot fudge sunday with whipped cream & nuts"! Louie's other misadventures while adrift included being strafed multiple times by a Japanese bomber, fending off multiple shark attacks, and nearly being swallowed by a storm.

The Torrance airport was renamed Zamperini Field in the 1960s.

After the war, Zamperini met Billy Graham, who helped him launch a new career as a Christian inspirational speaker. His wife was instrumental in getting him to go to Billy Graham's meetings and not leaving before he was saved. Louie had been a terrible alcoholic and was instantly released of alcoholism, he could immediately read the Bible and understand it for the first time in his life, and he instantly felt total forgiveness to all who had hurt and tortured him in the prison camps. All miracles that came to him instantly with his accepting Jesus Christ as his savior and receiving forgiveness. One of his favorite themes is "forgiveness," and he has visited many of the guards from his POW days to let them know that he has forgiven them. Many of the war criminals who committed the worst atrocities were held in the Sugamo prison in Tokyo. In October 1950, Zamperini went to Japan and gave his testimony and preached to them through an interpreter (a missionary called Fred Jarvis). The colonel in charge of the prison encouraged any of the prisoners who recognized Zamperini to come forward and meet him again. Zamperini threw his arms around each of them. Once again he explained the Christian Gospel of forgiveness to them. The prisoners were somewhat surprised by Zamperini's genuine affection for those who had once ill-treated him. Most of the prisoners accepted copies of the New Testament which had been given by the Gideons.

For his 81st birthday in January 1998, Zamperini ran a leg in the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. In March 2005 he returned to Germany to visit the Berlin Olympic Stadium for the first time since he competed there.

Torrance High School's home football, soccer, and track stadium is called Zamperini Stadium, and the entrance plaza at USC's track & field stadium was named Louis Zamperini Plaza in 2004. In his 90s, Zamperini continues to attend USC football games and befriended star freshman quarterback Matt Barkley in 2009.

Zamperini currently resides in Hollywood, California. A film based on his life story is under development and will probably be completed by 2014.

In October 2008, Zamperini was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago, IL.
On April 24th 2011, Zamperini receieved an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters from Azusa Pacific University.

 

This is the BEST youtube I have found of Louis Zamperini, take the time to watch this wonderful story, you will not regret spending the time believe me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9O5yVzc0vQ