Oskar Josef Bschließmayer: Pacifist in the Wehrmacht

Oskar (left) with actor Wilfried Seyferth in the 1951 film Decision Before Dawn.

    In December of 1941, Oskar Josef Bschließmayer was drafted into the Wehrmacht and was sent for training as a cannonier and that it was hoped he would soon rise to become an officer. Bschließmayer, however, was a pacifist and had no love for the ideology of National Socialism. Knowing that the war on the East Front would only continue to worsen, Bschließmayer set out to ensure that he would amount to nothing in the eyes of his superiors. During training, he would purposely fail at horsemanship (at the time, much of the Wehrmacht’s artillery still relied on horses for mobility) and during artillery training, he would intentionally misread and make mistakes with the range finders. His ability to play the part of an incompetent was no doubt due to his skill as an actor for which he was prior to being drafted. Eventually, his efforts paid off and Bschließmayer was expelled from training school. Nevertheless, he was still sent to an artillery regiment reserve unit in Vienna where he was a cook and janitor. 

     In 1944, while still deployed in Vienna, he married actress Elisabeth Kallina in secret. This was because Kallina was half-Jewish. Soon after, they had a daughter, Eleanore. On December 8, 1944, Bschließmayer and his family deserted from the regiment and hid inside a dilapidated shack within the Wienerwald (Vienna Wood). On April 2, 1945, the Soviet 2nd. and 3rd. Ukrainian Fronts launched their attack on Vienna which forced them to abandon their hiding place and flee in the face of the Soviet forces. They ran right into Bschließmayer’s regiment but in the chaos, they were able to escape unnoticed out of Vienna and once more enter into hiding. 

     Following the war, Bschließmayer would return to acting, assuming once more his stage name of Oskar Werner. His first Hollywood film appearance was as ex-POW Karl “Happy” Maurer in the 1951 war film “Decision Before Dawn” and the photograph is a still from the movie showing Werner in the disguise of a Luftwaffe Feldwebel (equivalent to a U.S. Staff Sergeant) medic. Barely visible is the white armband with the Red Cross on it and on his lower right sleeve is the Luftwaffe Sanitätspersonal (medical personnel) trade/proficiency badge. Historically, the badge was worn on the left lower sleeve. He is shown speaking with SS-Schütze Heinz Scholtz (played by Wilfried Seyferth) who was portraying a dispatch rider in the film. Werner would continue to feature in European films and a handful of U.S. movies, notably as Guy Montag in the 1966 film version of Ray Bradbury’s critically acclaimed novel “Fahrenheit 451.” 

     Werner died on October 23, 1984 from a heart attack. 

Flieger: Latvian Youth Organization

      A member of the Latvju Jaunatnes Organizacija (LJO), or Latvian Youth Organization. The LJO, under direction of German leadership, was formed in April 1943. While nominally voluntary, by July 1944, boys and girls were being conscripted into the LJO. The LJO had two functions. One was to provide Landdienst (Land Service) workers and the other Luftwaffe Helfer (Helpers). 

     Although there was a regulation uniform and special insignia for the LJO, in practice, it was rarely followed and there was much variation in the uniforms as well as insignia worn. LJO members were to wear a LJO brassard but more often than not, they were not well constructed and fell apart. In their place, some LJO youth wore the same Latvian sleeve shield as issued to Latvian volunteers in the German Heer (Army) and Luftwaffe. 

     This Flieger (Private) likely shed his brassard and replaced it with the Luftwaffe pattern Latvian sleeve shield and he wears full Luftwaffe rank and insignia rather than the LJO accouterments. The uniform itself is Luftwaffe though his shirt is non-Luftwaffe, being a light gray rather than blue. The color of the collartabs was likely red as worn by Luftwaffe artillery personnel. 

     The majority of the LJO Luftwaffe Helfer served under Luftflotte 1, the boys (and girls as well) commanded by Hauptmann Edgars Rempe and Leutnant Indulis Kažocinš.

The M-1978 Koksan: North Korea's 170mm Self-Propelled Gun

A former Iranian M-1978 captured by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War being towed away by U.S. Marines.

     The M-1978 “Koksan” is a rather unusual self-propelled gun (SPG) in a number of aspects. Built by the Second Machine Industry Bureau of North Korea, the SPG uses the chassis of the Chinese built and supplied Type 59 main battle tank (itself a Chinese version of the Russian T-54A tank) and mates it with a 170mm gun. The gun itself is a bit of a mystery given the caliber. Some sources say it was derived from a Russian naval gun except that the Russians never used any such caliber. The closest is the 180mm M1931/M1932 pattern naval gun. Other sources say the gun is some form of copy or version of the World War 2 German 170mm Kanone 18 or at least designed to fire captured stocks of 170mm ammunition supplied by Russia (which doesn’t seem completely plausible). 

     However the North Korean military arrived at the 170mm, the SPG first appeared to Western eyes in a military parade in 1978 held in Koksan County, located in North Hwanghae Province. Since the actual designation for the SPG is not known, Western intelligence analysts gave it the name M-1978 Koksan after the year and place it was first seen. The Koksan was one of the first weapon systems North Korea exported and the only foreign buyer was Iran who purchased a number of them in 1987 and they saw action during the Iran-Iraq War (September 22, 1980 to August 20, 1988), shelling Kuwaiti oil fields using rocket-assisted rounds which made them immune from Iraqi counter-battery fire. During the war, Iraqi forces captured several of the M-1978 and emplaced them as war trophies. 

     The one in the image was located near the University of Anbar in Ramadi, Anbar, Iraq and is seen being towed away by U.S. Marines in 2008. The M-1978 remains in North Korean service and some sources say surviving Iranian M-1978s also remain in service with Iranian artillery forces.