When recording
this pre-lecture on cryptology, I mentioned military service. I had
been rummaging through old photos and could not find any photos from
the crypto time which is natural as we were not supposed to
photograph, nor record
anything, even burn our written material. I unfortunately also do not have
the Pascal programs, I wrote there. With Beat Scherer, we implemented from
scratch factoring algorithms like Morrison Brillard using (also in-house made
arbitrary large integer arithmetic). I would love to have these programs, but
that is military. Here are photos before my first military service, taken
before and after getting a haircut:
Before joining the military group, I was in the artillery, first driving
M109 howeitzers,
then commanding one, which also involved doing some arithmetic
on paper while shooting. This was the place, where doing a calculation
error could bring you to jail.
This was actually lots of fun. It is an interesting construct such an M 109
and you had to learn every detail. Similarly also with the gun of course
and the machine gun on top of the vehicle. We had after every shooting day take apart
all movable parts, lay them out, count them and then return. We had to know
that M 109 by heart, every piece, every nut, every metric had to be
memorized and we were getting tested on. Here are some pictures found in our
photo box. Unlike pointed out in the movie, in the right picture, I'm on
top of the M 109. The two pictures are both 4K format 3840x2160 pixel:
Oliver driving a M 109
Oliver commanding a M 109
Here are pictures showing our ``Zug" (unit). This was there as a corporal,
on the very left. Commanding lieutnant Rickert was an ETH chemist.
The picture shows us with and without guns. The guns, by the way were always taken
home (with ammunition). Every soldier had his gun in a closet. I'm not sure whether this
is still the case today. You can see the M109 drivers stand apart in that their dresses
are all oily. The unit had lots of fun people. It is a time, you laugh a lot and hear
jokes which are not imaginable in normal life. Here is the organisation chart (PNG).
Also these pictures are 4K format 3840x2160 pixels:
Zug Rickert in Frauenfeld
Zug Rickert in Frauenfeld
Here is a song in which I appear too as I have climbed the tansegrity type art work in the
Kaserne Auenfeld put a rope down and pulled up a cut tree. In the morning, when all assembled,
the officers wondered how the tree could get up to that place. The asked who did it, but nobody
ratted me out. Here is a picture of the Kaserne Auenfeld in Frauenfeld. The artwork balances a
long concrete block on ropes in about 5 meters height.
Here is the song. I appear on the third page in the middle: "Dae Oli uesen chline Maa, soll doch au a strophe ha,
er cheibet ume, er muess schnufe, chletteret ufs Kunschtwerk ufe." "Oliver, our little man, should also have a
line, he runs around, breathing heavily, climbs onto the art work". (I was also going to jog as often as I could
It is a beautiful area, especially near the river Thur and Kartause Ittingen
(former monestary).
The following photos were taken in Stadel. We would shoot from Stadel near Winterthur to Frauenfeld.
For such long distance shots over , and with villages close to the target, having precise
telemetry and computations is important, even without war ammunition.