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Did you know that Hitler was an experienced and valiant warrior? In fact Hitler was a highly decorated and professional soldier in the trenches of WW I.
Excerpts from
A Slow Fuse - Hitler's World War One Experience
On 10 November, 1918, an elderly priest from Pasewalk, Germany, walked into the nearby military hospital to deliver grave news to its wounded occupants - the war was lost and Imperial Germany was no more.
The old man wept as he outlined the details to his stunned audience. There was to be an armistice on the next day, Germany was now a republic, and the Kaiser, the nation's leader, was to abdicate. A Lance-Corporal, recovering from the effects of poison gas, reeled away from the crowd. In his memoirs he wrote: "I staggered and stumbled back to my ward and buried my aching head between the blankets and pillow."
Adolf Hitler, a veteran of the War's worst firestorms, began to cry. It was inexplicable; Germany, the nation of Aryans, the nation destined to dominate the 20th Century had lost. He desperately sought a reason for defeat. Imbued with a burning hatred of Jews, Bolsheviks and even Democrats, ...
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He himself admitted this in 1941, saying: "When I returned from the War, I brought back home with me my experiences at the front; out of them I built my National Socialist community."
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Hitler, much as we would like him to have been a coward and a shirker, was in fact a very good soldier. He remained calm under fire, showed respect to his superiors and never questioned his orders. Whilst casualties mounted and morale fell away, Hitler unstintingly carried on with his duty. He was rewarded with a promotion to Lance Corporal.
As the fighting continued the List regiment was used in a number of assaults just to the south of Ypres. Facing the French this time, the Germans received yet another mauling. Hitler earned an Iron Cross 2nd Class in an engagement near Croonaert Wood, Wytschaete. During the fighting and under heavy fire, Hitler, now appointed Meldeganger (a dispatch runner), stumbled across a seriously wounded officer left out in the open.
Along with a friend, he managed to pull the wounded man back to safety. Hitler received his award in December 1914. The action at the First Ypres decimated his regiment. Hitler wrote to his Munich landlord reporting that only 600 men were left out of approximately 3500. Colonel List was among the fatalities. …
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In the art of soldiering, Hitler was a consummate professional, and this gained him a great amount of respect with his comrades. It took nerves of steel to rush, deliver and return with staff messages in the midst of a heavy barrage. Hitler's survival against suicidal odds gave him a certain mystique in the eyes of his comrades.
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On 7 October, 1916, whilst stationed near Bapaume, Hitler received a severe wound to the leg resulting from a shell blast. He was sent to convalesce at Beelitz, near Berlin. …
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Hitler had returned just in time to feel the full weight of the British offensive at Arras and then the Third Ypres, the muddy holocaust fought in and around Passchendaele. Once again Hitler performed his duties with determination and bravery. He was awarded a number of citations as well, including the Military Cross 3rd Class with Swords. A decorated veteran like Hitler was well within his rights to apply for promotion. But he displayed a distinct lack of enthusiasm - Hitler preferred to remain in the role that had assured him glory and respect.
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On 4 August 1918, with the Germans in the last throes of their grand offensive, Hitler received an Iron Cross 1st Class for, 'personal bravery and general merit.' He had single handily captured a group of Frenchmen huddled in a shell hole. Cunningly, Hitler had crawled to the lip of their impromptu shelter and then shouted out to the men that they were surrounded and had better surrender. Duped by his ruse, the Frenchmen came along without a fight. Once in power, the Nazi propagandists explicitly increased the number of prisoners he had captured - a mistake that the Fuhrer was happy to leave uncorrected.
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In October 1918, the List Regiment found itself battered and bruised in Werwick, to the south of Ypres. On the night of 13/14 October Hitler was caught in a British gas attack.
The poison deprived him of his sight and on the following day his ability to stand. He was sent back to recover at Pasewalk - and it was there that his war ended.
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Of course we are all to familiar with the corporal by the name of Adolph who came out of the trenches of World War I and led the Third Reich to annihilation, and the world to the gates of Hell. He had the experience to lead the ignorant and arrogant blindly down that road.
Interestingly, Hitler never got past his “in the trenches” tactical mindset. He displayed this tendency in the trenches when he declined a promotion that would have moved him from the tactical toward the strategic in the trenches - however small that move would have been. He carried that through life and insisted on micromanaging his generals, getting ever more involved in tactical details as he led the German people down the road to Hell.
He had proven experience at the tactics level in the trenches, but this was not experience that prepared him for the strategic level of leadership demanded as der fuehrer.
Experience does count. It can be a straight jacket in someone set in their ways and convinced by their own propaganda.
For you fellow history buffs, fill in the interesting details at:
Feature Articles: A Slow Fuse - Hitler's World War One Experience
http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/aslowfuse.htm
And please do share your thoughts in comments.
This is a prime example of what Thomas Jefferson meant when he told us that “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
And: Matthew 13:24-30
24 He set another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 But when the stalks of wheat sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 Then after the slaves of the master of the house came, they said to him, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where have the weeds come from?” 28 So he said to them, “An enemy has done this.” Therefore the slaves said to him, “Then, do you wish that we go and pick them?” 29 But he said, “No, lest while you are picking the weeds, you uproot the wheat together with them. 30 Permit them both to grow together until the harvest; and when it is the time of harvest I will tell the harvesters, ‘First gather up the weeds and tie them into bundles to burn them up, and then gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”
We have to beat back those forces amongst us, always present, that sprout like poison ivy if, nay – when, the garden is prepared events. The potential Hitler is always with us and waiting to cultivate the garden.
But first we must be wise enough to learn from history rather than drink the Kool-Aid.
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