Chapter Three
On the surface there was very little reason for the controversy which surrounds Hitler’s service record in the Great War. The bald facts of Hitler’s military career are very clear and reasonably well documented. At first glance it appears strange that there should be any debate whatsoever.
Hitler came to the Odeonsplatz on 2 August 1914 to celebrate the outbreak of the war against Russia. He stood near the front of the crowd who began to cheer and the moment was captured in this photograph by a Munich photographer called Heinrich Hoffmann. Hitler can be clearly seen in the Hoffmann photograph smiling and waving his hat.
France declared war on 3 August 1914 and the French declaration was followed, on 4 August 1914, by the British declaration of war. Overcome with war-fever Hitler enlisted as a volunteer and served in the 1st company of 16th Bavarian Reserve infantry regiment as a private soldier with the rank of infanterist.
Hitler and his regiment then moved by train to Belgium and first saw action in late October 1914 fighting against British troops from the Worcester Regiment in the grounds of the Chateaux near the village of Gheluvelt. The battle was a peripheral action during the battle known to the British as First Ypres, and to the Germans as Langemark. This violent action engagement was the only fight in which Hitler actually served with his rifle in hand as an infanterist. By the time of a short fight which followed near the village of Wytschaete, Hitler was already serving as a messenger and by 9 November 1914 was selected to serve in regimental headquarters in the position of regimental meldegänger (a military courier). There is no question however that, despite all that is written to the contrary, he did take part in at least that one battle.
In early November Hitler’s regiment was again involved in an action, this time against the London Scottish who were supported by French troops. The fight took place at a location near the village of Wytschaete at the spot which was then known to the Bavarians as the ‘axe-shaped’ wood which is today known as the Bayernwald.
Following those two bloody engagements Hitler had distinguished himself as a reliable and trustworthy soldier and was rewarded by being promoted to the status of Gefreiter. He was also awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class for saving the life of Lieutenant Colonel Englehardt in an incident near the Bayernwald. Much later, in 1932, Lieutenant Colonel Engelhardt reciprocated by taking Hitler’s part in a successful court case brought by Hitler in order to protect his reputation. The 1932 pamphlet entitled Tatsachen und Lügen um Hitler (‘Facts and Lies About Adolf Hitler’) which was published in the wake of the court case quotes Lieutenant Colonel Englehardt and describes Hitler’s act of bravery which led to the award of the Iron Cross 2nd Class: “Once as I emerged from the wood at Wytschaete during a fierce attack, in order to make some observations, Hitler and an orderly from the Regimental Staff, planted themselves bang in front of me to shield me with their own bodies from machine-gun fire.”
For the next two years Hitler served dutifully in Belgium and France. In 1915 he witnessed the vicious battles of Neuve Chapelle when the British took to the offensive. 1916 saw him in action at Aubers Ridge and on the Somme. In 1917 he was present at the battle of Arras and he was a witness to the fierce fighting for Vimy Ridge. In 1918 Hitler’s regiment took part in the Kaiserschlacht, the last great German offensive of the war.
Hitler’s role throughout the entire four years of the Great War involved him running messages between regimental Headquarters and the battalion headquarters both of which were set some way back from the front lines. As such he had an easier job than the company messengers who were actually stationed in the frontlines. Nonetheless during the course of his duties Hitler was on occasion required to carry messages into the trenches and he was frequently under fire. Even in the rear areas there was the ever present danger of a sudden long range shell. On the journey to and from battalion headquarters there were still plenty of bullets and shells for regimental messengers to contend with, and Hitler was considered lucky having avoided death and serious injury during two years of active service and in honour of his home town he was given the nickname ‘Lucky Linzer’ by his colleagues. A local legend is that Hitler was slightly wounded in 1916 and was treated in the crypt of the church at Messines. As a result he was inspired to paint the famous picture of the ruins of the church which, in later years, hung in his Munich office as a lucky talisman.
But in October 1916, on the Somme battlefield, near the town of Bapaume, his luck finally ran out and the ‘Lucky Linzer’ was seriously wounded by a shell splinter in the thigh. As a result he spent two months in hospital; following his recuperation Hitler once more returned to his own regiment and served at the front throughout 1917. The regiment fought on into 1918 and Hitler remained at his post and was awarded the Iron Cross First Class for conscientious and conspicuous devotion to duty including an extraordinary episode in which he is reported by witnesses to have captured a party of 15 French soldiers.
Finally in October 1918, in almost the last month of the war Hitler was temporarily blinded as a result of a British gas shell and ended the war in hospital in Paesewalk in Pomerania.
A Bavarian officer reading out the German declaration of war in August 1914.
On Sunday, 2 August 1914, a twenty-five year old Hitler was amongst thousands of people gathered at the Odeonsplatz in Munich. The crowd joined in exuberant enthusiasm for the war and Heinrich Hoffmann was on hand to record the scene. He later identified Hitler as a figure in the crowd.
Taken in April 1915 in Fournes, this is the earliest known photograph of Regimentsordonnanzen (Regimental Orderlies) including messengers Ernst Schmidt, Anton Bachmann and Adolf Hitler. Seated at Hitler’s feet is the English Terrier, Foxl, who came to be Hitler’s most treasured companion.
The conditions in the water-logged frontline trenches near Fromelles were appalling, as this photograph from May 1915 graphically demonstrates. The men of the 16th RIR lived and fought in these conditions.
Max Amann pictured at La Bassée station in March 1917.
A German position at Fromelles, pre-1915. Trenches such as these were frequently knee-deep in water.
Adolf Hitler, then a battalion-messenger, seen in May 1915 with his rifle slung over his shoulder. Hitler was in the process of delivering a message. This photograph first appeared in the Official Regimental History of the 16th RIR.
Adolf Hitler and Karl Lippert in mid-1915 in Fournes.
Adolf Hitler in 1916 in the rear area at Fournes.
Hitler with his comrades in September 1915, at the Regimental Command Post in Fromelles. (Front row, left to right) Adolf Hitler, Josef Wurm, Karl Lippert, Josef Kreidmayer. (Middle row, left to right) Karl Lanzhammer, Ernst Schmidt, Jacob Höfele, Jacob Weiss. (Back row) Karl Tiefenböck.
Early September 1916, Hitler is seen alongside his colleagues and his faithful dog Foxl in the rear area at Fournes. (Front row, left to right) Adolf Hitler, Balthasar Brandmayer, Anton Bachmann, Max Mund. (Back row, left to right) Ernst Schmidt, Johann Sperl, Jacob Weiss and Karl Tiefenböck.
Hitler with his comrades in May 1916 in Fournes: Balthasar Brandmayer (front), (left to right seated) Johann Wimmer, Josef Inkofer, Karl Lanzhammer, Adolf Hitler, (left to right standing) Johann Sperl, Max Mund.
The badly damaged town of Fromelles, where the Regimental Headquarters of the 16th RIR was situated from 17 March 1915 to 27 September 1916. Even in the rear areas, such as this, long-range shelling was a constant menace.