Chapter Eight
No sooner had the artists gone from Hitler’s entourage than they were replaced by two former colleagues from Hitler’s old regiment who were to accompany him on the next, and to Hitler, far more important, stage of his journey. Hitler had only hours to spare for his perfunctory Paris visit but, in June 1940, he would find a total of four days to re-visit the Great War battlefields. It was for this purpose he had summoned two former colleagues to accompany him on a second visit to an insignificant area of Flanders on the border of France and Belgium. Those trusted and hand-picked men were Max Amann and Ernst Schmidt. They embodied the idea of the frontgemeinschaft and also of Kameradschaft, the comradeship which Hitler so desperately sought to be associated with. As part of his entourage Hitler was also careful to include Heinrich Hoffmann, the man who had captured his first image of Hitler as an insignificant part the Munich crowd in August 1914 and who was now elevated to the role of Hitler’s personal photographer. He was there to produce a photographic record of Hitler’s triumphant return to the Great War battlefields.
What is highly significant is the fact that this visit was actually the second time during the momentous month of June 1940 that Hitler had found time to come to this militarily unimportant corner where France and Belgium meet. The real reason behind Hitler’s second visit has been hotly debated ever since.
Hitler’s Return to Flanders 26 June 1940
Hitler, accompanied by Max Amann and Ernst Schmidt and aides, pictured shortly after the victory over France on 26 June 1940. The group were photographed on their tour to visit the positions they had occupied during Great War in Flanders.
In the church of Laon.
The procession soon took the air of a jovial motoring day trip, something which Hitler had enjoyed since he had first owned a car in the 1920s.
Hitler and his former colleagues visit a farm in Cerny-lès-Bucy, a village to the west of Laon where they had been billeted in late 1917/early 1918.
Hitler and Amann during a visit to the fortress of Laniscourt. Amann had survived the Great War unscathed only to lose an arm in a hunting accident when, in 1931, he was shot by Hermann Göring
Hitler with (right to left) Max Amann, Wehrmacht adjutant Gerhard Engel, Ernst Schmidt and adjutant Julius Schaub on 26 April 1940 pictured at the location in Fournes, where Hitler, Schmidt and Amann had served together some 24 years earlier.
The party is captured in light hearted mood in the garden of the former billet in Fournes.
The three old comrades enter the village of Fromelles. This was the area in which Hitler spent the most time during the Great War.
Heinz Linge offers to clean Hitler’s shoes with a cloth. Ernst Schmidt looks on.
Hitler and Amann inspecting the German bunkers near Fromelles. These bunkers and many similar structures have defied the efforts of local farmers to remove them and still dot the landscape today.
The three veterans contemplate the site of the former battlefield.
Hitler, in pensive mood, is snapped by Hoffmann during the afternoon of 26 June.
The ruins of the church at Messines, painted by Adolf Hitler in December 1914.
Hitler and his entourage entering Ypres via the temporary wooden bridge built by the German combat engineers at the Lille Gate.
The convoy makes it way through Ypres, passing down Gustave de Stuersstraat.
At around 4:30 p.m. on 26 June Hitler again enters the main square at Ypres.
The convoy driving through Dunkirk, the city still bears the scars of the recent combat.
The procession drives across the Grote Markt from Poperinge to the town hall.
On the return journey there was a sudden rainstorm. The convoy halted in Capelle-la-Grande, just south of Dunkirk, to deploy the folding roofs.
Hitler inspecting a German bunker unsuccessfully bombarded by the French.
On the Rhine bridge at Kehl. On the right of the Führer is the Supreme Commander of an Army, Senior General Dollmann.
Despite the heaviest artillery fire, this German bunker was undamaged.
Alongside Keitel and Bormann, Hitler inspects a French bunker after the bombardment.
In the Vosges at the gorge pass. The Supreme Commander of an Army, Senior General Dollman, explains the course of the heavy fighting to the Führer.
In the Vosges. A captured French war horse encounters the Führer.
Back on German soil Hitler is confronted with the mass hysteria which had been a feature of his political life since the twenties.
In June 1940 the crowds had a great deal to celebrate in the wake of what was then reckoned to be the greatest military victory in world history.
The cult of Führer worship extended to the German troops in the field. Hitler seen here in conversation with his victorious troops following the victory over the allies.
In the Strassburg cathedral.