[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34594577]Wasn't Hitler supposedly a massive coward in WW1?[/QUOTE]
A lot of that was from Allied propaganda during World War II.
Hitler wasn't a cowardly soldier. He did a lot of volunteering as a courier, which was an extremely dangerous job. It required soldiers to leave the safety of the trenches and expose themselves to snipers, artillery fire, gas attacks, and other hazards whilst traversing miles of terrain. Couriers, as such, had high casualty rates.
In the early months of the war, he was commended for his gallantry on several occasions by commanders. Near Ypres in November 1914, there was an incident where an officer in his regiment, a Leutnant-General Engelhart, stepped out from the cover of the trees which the Germans had seized and was fired upon by French machine gunners. Hitler and another man in his company jumped after him, grabbed and threw him to the ground, then shielded him with their bodies as they waited for the fire of the French to cease. That earned him a promotion to lance-corporal.
A short while later in December, when he was working as a courier, he and a friend named Schmidt came under heavy mortar bombardment. They spotted an officer near them who had been seriously wounded by a shell and dragged him to the safety of a nearby ditch. They picked him up and carried him later on to a field hospital close to Messines. This action earned him the Iron Cross 2nd Class, as did it Schmidt, which he so proudly wore throughout his political career.
He was wounded three times throughout the course of the war, not once as is commonly reported. During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, he had a shell fragment badly graze his head. In October later that year, a shell exploded near the dugout where he and his fellow couriers had gathered to be briefed and he was hit in the face by a splinter and had shell fragments seriously injure his hip. The latter injury caused him to limp later in life. He recovered after several surgeries and seven weeks of recovery and physical therapy. Most of the men who had been there with him were killed.
The third most widely known injury he sustained was in October 1918. On the 13th, the British began firing shells and gas canisters at the German lines before their attack on the German lines two miles north of Comines. The bombardment lasted for 12 hours. Hitler's gas mask apparently had a leak in it or had a defective filter, because, as he would write: [i]"Toward morning, I was seized with pain which grew worse with every quarter hour, and at seven in the morning I stumbled and tottered back with burning eyes and lungs; taking with me my last report of the War. A few hours later, my eyes had turned into glowing coals and lungs felt as if consumed with fire; all was dark around me."[/i]
Hitler wasn't dreary and disliked person, either, during his time in the military. When he wasn't acting as a courier, he read and wrote poetry constantly. He also painted and did cartoons and caricatures of his comrades, and was well known for his excellent mimicking skills of disliked staff officers. His fellow soldiers always referred to him as "Adi", and he was seen as somewhat of a legend in his regiment by 1918.
He didn't actually take his first leave from the front lines for rest and recreation until late September 1917 at the request of his comrades. Schmidt, who had somehow managed to survive the war thusfar unscathed, took him with him to Dresden to meet his family. He noted that Hitler was under a great deal of stress and seemed very lonely, which was probably due to the loss of a little terrier dog he'd adopted in early 1915 that had never before left his side (Fuchsl, "Little Fox"). It's likely the dog was stolen by a train conductor in Colmar who'd offered him 200 marks for it; someone also stole almost everything Hitler owned out of his knapsack in Colmar, too.
The only real criticism of him was what a melancholy, depressed personality he had, especially in the winter. He would pull away from everyone, and try to isolate himself as much as possible from any sort of conversation. The reason might have been because of the death of his mother back in 1907, on December 21st, which had a profoundly hurtful impact on him. It was noted that after she was buried on Christmas Eve, Hitler stayed behind and remained next to the grave until late in the evening when it got bitterly cold and began snowing heavily.
Hitler's really a depressing person to study, but still very interesting.
How funny. I was just playing Victoria II and started my own WW1.
It's sad I'll be hearing the same thing about WW2 vets in about 10-20 years (unless we cryogenically freeze them or some shit)
[editline]alla[/editline]
Also, despite you both being right, why are we defending [B]Hitler[/B] exactly?
I have just recently finished reading [I]All Quiet on the Western Front[/I], and now I see about this. I am utterly convinced that WWI is the most horrifying war of the 20th century
[QUOTE=BananaFoam;34596502]Also, despite you both being right, why are we defending [B]Hitler[/B] exactly?[/QUOTE]
It isn't about defending Hitler, it's about telling the truth.
[QUOTE=PolarEventide;34595139]Your ignorance hurts my brain. Take a minute and read what you said. "He was delivering letters or something easy like that." If that's so easy, how about we have you go take a piece of paper, and run into a battlefield alone, getting shot at. His job was not easy.[/QUOTE]
What I meant, he was miles behind the line. Like 10 miles behind where the fighting was happening. Yea, I would gladly ride around on a bike where supplies are being moved around delivering letters than be in the trenches.
That might have only been for a fraction of the war though, I'm no expert on his service time.
End of an Era...
I remember seeing a video of FDR addressing civil war veterans...so bizarre to think about those two periods being in one lifetime.
So strange for it to be almost a century when it started, and it's sad that everything has changed, except the way we act toward each other still.
[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;34599758]So strange for it to be almost a century when it started, and it's sad that everything has changed, except the way we act toward each other still.[/QUOTE]
I would like to think that despite a great number of wars, humanity has grown comparatively more tolerant of itself today than it was a hundred years ago.
it's always hitler talk with you folks
always with the hitler talk these guys
[url]http://www.badassoftheweek.com/sgtstubby.html[/url]
Sgt. Stubby got all the bitches.
[QUOTE=MIPS;34607181]Mrs Doubtfire.[/QUOTE]
I feel bad for laughing as hard as I did.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34590658]I feel the main reason the generals used such stupid life wasting tactics was mostly due to the transition from traditional line battles to modern combat with generals ordering their men to walk to the enemy trenches.[/QUOTE]
I'm sorry, but that argument is a load of bollocks and it really gets to me any time someone brings it up.
The situation that developed on the western front was an inevitable result of the nature of the advancement of weaponry and artillery, coupled with two extremely large industrialized forces meeting along a narrow front in great strength in open terrain. These men were not "Lions lead by Donkeys", their command structure took the only steps they could against such overwhelming firepower. Technology was at a point during the time that inherently favored defensive doctrine. Starting in late 1917 and especially during and after the spring offensives, the Western Front was a very mobile affair due to the development of doctrine for technology that had only recently came to be, showing that the forces of both sides were very much so willing to adapt. That's not to say there were not weak links in the command structure, but to blame them entirely for the stalemate situation is foolish.
[B]Trench Warfare had been a dominant force in conventional engagements for the prior 70 years at that point, and continues to be until this day in many parts of the world.[/B] This is shown multiple times during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, The Iran-Iraq War, First Gulf Storm, and the Eritrean–Ethiopian War.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34590658]I feel the main reason the generals used such stupid life wasting tactics was mostly due to the transition from traditional line battles to modern combat with generals ordering their men to walk to the enemy trenches.[/QUOTE]
It was more that the war had become so industrialized that conventional tactics didn't work at all. Infantry/Cavalry charges meant being mowed-down with machine gun fire, and staying put meant being bombarded with artillery possessing rates of fire and lethal accuracy the likes of which had never been available up until then, or being bombed from the air by the first primitive bomber aircraft, or being hit with poison gas that turned your best and only defense against the waves of munitions being spewed at you (a trench) against you. WWII was far more mechanized and in that sense more brutal than WWI, but even the poison gas by itself made WWI a truly terrible ordeal for any side involved.
It's always sad to think that the whole cause of WW1 was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. Most people don't even know that Serbia was the main cause as well, or that Germany viewed Russia as the main threat and took a gamble on invading Belgium to flank France, but Belgium had a 80-year old treaty with Britain that the Germans thought wouldn't be honored.
There was also an incident where Hitler came face to face with a British soldier, but out of some unwritten code or simple decency, the British soldier decided to let Hitler escape. Years later, Hitler read a newspaper about a soldier recieving a medal, and the article included a picture. Hitler instantly recognized the face, kept the newspaper, and later had a large painting of the British soldier placed in his home.
Edit: Found the British soldier, Henry Tandey.
[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Tandey#Hitler_incident[/URL]
Hitler also had unexplained luck in WW1. There were multiple times where he would be chatting with fellow soldiers, and leave to go take a piss or something and right as he left an artillery shell struck the place where his friends were, killing them all.
Hitler had a shit ton of luck in his life, he was nearly assassinated 21 or so times.
Wow.. it's chilling to be in his boots...
Think of it. You're a veteran... you go to, say, WW1 veteran meetings in the 60's/70's/80's, etc... and as time goes on, members disappear...
That's heavy shit, man.
[QUOTE=Gubru;34611880]Wow.. it's chilling to be in his boots...
Think of it. You're a veteran... you go to, say, WW1 veteran meetings in the 60's/70's/80's, etc... and as time goes on, members disappear...
That's heavy shit, man.[/QUOTE]
He's a she.
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