Lance-Corporal Hitler - WW1 Trench Runner

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alois's 30 years in the austrian customs service hitler used this small amount of money to fund a move from vienna in austria to munich in bavaria in vienna hitler had lived in men's shelters for years and egged out a precarious living selling paintings and postcards and working as a day labourer he was underweight and rather sickly looking he had also managed to avoid national service in the austro-hungarian army however on the 5th of august 1914 hitler duly reported to a medical board in salzburg an underwent an army medical examination unsurprisingly due to his years as a homeless vagrant in vienna he was classified as unfit for military service and he returned to munich in later years hitler explained that he was against serving in the multi-racial army of austria-hungary but this may have been a statement made in retrospect however when war broke out in august 1914 hitler did not return to austria to join up rather because he identified very strongly as a german he wanted to join the german army the problem was hitler did not hold german citizenship he certainly sounded german having picked up a bavarian accent when he and his family had lived at pasal on the border with austria during one of his father's postings swept up in the wave of german nationalism that accompanied the outbreak of war hitler took the unusual step of writing to the king of bavaria ludwig iii asking for permission as an austrian to serve in the bavarian army this permission was granted apparently an error the bavarians should have arrested hitler and deported him to austria of his military service in 1924 they admitted that a clerical error allowed hitler to join the german army hitler enlisted into the first company the 1st battalion the 16th bavarian reserve infantry regiment known as the list regiment after its commanding officer he completed a short basic military training course in munich hans mend a fellow recruit recalled how hitler seemed enamored of his new rifle he regarded it with the delight of a woman with her jewelry while i secretly laughed to myself wrote ment hitler was noted by another recruit ernst schmidt to be a voracious eater evidently making up for the lean years when he was a vagrant in vienna on the 8th of september 1914 the regiment's commanding officer colonel julius von list addressed the recruits giving them a rousing speech on the 8th of october hitler and his fellow soldiers swore oaths of allegiance to emperor wilhelm ii and king ludwig iii following field training at lechfeld on the danube the list regiment joined the new three regiment sixth bavarian reserve division on the 20th of october the regiment boarded a train for the western front hitler was now to enter battle for the first time the regiment de-trained at leo hitler's first experience of a non-german speaking country spending four days in the city hitler saw the first effects of war for the city was badly damaged and could hear far-off artillery fire the regiment would be going into action against the british in a clash to be known to the british as the first battle of eep and to the germans the battle of langermark from leydigem in belgium the regiment marched to the front on the 29th of october 1914 the list regiment was sent forward to relieve a unit of vertembergers and suffered extremely heavy losses particularly from artillery fire hitler and first company advanced and withdrew four times until finally capturing the village of ghelevelt the fighting was at times hand to hand first company in a capture trench before gheluvel castle fought elements of the worcestershire regiment and also a unit of the black watch an ancient scottish regiment hitler's company charged ford under artillery fire fighting the british troops in beet fields and meadows list regiment casualties were crippling 3600 men entered combat and in 20 days were reduced to only 611 fit men first company began the fight with 250 men and was reduced to 42 including hitler hitler was appointed a regimental dispatch runner on the 9th of november 1914 after 11 days in action at the front he joined what was termed the battle ordinance he had somehow come through several attacks unscathed being deeply affected by the death and destruction all around him noting in his letters his pride in the list regiment the attacks descriptions of comrades and officers killed or horribly maimed and british troops being shot down and the terrible artillery fire as his company clear trenches at one point a bullet tore off one of hitler's sleeves that he was untouched hunts mend hitler's comrade later said of his friend with unbelievable toughness he endured the greatest strains and never showed any weakness the battle ordnance to which hitler also belonged was far more exposed to enemy fire than the companies themselves for while the latter could always find cover in the trenches the ordnance staff were constantly on the move with messages the regiment partially rebuilt with conscripts next broke through the british line north of missions and turned the left flank of trenches held by the london scottish and a series of seesaw battles developed but by now hitler was acting as a regimental runner and was not involved in direct attacks on the enemy in late 1914 the new regimental commander lieutenant colonel engelhardt placed hitler's name on the list recommending him for the iron cross second class along with four other soldiers on the 2nd of december hitler received the medal awarded for gallantry an excellent performance of his duties as a runner of eight regimental runners including hitler three were killed and one badly wounded from the battle of veidshater in 1932 colonel engelhardt gave more details of the award of the iron cross second class to hitler he made in 1914 quote once as i emerged from the wood advicator 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 end of quote hitler was also promoted to ge freita analogist today to a lance corporal in the british army or a private first class in the u.s army by early 1915 stalemate had caused both sides to dig in and trench warfare with all its attendant horrors became the norm so let's clarify hitler's duties at this point hitler was described by a contemporary as a trench runner his job was to keep up communications between regimental headquarters and the companies deployed on the front line and his unit numbered eight to ten men the men would transit backwards and forwards between the relative safety of regimental headquarters behind the lines to the company command posts on the front line such journeys expose the men to artillery fire and sometimes enemy machine gun and rifle fire in march 1915 the list regiment occupied positions to defend the town of nerve chapel a vicious battle developed following a british offensive there the lions were confused during heavy fighting hitler recalled taking orders and reports to and from the front by moving from shell hole to shell hole under fire demonstrating that the regimental runners duties were dangerous the regimental commanding officer commented that he could not understand how his runners kept getting through under such heavy fire hitler and the other runners were under shell and sniper fire hitler the soldier was portrayed by his comrades as a reserved and very prudish men but one full of strong opinions about the war and germany he made clear that the army was his whole life his comrades noted that hitler never received any parcels from home and he had no interest in home leave all of his contemporaries say that hitler was a completely dedicated to his duties and volunteered even for the toughest assignments even alexander moritz fry a medic who disliked hitler and later became a science fiction writer and fled germany after hitler came to power nonetheless wrote of hitler quote when people claimed that he had been a coward that's not true unquote fry nonetheless thought gerfreite hitler to be a backstabber and a selfish individual who impressed only the youngest most impressionable soldiers with his nationalistic rhetoric during a long period of trench warfare hitler continued to operate as a runner normally runners were dispatched in pairs in case anything happened to one of them they carried leather dispatch cases and were armed normally with holstered pistols leaving their rifles behind as they were heavy and an encumbrance were moving around quickly the sealed dispatchers were marked with one two or three crosses indicating how urgently they must be delivered it was noted in records and memoirs that hitler was sent out under machine gun and artillery fire on numerous occasions particularly during a british offensive in late september 1915. the list regiment next transferred to the somme the british offensive that opened on the 1st of july 1916 raged on inconclusively for three and a half months the list regiment spent 10 days in the front line near bapom losing 120 men on average per day killed and wounded a british shell landed in the runners dugout killing four of the runners and badly wounding seven others hitler was struck in the face by a shell splinter though not badly injured on the 12th of october 1916 hitler was wounded more seriously for heavy fighting hitler had volunteered with one other man to get a message through a shell splinter buried itself in hitler's left thigh he was later rescued by stretcher from the battlefield he ended up in a military hospital for two months at baylids near brandenburg after convalescence he was sent to the regimental depot in munich hitler wrote to regimental adjutant captain wiedemann asking to be allowed to return to the regiment at the front writing that he could not tolerate being in munich when his friends were at the front wiedermann arranged for hitler to return to the regiment and to his old position of regimental runner arriving on the 5th of march 1917. the list regiment next saw action on the iron river through the winter into 1918 before being withdrawn in january for rest hitler was noted to have been very interested in the bigger strategic picture particularly the russian revolution that released hundreds of thousands of german troops from the eastern front for a last great offensive in the west planned for march 1918. in more horrendous trench warfare hitler was noted as a food scavenger who'd go out with comrades to slice meat off the carcasses of dead horses so hungry were german troops becoming in the last months of the war as the allied naval blockade of germany bit deeply one of hitler's comrades ignatz vestan keshner noted of this period quote we were nothing but a handful of tramps mud from top to toe not a whole tunic amongst us we came out of the line over 1200 men fewer than when we went in unquote by late april 1918 the list regiment was being subjected to terrific british artillery barrages which added to the hunger and mud when the regiment was eventually relieved on the 15th of may 1918 it amounted in size to just a single company's worth of fit men refitted and with fresh men the regiment advanced within 50 miles of paris from the last great german offensive but took heavy casualties the 26th of may 1918 hitler while delivering a message encountered and captured single-handedly a group of eight french soldiers marching them a couple of miles of pistol point to the nearest german lions soon afterwards hitler was awarded the iron cross first class an award rarely given to rank-and-file soldiers he was recommended for this prestigious award by lieutenant hugo goodman to whom hitler and the other runners reported goodman a jewish officer who had been awarded the iron cross first class himself in 1915 wrote in a citation of hitler quote as a runner his coolness and dash in both trench and open warfare have been exemplary and invariably he has shown himself ready to volunteer for tasks in the most difficult situations and at great danger to himself whenever communications have been totally disrupted at a critical moment in a battle it has been thanks to hitler's unflagging and devoted efforts that important messages have continued to get through despite every difficulty hitler received the iron cross second class for gallant conduct from the fighting at veitjeter on the 1st of december 1914 he fully deserves to be awarded the iron cross first class unquote hitler was also awarded a bavarian medal for bravery the cross of military merit third class with swords the grade of his medal determined more by his military rank lance corporal than the act of gallantry itself hitler was wounded again on the 15th of october 1918 at the end of world war one temporarily blinded along with several other comrades during the british mustard gas attack from a field hospital hitler was evacuated to a base hospital at pasovalk in germany where on the 11th of november 1918 he learned that germany had surrendered at puzzlevalk he received the new german wound badge the only other military decoration that he would wear as leader of germany in later years alongside his iron cross first class the symbolism of the badge and the iron cross being obvious to the world war one veterans of the nazi party and the new army he created hitler was also given a service medal for world war one the bavarian medal of military service third class with swords following his discharge from puzzlewalk hospital hitler went to munich arriving on the 21st of november 1918. he was placed in seventh company first replacement battalion second infantry regiment he was then used as a guard at a prisoner of war camp at thrawnstein until january 1919. returning to munich he sat in barracks for two months awaiting a new posting while munich dissolved into lawlessness as a revolution broke out in bavaria he was twice elected by his battalion soldiers to represent them but he urged the troops to stay out of the conflict on the 6th of may 1919 the bavarian socialist republic was destroyed by army troops sent from berlin hitler was a noted anti-communist and so was allowed to remain in the army after his battalion was disbanded his next job was at the administrative office of the second infantry regiment in june 1919. hitler was recruited as an undercover intelligence agent to spy on political activities in munich and in this capacity hitler would join an insignificant little political party that met in the back of beer halls the german workers party hitler started giving speeches and joined the party on the 12th of september 1919. that party would eventually become the national socialist german workers party or nazi party hitler was discharged from the reichs in 1920 ending his formal military career supremacy in 1914 is a free online pvp strategy game sector in world war one you get an exclusive 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Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 770,151

Rating: 4.9440737 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton, WW1, Hitler

Id: KJQQnm-WEFc

Length: 19min 54sec (1194 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 08 2021