MFP 下士希特勒 - 一戰塹壕傳令兵
14 次觀看·2024年12月29日
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In May 1913, Adolf Hitler, a 24-year-old dreamer and failed artist
had inherited the last of his father's estate
This money the result of his father Aloysius' 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 eked out a precarious living selling paintings and postcards
and working as a day laborer
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
and 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 multiracial 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 Passau
on the border with Austria
from 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 in error
The Bavarians should have arrested Hitler
and deported him to Austria for his military service
In 1924
they admitted that a clerical error
allowed Hitler to join the German army
Hitler enlisted into the 1st Company
the 1st Battalion
of 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 enamoured of his new rifle
He regarded it with the delight of a woman
with her jewellery
while I secretly laughed to myself
wrote Mend
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 3 Regiment
6th 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 detrained at Lille
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 Ypres
and to the Germans
as the Battle of Langemarck
From Leidingen 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 Württembergers
and suffered extremely heavy losses
particularly from artillery fire
Hitler and 1st Company
advanced and withdrew four times
until finally capturing
the village of Gheluvelt
The fighting was, at times, hand-to-hand
1st Company, in a captured trench
before Gheluvelt Castle
fought elements of the Worcestershire Regiment
and also a unit of the Black Watch
an ancient Scottish regiment
Hitler's company charged forward
under artillery fire
fighting the British troops
in beet fields and meadows
List Regiment casualties were crippling
3,600 men entered combat
and in 20 days were reduced
to only 611 fit men
1st 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 Ordnance
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 cleared trenches
At one point a bullet tore off
one of Hitler's sleeves
but he was untouched
Hans 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 Messines
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 2nd Class
along with four other soldiers
On 2nd December
Hitler received the medal
awarded for gallantry
and 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 Veitscheter
In 1932
Colonel Engelhardt gave more details
of the award of the Iron Cross 2nd Class
to Hitler he made in 1914
Quote
Once as I emerged
from the wood at Veitscheter
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 Gefreiter
analogous today
to a lance corporal
in the British Army
or a private first class
in the US 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
exposed 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 Neuve Chapelle
A vicious battle
developed following
a British offensive there
The lines 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 man
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 completely dedicated
to his duties
and volunteered
even for the toughest assignments
Even Alexander Moritz Frey
a medic who disliked Hitler
and later became
a science fiction writer
and fled Germany
after Hitler came to power
nonetheless wrote of Hitler
When people claimed
that he had been a coward
that's not true
Frey nonetheless thought
Gefreiter 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 dispatches
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 1st July 1916
raged on inconclusively
for three and a half months
The List Regiment
spent ten days
in the front line
near Bapon
losing 120 men
on average per day
killed and wounded
A British shell
landed in the runner's 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 12 October 1916
Hitler was wounded more seriously
During 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 bearers
from the battlefield
He ended up
in a military hospital
for two months
at Baylitz 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
Wiedemann arranged for Hitler
to return to the regiment
and to his old position
of regimental runner
arriving on 5 March 1917
The List Regiment
next saw action
on the Aisne 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 would 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 Westenkirchener
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 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
On the 26th May 1918
Hitler, while delivering a message
encountered and captured
single-handedly
a group of eight French soldiers
marching them
a couple of miles
at pistol point
to the nearest German lines
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 Gutmann
to whom Hitler
and the other runners reported
Gutmann, a Jewish officer
who had been awarded
the Iron Cross First Class himself
in 1915
wrote in his 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 Weizsäte
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
3rd 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 I
temporarily blinded
along with several other comrades
during a British mustard gas attack
From a field hospital
Hitler was evacuated
to a base hospital
at Pasewalk in Germany
where on the 11th of November 1918
he learned that Germany had surrendered
At Pasewalk
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 I veterans
of the Nazi Party
and the new army he created
Hitler was also given
a Service Medal for World War I
the Bavarian Medal of Military Service
3rd Class with Swords
Following his discharge
from Pasewalk Hospital
Hitler went to Munich
arriving on the 21st of November 1918
He was placed in 7th Company
1st Replacement Battalion
2nd Infantry Regiment
He was then used as a guard
at a prisoner of war camp
at Traunstein
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 6th 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 2nd 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 12th September 1919
That party would eventually become
the National Socialist German Workers' Party
or Nazi Party
Hitler was discharged
from the Reichswehr in 1920
ending his formal military career
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