In Gerald Gliddons VC series, "The Final Days 1918" Henry 'Napper' Tandey VC DCM MM Mentioned in despatches 5 times; is covered in detail and HE states:
"I don't want spoil a good story but Hitler and Tandey could not have been in opposition on 28th September 1918 because Hitler's unit 16th Bavarian Reserve Regt was not close to Marcoing at the time, furthermore, Hitler himself was on the point of returning from leave."
He also survived the Coventry Blitz of 1940. He passed away 1977.
The chapter itself covers Henry's life in depth and shows him a brave and dedicated soldier of the Green Howards(Which he saw himself as, even though he enlisted a DWR); where his medals are now held in their museum.
According to the article it was at Marcoing in 1918 where Tandey also won his VC. However, the article claims that the future Fuhrer was also near the scene of the Menin Road action in 1914, which is why he bought the print of that incident.Well, I suppose the Ypres Salient is pretty small! According to the article (unreferenced as I said) Adolf had researched the identity of the soldier who saved him and came to the conclusion it was Tandey although the Leamington man had no recollection of the incident. I presumed that the Bohemian Corporal was nowhere near Marcoing at the time, but where did all this stuff about Hitler bringing it up with Chamberlain in 1938 come from?
(The article is in a popular local history book called 'More Ripples From Warwickshire's Past' by Paul Bollitho., published in 1997. It also has some First World War references to the Labour peer Lord Leatherland who was apparently a CSM in the Royal Warwicks at the age of 18 and livedto be the oldest Great War veteran in the House of Lords, dying in 1992.)
I think it is al rubbish. Hitler was wounded two times: once on 5 October 1916 near Le Barqué (by a piece of shrapnell at the left leg) and he was wounded by gas near Wervicq-Sud on 15 October 1918.
While Hitler was just north of the Menin Road from 29 October 1914 on, Tandey's battalion was south of the Menin Road, so they couldn't have met then. The regiment Hitler served in, stormed the crossroads visible on the painting on 29 October 1914 (when the grenadier Guards were overwhelmed IIRC).
Henry Tandy spent all of his post war working life in my home town of Coventry. Tandy never claimed to have saved Hitler's life and the story seems to have come from a very imaginative journalist.Henry Tandy was in fact a very modest man. Attending the funeral of another local VC, Arthur Hutt, in 1954, he preferred to keep a low profile
during the funeral procession refusing to appear in the front ranks of the mourners and most notably not wearing his medals out of respect for his fellow VC.
Another thing I din't mention: Hitler was a runner, so he had to carry orders etc. from one HQ (regiment, battalion, company) to another (regiment, battalion, company). He was not "in" the frontline in strictu sensu, he was always running in the trenches and in the open in the artillery fire and was therefore usually not in the line of fire of the infantry normally (although he saved his comapny commander's live near Wytschaete once, while "in" the frontline).
I do NOT support the views of the man, but he was a real "hero" in the First World War, having received several orders and mentions only being Gefreiter (something like Lance Corporal) at the end of the war. Even political enemies were witnesses in favor of him during some lawsuits (about him being a hero during WW1) in the 1920-1930s.
I helped a bit with a documentary of the BBC about Hitler in WW1, and I have some books about him in WW1, that's why I know this.
Greatwarforum te Engeland,
oh en geloof me, deze mannen zijn experts