Henry Tandey, de man die Hitler had kunnen neerschieten

Het is natuurlijk een perfect propaganda-verhaaltje...

Tandey is de held die propaganda-docters zich graag zien, een Man van eenvoudige afkomst, opgegroeid als wees omdat zijn vader die zelf ok soldaat was omgekomen ...

Als soldaat twee keer gewond in de eerste werreldoorlog , maar met vijf heldendaden op zijn naam.
Dat is natuurlijk een perfect 'tegen-beeld' tegen Hitler, die ook 2x gewond was en ook enige heldendaden begaan had en daarvoor onderscheiden was (maar niets in vergelijk tot Tandey)...

Een stoere britse soldaat die heldendaden verricht en de duitsers, waaronder Hitler verslaat in de oorlog ...
Niet voor niks werd dit verhaal voor het eerst in 1940 gepubliceerd, na het uitbreken van de tweede wereldoorlog en op een moment dat de Britten graag een heroisch verhaal wilden horen over hoe Hitler door britse heldensoldaten te doden was...

Ik zal vandaag nog even wat bronnen voor je zoeken

Ach ja, als als als. Stel dat het waar is, misschien was er wel iets veel ergers gebeurd als hij hem wel had neergeschoten. Hier kun je heeeeeeel lang over lullen. Sterker nog, als hij hem wel had neergeschoten, had ik misschien niet eens bestaan en had ik deze reactie niet kunnen geven. Ehh.

quote:

Op woensdag 11 oktober 2006 09:00 schreef Lord_Vetinari het volgende:

[..]

Nou, dat gegeven alleen al lijkt me goed voor een film als 'The Return of Jesus Christ'

En mensen maar zeggen dat je een zuurpruim bent zonder humor.. goeie, L_V

quote:

Op woensdag 11 oktober 2006 22:51 schreef Treinhomo het volgende:

[..]

Dan heb je nog iets meer dan een uur.

Historians dispute legend that soldier spared Hitler's life
By Sebastien Berger

A FIRST World War legend that Adolf Hitler's life was spared by a soldier who had him in his sights has been questioned by new research.

Pte Henry Tandey, who was serving with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, reputedly had a chance to kill the future Führer during fighting at Marcoing, near Cambrai, France, on the day he won a Victoria Cross, Sept 28, 1918. But he could not, according to the story, bring himself to kill a wounded man and instead let Hitler go.

In 1938, courtesy of Neville Chamberlain, then Prime Minister, he discovered the apparent identity of his enemy, and two years later he was interviewed by the Sunday Graphic after the German air raids on Coventry, where he was working.

"I couldn't shoot a wounded man," he said. "So I let him go. If only I'd known what he'd turn out to be. When I see all the people, women and children, he has killed and wounded here in Coventry, I'm sorry to God I let him go."

Hitler was indeed wounded in northern France, but extensive work by historians at the Green Howards Regimental Museum in Richmond, North Yorks, together with colleagues in Germany, has cast new doubt on the story.

Documents in the Bavarian State Archive show that Corporal Hitler was on leave on the day in question and nowhere near the battle.

The regimental museum's curator, Lt Col Neil Mackintosh, said: "I am very sorry indeed that the story has proved unfounded. Everyone connected with the regiment would have loved it to have been true.

"However, it in no way detracts from the fact that Tandey was a remarkable, brave man and the highest decorated private soldier of the Great War."

Nonetheless, it appears that both Hitler and Tandey believed that they had met.

Equally, the new findings do not entirely explain why Hitler asked the Green Howards, in which Pte Tandey later served, for a print of a painting of him that hung in the officers' mess. It showed Tandey carrying a wounded comrade to safety at Menin in October 1914, where Hitler also fought. The Führer's adjutant, a Capt Weidmann, thanked the regiment, writing: "The Führer is naturally very interested in things connected with his own war experiences. He was obviously moved when I showed him the picture."

When Neville Chamberlain visited Munich, Hitler showed him the picture, saying: "That man came so near to killing me. I thought I would never see Germany again."
http://www.telegraph.co.u(...)97/10/27/nhit27.html

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

Schopje van een oeroud topic.

In het kader 2014-2018 schijnt iedereen historicus te zijn en iedereen een boek te moeten uitgeven.
http://www.demorgen.be/dm(...)5826301397649367043#!

Maar helaas pindakaas, het blijft een broodje aap.

http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?p=92692#92692
en
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3197
en niet geheel onbelangrijk: Hitler zat helemaal niet bij Marcoing eind september 1918...(c)AOK4

Ik ben bang dat we Yvonne nog keihard nodig hebben met alle aandacht op de 1e wo deze jaren

Dit verhaal stond gisteren ook alweer her en der geplaatst in de media. Was al een betje bang dat het een broodje aap verhaal zou zijn. Ben benieuwd welk stuk "propaganda" volgende week weer word opgewarmd. Ik gok de Lusitania

het is naief om te denk dat 1 man de 2e wereldoorlog veroorzaakt heeft maar natuurlijk wel heel makklijk omdat het dan lekker overzichtelijk en simpel is. In werkelijkheid was de economische situatie in duitsland belabberd en waren de mensen diep ontevreden(en gingen dood van de honger). Of dit nu komt door het verdrag van versaille, of een ander oorzaak dat is niet echt belangrijk in deze. Hitler was de eerste die de situatie naar zijn hand wist te zetten. Was het Hitler niet geweest dan had er wel een andere gek zijn plaats ingenomen en dan hadden we nu "andere dictator" van alles de schuld gegeven..