FROM TARGET TO MONSTER

It must not be forgotten that in 1918, no one knew who Hitler was, and he would look considerably different 20 years later.

The story is set on 28 September 1918 in the French village of Macroing, while the British soldier, Henry Tandy, was serving with the 5th Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. He related that a weary German soldier wandered into his line of fire. The enemy was wounded and did not appear to have a weapon on him. Tandy conscientiously chose not to shoot. The German target soldier saw him lower his rifle and merely nodded in gratitude while wandering off. Mr. Tandy was the most decorated private soldier in World War One for his ‘most conspicuous bravery and initiative” at the fifth Battle of Ypres.

This German soldier apparently saw a newspaper report about Pte. Tandy being awarded the Victoria Cross in October 1918, whilst serving with the 5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, recognized him, and clipped the article.

With his god-like self-perception, this German soldier worked the story to his own myth by declaring that he had been spared because he was ‘chosen’. Chosen for a higher purpose! He was none other than Adolf Hitler.

Twenty years later, Hitler himself is said to have planted the seeds of the legend during a visit to the Fuhrer by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, for the discussions that led to the Munich Agreement in his doomed attempt to secure “peace for our time”. At his Bavarian retreat The Berghof in 1938, Chamberlain noticed a picture on the wall of Hitler’s study, depicting a scene from a battle at the Kruiseke Crossroads northwest of Menin in 1914. The soldier in the foreground was apparently Pte. Tandy carrying a fellow soldier to safety. Hitler identified the soldier carrying the wounded man as Tandy from the photo of him in the newspaper clipping, he had obtained in 1918. He told Chamberlain that the same soldier had pointed a gun at him but then spared him.

“That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again,” Hitler said. “Providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those the English boys were aiming at us.” He pointed to the fact that along with many of his fellow soldiers, Tandy had demonstrated compassion by refusing to kill an unarmed and injured man in cold blood. The leader of the Third Reich confirmed he was one of those men spared.

According to the story, Hitler asked Chamberlain to convey his best wishes and gratitude to Tandy. Chamberlain promised to do so in person upon his return, which he apparently did. On returning to Britain, Mr. Chamberlain is alleged to have phoned Tandy to pass on details of the exchange he had with Hitler. He was out at the time, so a nephew apparently took the call.

The original painting was made from a sketch of the actual event at that crossroads, by Tandy’s same Green Howard’s Regiment that commissioned the painting from the Italian artist Fortunino Matania in 1923. A building shown behind Tandy in the painting belonged to the Van Den Breucke family, who were presented with a copy of the painting by the same Regiment.

In an August 1939 edition of the Coventry Herald Pte. Tandy was quoted as saying: “… I’ve met Adolf Hitler.” A year later, when a journalist approached him outside his bombed Coventry home, asking him about his alleged encounter with Hitler. He replied, “If only I had known what he would turn out to be, and when I saw all the people and women and children he had killed and wounded, I was sorry to God, I let him go!” The newspapers seemed to say it all: “Nothing Henry did that night could ease his sickening sense of guilt. It was a stigma that Tandy lived with until his death. He believed that he could have stopped this carnage and he could have changed the course of history.

Private Tandy had been awarded the Military Medal, the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and the Victoria Cross after The First World War.

The Green Howards Museum confirmed a copy was hanging at Hitler’s retreat. The painting’s route to Hitler’s wall was fairly convoluted, centering on one of his staff, Dr Otto Schwend. In 1937, Hitler was made aware of this particular painting by Dr. Schwend who had been a medical officer during the First Battle of Ypres in 1914. He had been sent a postcard of the painting by Lieutenant Colonel Earle in 1936. Earle had been treated by Schwend in a medical post at the Menin Crossroads and they remained in touch after the war. Hitler had apparently claimed to recognize in it a soldier he met in a battle that actually took place on 17 September 1914. His unit had been moved about 50 miles (80km) north of Tandy’s, which was in Marcoing, near Cambrai in northern France. Schwend obtained a large photo of the painting to gift to Hitler. Captain Weidemann, Hitler’s adjutant, wrote the following response:

“I beg to acknowledge your friendly gift which has been sent to Berlin through the good offices of Dr. Schwend. The Führer is naturally very interested in things connected with his own war experiences, and he was obviously moved when I showed him the photograph and explained the thought that you had in causing it to be sent to him. He was obviously moved when I showed him the picture. He has directed me to send you his best thanks for your friendly gift which is so rich in memories.”

Sammy RNAJ — sammy.rnaj.writer@gmail.com — WhattsApp +96170499352