On Sept. 28, 1918 an incident happened on the Western Front in France that changed the course of history. For the worse. Private Henry Tandey was a soldier in the British army and his unit was tasked with capturing the French town of Marcoing. Tandey was a decorated veteran, having fought in the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, and the Battle of Passchendaele. He had survived four years of war and been twice wounded. This day was the climax of a storied career. He took out at machine gun by himself, he laid some planks over a gap in a bridge under heavy fire, and then led a bayonet charge to help capture the town. As the Germans retreated, Tandey spotted a wounded soldier leaving the battlefield. Tandey had a code he followed and it did not allow the shooting of wounded men who could do him no harm, so he let the German go. The German soldier nodded his thanks. For that day’s accomplishments, Tandey was awarded the Victoria Cross for “conspicuous bravery”. Fast forward twenty years to Prime Minister Chamberlain visiting Hitler to try to solve the Sudetenland crisis. Hitler brought Chamberlain to his mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden and showed him around the new digs. They came upon a painting by the Italian artist Fortunino Matania. The painting was a rendition of a famous photo of a British soldier carrying a wounded comrade. The painting was meant to commemorate the victory of the Allied Powers in the war. It seemed an odd choice for a man who was bitter about Germany’s defeat. Hitler pointed to the man in the painting and told Chamberlain that the man had saved his life. It was Tandey. Tandey was the man in the famous photo. Hitler had recognized him because he had his memory of the fateful day and a copy of a newspaper photo of Tandey receiving his Victoria Cross. He asked Chamberlain to contact Tandey and express his gratitude. Chamberlain made the call and this was the first time Tandey realized he had saved der Fuhrer’s life. At the time he said he had no regrets, but a couple of years later, after the German bombing of Coventry, he changed his mind. He realized he could have saved many lives if he had taken just one more that day in 1918. This story has been labeled an urban legend and supposedly the service records of the two men do not place them in the same place on that day. (Some historians believe the incident actually occurred at the First Battle of Ypres where both men fought.) But the German records were spotty and Hitler certainly believed it was Tandey who had saved him, so it seems possible.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-11-11/man-who-could-have-shot-hitler
http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/hitler2.htm
photos from the Vintage News
0 Comments