WW2 (as I read about it)

So real quick and not too much detail. Once, long ago, there was this guy I’ll call Adolf who had a plan. Adolf wanted to be an artist so he went to Italy to study under the masters at that time (1908ish). Actually, not a bad artist if you’ve ever seen any of his works. Well that didn’t work out so he enlisted in the army during the 1st World War. He served in the infantry in 1914 in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment. Long story short, things went bad for Germany in WW1 so towards the end of his military service, Adolf was promoted to Lance Corporal and assigned to be a message runner. He was also awarded 2 Iron Crosses (1 – 2nd Class which was common; 1 – 1st class which was more rare and awarded to those who had lots of interaction with senior officers) one of which was recommended by a Jewish adjutant.

OK, moving on we see young Adolf nursing a wound in the left leg from a shell fragment in 1916 and then in 1918 dealing with blindness caused by mustard, gas not the condiment. Obviously this wasn’t permanent so Adolf went about becoming the country leader. In 1919 we find young Adolf back in Munich with no job, no skills, no money and surprisingly enough, no friends. The Treaty of Versailles put harsh reparations on Germany but the Allies failed to monitor the Germans to see if they were actually just making farm implements. Leaves the door open for our young Adolf.

So what’s a future Fuhrer to do to get into the inner circle? Well there were many things to do, all of which I’m sure you’ve read about like join a paramilitary group, organize protection squads, become the spokesman and chairman for the German Socialist Party, and in 1924 cause a major melee by trying to lead a coup and end up in jail. Not such a bad thing, it gave him time to reflect on what he had done and take up writing.

Some time before his 5 yr sentence ran out, Adolf was set free. He wasn’t involved in a lot of politics for a few years but when he did get back in the game, he excelled. Fast forward, Hindenburg (the President not the blimp) made Adolf Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933. His first action, rearmament of Germany.

Now many of you are asking yourselves how could they do this without someone seeing???? Well, you have to look in the right place. Seems Adolf had this friend named Stalin and he let Adolf send his boys over for a while to take a test drive in tanks, practice shooting and marching and other things that guys do when their away from their families. Just good fun till someone gets hurt. They were such good friends, Adolf signed a pact guaranteeing no attacks for 10 years. Sounds fishy to me. Why 10 years, why not forever???? Oh well, they didn’t ask me but we all know what happened later.

So on to WW2 and France. I know I skipped a lot of important stuff but you can read about it another time. Next up, France and the Atlantic Wall.

Later or should I say; au revoir, gopher!