Had Hitler Died On The WWI Battlefield, WWII Could Have Been Much Different – Or Not Happened

One “what-if” scenario about Adolf Hitler revolves around whether his acceptance into art school would have changed history – he was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1907. According to reports, his sample drawings were “unsatisfactory” with “too many heads.”

The world will never know what would have happened if the Austria native had been able to live out his artistic dreams. Another lesser-known event involving Hitler that may have taken place during WWI certainly could have changed history. 

In September 1918, Private Henry Tandey came face-to-face with a wounded German soldier on a battlefield in France. By his own account, he later claimed that man was Hitler. After the two locked eyes, Tandey reportedly let the soldier flee.

Hitler was said to have seen a picture of Tandey in the London Gazette after the latter won the Victoria Cross in 1918 for bravery at the Battle of Ypres. As a result, Hitler acquired a painting of the battle done by Fortunino Matania. 

When Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler in 1938, he asked the German leader about the painting, to which Hitler replied:

That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again, providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at us.

Some historians reject that this ever happened, attributing it to misidentification, a complete fabrication, or urban legend. For Tandey’s part, he said in 1940: 

I didn’t like to shoot at a wounded man… But if I’d only known who he would turn out to be… I’d give 10 years now to have five minutes of clairvoyance then.