hitler

33fection of destruction. In the first three years of the WorldWar humanity furnished evidence of its immense advancein technical sciences but it was left to the last battle of Ypresto demonstrate the full destructive power of man. The detonationwhich in the night of June 7,1917, signalled the startof the battle was heard in a radius of a hundred kilometres.The Allied objective of obliterating the German regimentslying in the first lines of the sector was crowned with success,and the dead bodies of thousands attested the good result ofthe undertaking. Hitler was not far from the first linewhen the mines under the German front exploded, but hewas unharmed.When Hitler‟s regiment was relieved in the first days ofAugust it consisted of a handful of men, their nerves on edge,their faces bespattered with mud, incapable of enjoying theprospect of days of rest in the reserves. Human endurancewas reaching the breaking point. The Allies had gained asmall stretch of territory which cost them tens of thousands inmen and tens of millions in gold. At that rate Belgium couldbe cleared of the Germans in half a century. A private fromMunich, suspected of socialism, began to rave that all thestatesmen and generals of the world ought to be herded togetheron the Ypres salient and blown to pieces. The otherslistened to him gloomily and even Adolf Hitler did not object.Hitler says he never faltered during the war in his beliefthat Germany would emerge as the victor. Although he wasnot prominent enough to have his words recorded for posterity,his political enemies claim to have found corroboration for