Hitler claimed that his years as a soldier in the First World War were the most formative years of his life. However, for the six decades since his death in the ruins of Berlin, Hitler's time as a soldier on the Western Front has, remarkably, remained a blank spot. Until now, all that we knew about Hitler's life in these years and the regiment in which he served came from his own account in Mein Kampf and the equally mythical accounts of his comrades. -- Publisher description.;A crowd in Odeonsplatz: 1 August-20 October 1914 -- Baptism of fire: 21 October-Early November 1914 -- Two tales of one Christmas: Early November 1914-31 December 1914 -- Dreams of a new world: 1 January-May 1915 -- Of front-line soldiers and 'rear area pigs': May 1915-31 December 1915 -- Occupation: January-July 1916 -- Collapse: July-October 1916 -- In the shadow of the Somme: October 1916-31 July 1917 -- Blinded: August 1917-11 November 1918 -- Revolution: 11 November 1918-Early 1919 -- Hitler's Kampf against the list veterans: Early 1919-1933 -- Private Hitler's Reich: 1933-1939 -- Hitler's second war: 1939-1945.