Book excerpt: During the Great War Adolf Hitler served in the ranks of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment from 1914 to 1918, and was awarded the Iron Cross. In later years, under the masterful control of Doctor Goebbels, Hitler was successfully portrayed by the Nazis as a valiant front-line soldier who, for four long years, had fought many hard battles in the front-line of trenches.The world has long accepted the Nazi version, and Hitler is often referred to as a Corporal, but a series of clues remained which pointed to an alternative version of the truth. Even at the zenith of his power, Hitler was always mindful that there were those who maintained that, far from being a brave front-line fighter, he was actually a fraud; a draft-dodger and rear area malingerer who in four years of war had only ever fought in one action.Hitler knew the uncomfortable truth. The Nazi machine acted ruthlessly and former colleagues such as Hans Mend, who didn't toe the party line, soon ended up in concentration camps.Now, almost a century later, as a result of a series of painstaking investigations, the producers of the ground-breaking documentary Private Hitler's War have resolved the century long controversy over Hitler's service in the Great War. This powerful documentary tie-in book finally turns the Nazi myth on its head and reveals the full unvarnished truth concerning Adolf Hitler's actions in the Great War.