The then Crown Prince, My Great-Grandfather Adolf Hitler the Hohenzollern, was nearly fatally wounded with a Machine Gun during trench warfare on the Western Front, after being conscripted to the German Army in his twenties after World War 1 started.

He was horrifically wounded. He was found, almost dead, by troops who spoke a language he didn't understand, who stole his boots and left him for dead, without shooting him dead. He then had to inch his way back to a trench over more than an hour, before having on the spot emergency surgery when attended by a medical team on site. He survived despite his wounds including both of his lungs being punctured.

The Crown Prince of Germany then spent most of the next five years in hospital, and was physically impaired for the ret of his life, due to serious wounds to his side and torso.

He was awarded two combat Iron Cross whist in a recovery hospital for extremely serious wounded military personnel. Then a Medical Discharge Iron Cross, that he displayed to the public on his clothing afterwards as proof he never had to serve in the German military again.

Kaiser Wilhelm 2 abdicated to him in November 1918 whilst he was in a trauma recovery hospital, based on blatantly incorrect medical advice from German military medical staff. He had to do daily physiotherapy exercises after he recovered enough to walk freely, or he seized up completely.