Which moustache is the most instantly recognisable – and sinister – in history?
A previously unpublished essay by a writer who served alongside Hitler in the First World War trenches reveals that the future Führer was only obeying orders when he shaped his moustache into its tightly-clipped style.
He was instructed to do so in order that it would fit under the respirator masks, introduced in response to British mustard gas attacks.
Whatever adjustments Hitler was forced to make to fit German army gas masks did not save him from being badly gassed and temporarily blinded during a British attack in 1918.
Had that order never been issued, the tyrant who brought most of Europe to its knees would be remembered as a man with a large Prussian moustache. [story]
Update:
In a follow-up story, the Telegraph importantly adds that Hitler deliberately kept his moustache trimmed in the style necessary for a gasmask, when everyone else went back to normal, so that when he appeared on political platforms the first thought of any man of his generation was of the trenches. more…