He survived four full years of front line duty. Few others did. He obviously was an excellent soldier. He was 24 at war's start and thus 28 at war's end. This experience obviously remade him from his time in Vienna as a vagabound artist. Hitler was no war hero, but those are thin on the ground, but he was a soldier who certainly did his duty mostly been an obvious target for enemy snipers. No crouching all day in a trench here. .