Mein Kampf. Hitler maintained that he had been blinded, or nearly so, and later enlarged on this by saying he returned 'as a cripple' from the battlefield. His war record does not mention a loss of sight, only that he was 'gassed'. This injury seems to have had no lasting effects, for when he was released from military service on 31st March 1920, he made no application for a maintenance claim although, as the record shows, he had been informed about the 'notification of claims for maintenance and the appointed deadline'. At the time it was explicitly stated: 'No claim for maintenance was put forward by him'. Recorded by Ernst Deuerlein, 'Hitlers Eintritt in die Politic und die Reichswehr',VJHfZ,1959, No. 2, Document 1a