I make that three fingers left, assuming he started with the human body as usually constituted - although Anne Boleyn and the inhabitants of one western Arabian village tend to have twelve.
Ah, but is he the most revered? Inn some quarters, but Germany is in some ways a more right-wing place than it likes to appear. A 52-year-old German friend of mind, third-generation revolutionary socialist at least while young, points out that her grandfather was murdered for it on the last day of the war, but she merely has a permanently stiffened thumb from being improperly handcuffed in her student days.
Hans Helmutt Kirst's most excellent novel set against the officers' plot, "The Night of the Generals", containst excerpts from the following articles in the army's magazine, by a staff captain to a general who evaded involvement at the time:
From "Officer and Reich", 1944:
"... It fills us front-line soldiers with profound indignation to see defensive victories which have been won with the blood of our comrades placed in jeopardy. An ambitious and unprincipled clique of un-German, treacherous and reactionary elements..."
From "Officer and People", 1954:
",,,deserves our deepest respect. It was an act that enabled us to raise the flag of honour once more. We stand profoundly moved, before the great dead of that day, men answerable only to conscience, and the dictates of the heart..."
From "Officer and State", 1961:
",,,there are events in history whose distinguishing feature is their uniqueness. They are, by definition, unrepeatable.,,
Even though their ranks included some whose motives were not, to say the least, unequivocal...
...forced to conclude that though the men of 20th July merit respect, they should not be held up heedlessly and irresponsibly as an example. The young officer of today should be deeply conscious of this. All that need concern him is what we in this country have always felt to be the essence of military tradition and the inviolable duty of the soldier: unquestioning obedience."
From 1944 to 1954 is about what you would expect. But the change from 1954 to 1961 is interesting. I think 1954 gets it about right, with just a trace of 1961. You wouldn't want an army to do it often.
The British General Carton de Wiart, of Belgian nationality, was also missing an eye and a hand, and the rest of him was pretty comprehensively knocked about. Besides military service, he seems to have been an intrepid and accident-prone sportsman. But he was recaptured in Italy after walking more than a hundred miles in an escape attempt, in his sixties. I think it was probably the description that got him.
