I've recently been reading about the horrible conditions of western front combat during WWI. I'm having a hard time understanding how someone who experienced first-hand the traumatic fighting of a global conflict could be so willing to take the risk of instigating another terrible world war.
Do we have any evidence that Hitler's experience in Flanders and other battles made him hesitant to send German soldiers to war?
Did Hitler take any military steps to specifically avoid trench warfare in WW2, possibly due to his experiences in WWI?
Thanks in advance for any reading recommendations on the subject as well.
It's a good question to ask-mainly because there was such a difference between the method of fighting from one war to the next. A couple of things need to be brought into consideration, though.
First, is Hitler's experience during WWI. While in his autobiography Mein Kampf he goes to great length to impress the reader of his wartime heroism always being near the fighting, dashing heroics etc, it is largely considered to be self-inflation. As a runner (deliverer of messages) he would not have been constantly at the front, but rather making constant visits to get messages through. He was a Corporal, but his rank and experience didn't lend to a lot of tactical insight in the years between the wars.
Another factor worth considering is that there is a difference between the roles of civil government and military in time of war. The civil government will make the decisions as to what needs to be accomplished and the military will make the decisions to how that will be accomplished. While it is true that Hitler, particularly as the war went on, took more and more control of tactical policy (often to the distemper of professional soldiers who had to carry out his poor ideas) the tactical doctrine of the German Forces was set largely before the war and Hitler had little direct influence on them, though it can be extrapolated the WWI did influence those who directed change in this Doctrine.
Tactical doctrine is the how mentioned above. In the years interceding WWI and WWII several military thinkers sought to incorporate emerging technologies, foremost among the Germans would be Heinz Guderian whose treatise on armoured warfare "Achtung Panzer!" is widely considered to be the textbook for what became known as Blitzkrieg.
Hitler was by no means a military expert, far from it, in fact, and for how the Second World War would be fought, he relied a great deal on the military theorists in the higher echelons of the German military who had seen a great deal of what was not done well in the first world war and had the expertise and influence to enact the changes which made WWII so different in combat style to WWI.
The only thing in which Hitler can be said to have exerted his influence over with regards to his experience in war is his reluctance to use chemical weapons on the battlefield. He himself had been wounded in a gas attack in 1918, and it is said that from that incident he had a great distaste for engaging in such means. This article more completely examines that topic than I can provide.
As far as reading suggestions go, I can't think of something which will take a distinct look at the information you seek with the question as asked, but if you want to get your teeth into a fairly comprehensive, complete and engaging history of the war, written with the average reader (ie one with no deep historical understanding) you could do far worse that GJ Meyer's A World Undone
I hope this helps.