July, 1944. The Germans are now retreating on every front in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean. Hitler's war machine no longer appears to be the sweeping, blistering and invincible viper of Blitzkrieg it once appeared to be in the early days of the war.
The front at the moment, looks like this:
The consistent and and heavily-suffered losses by the Russian and German army meant that only two choices were given to the commanders: On the Soviet side, Marshal Georgy Zhukov insisted that attrition was the only way forward, and he pressed on his advantage to push the Germans, who were defending with some of their last capable Panzer Divisions at Kursk, to keep on retreating back to Berlin. Wave after wave of conscripts, as well as veterans were fighting alongside the landmark T-34 tanks to press home a new mission stained by vengeance and Ultra-nationalism, backed by the ruthless Stalinist state.
Adolf Hitler, unlike most of his Generals at this point, was absolutely convinced that total victory for the Third Reich was still possible, despite a retreat on all fronts. Some of his top commanders, some of which in his inner-circle. Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Spier, Bormann, Hess. Although some committed suicide, clung to their selfish needs or simply resorted to bargaining chips, it is no question that many German officers thought that the Third Reich needed to end as soon as it had begun.
Attempts on Adolf Hitler's life were made prior to attempt that would later be nicknamed the July Plot. Operation Flash on the 13th of march 1943 had Hans von Dohnanyi set up a time bomb on Hitler's plane as he flew over Minsk; the altitude of the plane froze the fuse and the bomb failed to detonate. Another such attempt actually took place only a week after Operation Flash. Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff wanted to carry explosives in his own overcoat, sacrificing himself to kill Hitler as he toured an exhibition of captured Russian equipment in Berlin; that attempt failed because Hitler decided to shorten the visit to a mere two-minutes, leaving Gersdorff drenched in cold sweat afterwards trying to disarm the bomb and flush it down a toilet before he gathered too much suspicion.
Then, it was the turn of the real operation. A handful of German officers, including many who planned the previous assassinations, drew up another attempt for the 20th of July 1944. By this time, the conspirators did not have time on their side, as the Gestapo was on the verge of identifying them while the Allies were tightening their grip on Nazi Germany with the initial success of the Normandy invasion. Lieutenant Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, aide to another conspirator Henning von Tresckow, wrote to Claus von Stauffenberg:
'The assassination must be attempted, coûte que coûte. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin, for the practical purpose no longer matters. What matters now is that the German resistance movement must take the plunge before the eyes of the world and of history. Compared to that, nothing else matters.'
Stauffenberg was named the assassin that was to plant a time-bomb inside the 'Fuhrerbunker' at the Wolf's Lair, where on the 20th of July Hitler would meet with many officers (including Himmler's assumed attendance). Some of the others directly involved in the planning include General Ludwig Beck, General Friedrich Olbricht, Carl Goerdeler, Alfred Delp, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bernardis, Carl Szokoll, Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, Adam von Trott zu Solz, Gottfried von Bismark, and Princess Marie Vassiltchikov. Colonel General Friedrich Fromm was the commander of the Reserve Army in Berlin, and was in contact with the conspirators, but did not fully commit himself to the operation. Throughout his career, he'd always tried to end up on the so-called 'winning side', and waited for full confirmation of Hitler's death until he would finally (presumably) join the Coup. Many other high-ranking officers in the German Army such as Erwin Rommel and Günther von Kluge were also implicated with this plot, but were not involved in any way with the proceedings.
As originally planned, Operation Walkuere ("Valkyrie") was to take place immediately after the assassination of Hitler; the plan called for the conspirators to use the reserve army to seize control of the major settlements, branches, facilities, and operations command centers of the SS and the Gestapo. The assumption was for Hitler's death to cause a power-vacuum within the ranks, and with the help of conspirator General Erich Fellgiebel, the communications lines which ran directly from the Wolf's Lair were severed soon after the explosion of the bomb. However, uncertainty of the success at the War Ministry in Berlin had significantly delayed the launch of the operation by at least three hours.
At 3PM, Stauffenberg reached Berlin via airplane. The first thing he did was to make a phone call to the Bendlerblock (War Ministry), to publically announce Hitler's death. But around the same time, conspirator General Erich Fellgiebel at Rastenburg called Fromm and informed him that Hitler had survived with only minor injuries. The conspirators did not know who to believe, and further delayed Operation Valkyrie. The truth was that Fellgiebel was right, Hitler did indeed survive the blast; Fromm confirmed that after calling Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel at Rastenburg. By a stroke of luck, after Stauffenberg had left the conference room, Colonel Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase to the far side of one of the oak table's legs, thus just enough force from the blast was deflected away from Hitler.
Olbricht finally gave the order to launch the operation regardless of the failed assassination. Squads of reserve troops arrested key Nazi Party leaders and SS officials. With a working phone line, which was a failure on the part of the conspirators, Minister of Propaganda Goebbels remained in charge of the media and used it to consistently spread the news of Hitler's survival. When regimental commander Major Otto Remer came to arrest Goebbels, Goebbels arranged a phone call with Hitler, convincing Remer that it was a Coup d'etat setup against the government and that the people involved were traitors. Hitler ordered Remer's troops to hunt down the conspirators.
It was at this very moment, the Coup began to turn south. Fromm decided that that the plot stood no chance, and switched sides by issuing the order to have Stauffenberg arrested. Olbricht and Stauffenberg were able to counter that move by arresting Fromm and those who wished to give up, but it was all too late. Knowing that Hitler was alive, many of the reserve army soldiers simply refused to carry out Stauffenberg's orders out of loyalty to the Fuhrer. After 10PM, Remer’s troops besieged the Bendlerblock and ended Operation Valkyrie.
General Fromm, well aware that his slight involvement in the plot would end in his execution, decided to have all of the conspirators shot at once. General Beck was the first to commit suicide to avoid worse fate. As the conspirators lost control of the War Ministry Stauffenberg, Haeften, Olbricht, and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were executed in the courtyard just after Midnight on 21st July 1944. All remaining conspirators were nearly without exception arrested, cross-examined, and tortured. The discovery of letters and diaries at the homes of the conspirators led to the exposure of the entire conspiracy which dated back to 1938.
A memorial to the German Resistance can be found at the Bendlerblock, and reads as follows:
You did not bear the shame.
You resisted.
You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change
by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour.
The front at the moment, looks like this:
The consistent and and heavily-suffered losses by the Russian and German army meant that only two choices were given to the commanders: On the Soviet side, Marshal Georgy Zhukov insisted that attrition was the only way forward, and he pressed on his advantage to push the Germans, who were defending with some of their last capable Panzer Divisions at Kursk, to keep on retreating back to Berlin. Wave after wave of conscripts, as well as veterans were fighting alongside the landmark T-34 tanks to press home a new mission stained by vengeance and Ultra-nationalism, backed by the ruthless Stalinist state.
Adolf Hitler, unlike most of his Generals at this point, was absolutely convinced that total victory for the Third Reich was still possible, despite a retreat on all fronts. Some of his top commanders, some of which in his inner-circle. Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Spier, Bormann, Hess. Although some committed suicide, clung to their selfish needs or simply resorted to bargaining chips, it is no question that many German officers thought that the Third Reich needed to end as soon as it had begun.
Attempts on Adolf Hitler's life were made prior to attempt that would later be nicknamed the July Plot. Operation Flash on the 13th of march 1943 had Hans von Dohnanyi set up a time bomb on Hitler's plane as he flew over Minsk; the altitude of the plane froze the fuse and the bomb failed to detonate. Another such attempt actually took place only a week after Operation Flash. Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff wanted to carry explosives in his own overcoat, sacrificing himself to kill Hitler as he toured an exhibition of captured Russian equipment in Berlin; that attempt failed because Hitler decided to shorten the visit to a mere two-minutes, leaving Gersdorff drenched in cold sweat afterwards trying to disarm the bomb and flush it down a toilet before he gathered too much suspicion.
Then, it was the turn of the real operation. A handful of German officers, including many who planned the previous assassinations, drew up another attempt for the 20th of July 1944. By this time, the conspirators did not have time on their side, as the Gestapo was on the verge of identifying them while the Allies were tightening their grip on Nazi Germany with the initial success of the Normandy invasion. Lieutenant Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, aide to another conspirator Henning von Tresckow, wrote to Claus von Stauffenberg:
'The assassination must be attempted, coûte que coûte. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin, for the practical purpose no longer matters. What matters now is that the German resistance movement must take the plunge before the eyes of the world and of history. Compared to that, nothing else matters.'
Stauffenberg was named the assassin that was to plant a time-bomb inside the 'Fuhrerbunker' at the Wolf's Lair, where on the 20th of July Hitler would meet with many officers (including Himmler's assumed attendance). Some of the others directly involved in the planning include General Ludwig Beck, General Friedrich Olbricht, Carl Goerdeler, Alfred Delp, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bernardis, Carl Szokoll, Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, Adam von Trott zu Solz, Gottfried von Bismark, and Princess Marie Vassiltchikov. Colonel General Friedrich Fromm was the commander of the Reserve Army in Berlin, and was in contact with the conspirators, but did not fully commit himself to the operation. Throughout his career, he'd always tried to end up on the so-called 'winning side', and waited for full confirmation of Hitler's death until he would finally (presumably) join the Coup. Many other high-ranking officers in the German Army such as Erwin Rommel and Günther von Kluge were also implicated with this plot, but were not involved in any way with the proceedings.
As originally planned, Operation Walkuere ("Valkyrie") was to take place immediately after the assassination of Hitler; the plan called for the conspirators to use the reserve army to seize control of the major settlements, branches, facilities, and operations command centers of the SS and the Gestapo. The assumption was for Hitler's death to cause a power-vacuum within the ranks, and with the help of conspirator General Erich Fellgiebel, the communications lines which ran directly from the Wolf's Lair were severed soon after the explosion of the bomb. However, uncertainty of the success at the War Ministry in Berlin had significantly delayed the launch of the operation by at least three hours.
At 3PM, Stauffenberg reached Berlin via airplane. The first thing he did was to make a phone call to the Bendlerblock (War Ministry), to publically announce Hitler's death. But around the same time, conspirator General Erich Fellgiebel at Rastenburg called Fromm and informed him that Hitler had survived with only minor injuries. The conspirators did not know who to believe, and further delayed Operation Valkyrie. The truth was that Fellgiebel was right, Hitler did indeed survive the blast; Fromm confirmed that after calling Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel at Rastenburg. By a stroke of luck, after Stauffenberg had left the conference room, Colonel Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase to the far side of one of the oak table's legs, thus just enough force from the blast was deflected away from Hitler.
Olbricht finally gave the order to launch the operation regardless of the failed assassination. Squads of reserve troops arrested key Nazi Party leaders and SS officials. With a working phone line, which was a failure on the part of the conspirators, Minister of Propaganda Goebbels remained in charge of the media and used it to consistently spread the news of Hitler's survival. When regimental commander Major Otto Remer came to arrest Goebbels, Goebbels arranged a phone call with Hitler, convincing Remer that it was a Coup d'etat setup against the government and that the people involved were traitors. Hitler ordered Remer's troops to hunt down the conspirators.
It was at this very moment, the Coup began to turn south. Fromm decided that that the plot stood no chance, and switched sides by issuing the order to have Stauffenberg arrested. Olbricht and Stauffenberg were able to counter that move by arresting Fromm and those who wished to give up, but it was all too late. Knowing that Hitler was alive, many of the reserve army soldiers simply refused to carry out Stauffenberg's orders out of loyalty to the Fuhrer. After 10PM, Remer’s troops besieged the Bendlerblock and ended Operation Valkyrie.
General Fromm, well aware that his slight involvement in the plot would end in his execution, decided to have all of the conspirators shot at once. General Beck was the first to commit suicide to avoid worse fate. As the conspirators lost control of the War Ministry Stauffenberg, Haeften, Olbricht, and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were executed in the courtyard just after Midnight on 21st July 1944. All remaining conspirators were nearly without exception arrested, cross-examined, and tortured. The discovery of letters and diaries at the homes of the conspirators led to the exposure of the entire conspiracy which dated back to 1938.
A memorial to the German Resistance can be found at the Bendlerblock, and reads as follows:
You did not bear the shame.
You resisted.
You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change
by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour.
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