A Bomb Right Under This Table Just Missed Hitler and Almost Ended WW2 - YouTube

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On July 20, 1944, German army officer Claus  von Stauffenberg and other conspirators  

attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler inside  his headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia.

After dozens of failed attempts to take Hitler’s  

life, several high-ranking German  officials had formed a resistance  

unit to take him down and launch a coup  to reclaim Germany from the Nazi forces.

Operation Valkyrie was then launched,  and a plan was hatched to strike Hitler  

with a bomb as a desperate attempt  to end the oppression and the war.

But Providence would be on the dictator's side,  

as he claimed after walking out of a bombed  conference room during a warm summer afternoon.

Much has been said about what could have  been if Hitler did not get to power. 

While many hypothetical scenarios have been  crafted where the Fuhrer was assassinated,  

there were very real attempts on the dictator’s  life both by outsiders and his fellow Germans.

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A Resistance

Even before World War II started, a lot of  Germans opposed the radical Nazi regime.  

Several different resistance cells  eventually surfaced, the most important one  

being a coalition of active and  retired officers working with civilians  

to overthrow the dictatorship  and restore the Rule of Law.

As far back as 1933, Chief of Staff Generaloberst  Ludwig Beck was already forming the intellectual  

and moral basis for a coup that would  take more than a decade to accomplish.

In March of 1938, Beck was outraged when Germany  invaded Austria and refused to participate.  

Months later, he opposed the seizing of the  sovereign state of Czechoslovakia and appealed  

to his fellow Generals: (QUOTE) "Your military  duty to obey [orders] ends where your knowledge,  

your conscience and your responsibility  forbids the execution of an order."

But not everyone opposed the Fuhrer,  

and the lack of support left Beck  with no choice but to resign his post.

Beck's successor, Franz Halder, also tried  to bring down the regime but planned a  

conspiracy instead of a confrontation. Hans  Oster of the Counter Intelligence Agency  

and Generals von Witzleben and von Stülpnagel  were part of it too. They planned to put Hitler  

on trial or send him to a mental hospital and  sought the cooperation of civilian leaders.

The only way to bring down the regime would  be if people with power made the first move.  

The resistance needed high-ranking collaborators  to command troops and infiltrate the government  

and its apparatus, like the Army Officer Corps.  

Aristocrats were the backbone of the corps for  generations, conferring them the authority and  

opportunity to strike, assassinate  Hitler, and carry out a coup d’état.

However, the Germans, British, and  French were all wary of another war,  

and a treaty was signed in which  Hitler took command of the German  

territories in Czechoslovakia  without resorting to force.

There was no case against a mad dictator,  

and what would be known as the  September Conspiracy was dissolved.

Hitler would eventually take the rest of  Czechoslovakia and Poland six months later  

and then expand his dominion to half of  Europe, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.

Still, a minority of Germans remained  true to their moral principles,  

but the challenge to overtake such a  popular leader became highly implausible.

Operation Valkyrie

After the invasion of the Soviet Union, most  German troops realized the atrocities being  

committed by the SS, and their outlook  on the Nazi methods changed. In addition,  

the Chief of the General Army  Office, General Friedrich Olbricht,  

soon began developing a General Staff Plan to  suppress any revolt by the prisoners of war.

However, that was merely a facade to overthrow the  Nazis in what became known as Operation Valkyrie.

To ensure the plan’s success, there were two  pre-conditions. First, the population had to  

be at least neutral to the removal of Hitler, so  a greater degree of disillusionment was needed.  

Second, it was no longer feasible to arrest  the Fuhrer; he had to be neutralized.

Hans Oster was entrusted with  planning the assassination,  

while Olbricht was to plot the coup that  would follow. Meanwhile, Oberstleutnant  

Henning von Tresckow would seek to recruit a Field  Marshall so that his troops could join the coup.

By the autumn of 1942, the Gestapo was  closely examining the activities of the  

Counterintelligence Service, forcing Oster  to stop collaborating with the resistance.  

Tresckow would then take  over the assassination plot.

After the tragic Battle of  Stalingrad in the winter of 1942,  

the conspirators decided to exploit  the population’s discontent and use  

it in their favor. And by February of  1943, the plans for the coup were ready.

In addition, Tresckow had won  over Feldmarschall von Kluge,  

who was desperate to overthrow the Nazis after  the outcome of Stalingrad and willing to risk  

his men. His only condition was that Hitler  needed to be dead before the coup was launched.

Many options were considered to end the  Fuhrer's life, including sending a solitary  

shooter or even having a collective shooting.  However, the idea of using a bomb prevailed.

Oster provided Tresckow with British  explosives, which he crafted into the  

shape of a bottle of cognac. The bomb was  fused for 30 minutes and wrapped as a gift.

The plan seemed perfect: the bomb would set off,  

and the plane would crash in  Soviet-controlled territory,  

thus delaying the investigations. This gave  enough time to launch the coup under legal orders.

In addition, the British explosives would be  blamed on foreigners instead of national rebels,  

while the German movement took over  the Nazi organs. And the population  

was likely to support the Army  given their recent disillusionment.

The mission was carried out as planned.  Tresckow handed the gift to an officer  

boarding the Fuhrer's airplane and asked  him to deliver it to a mutual friend.

However, the bomb didn’t detonate,  and Hitler landed safely.  

The incriminating gift was then retrieved  before it aroused any suspicion.

Last Chance

Many brave men volunteered as suicide bombers, and  serious attempts were carried out to reach Hitler  

in seemingly safe environments like a gallery  exhibition and a uniform modeling appointment.  

But the Fuhrer was more elusive than ever.

To make matters worse, Tresckow and his  staff were transferred to new assignments,  

and the assassination was now the  responsibility of Olbricht alone.

Olbricht was weighed down by official  responsibilities and had to look for a reliable  

assistant. The conspirators selected Lieutenant  Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg.  

The young man had been supportive of the Nazis at  the beginning of the war, but he eventually lost  

an eye, a hand, and three fingers while defending  the German empire and, like many, turned around.

In August of 1943, Stauffenberg was welcomed into  a resistance that he didn’t even know existed.  

He was more than willing to join the conspiracy,  

and Olbricht delegated the responsibility  to plot the assassination to him.

Between October 1943 and July 1944,  there were many plans but no results.

However, on July 1, Stauffenberg gained personal  access to Hitler when he was made Chief of  

Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Home Army  and decided to take the dictator's life himself.

After two failed opportunities  to strike on the 11 and 15,  

Stauffenberg planned a last  attempt to take place on July 20.

On that day, Stauffenberg left for a meeting  at the East Prussian Headquarters as usual.  

The attempt would take place at 1:00 pm, and  nothing was expected to happen before then.

Upon arrival, Stauffenberg was informed that  the meeting had been pushed forward half an hour  

because of Mussolini's visit. He then excused  himself to change his shirt and didn't have time  

to prepare the two bombs that he carried  in his briefcase, so only one was ready.

To complicate matters, the meeting would  not take place in the bunker as usual,  

but in a conference room because  of the intense summer heat.

Stauffenberg asked to be as close to the Fuhrer as  possible, arguing that his hearing was impaired.  

When he walked into the room, Hitler stood at the  center of a long, wooden table with many officials  

present. To the conspirator’s disappointment,  neither Himmler nor Goering were there.

Stauffenberg then got close to  the right side of the Fuhrer  

and casually left the briefcase beneath the table.  

He then used a phone call as an excuse and walked  out of the room, leaving the compound altogether.

Suddenly, the bomb exploded,  and a full lockdown was ordered.

Sometime later, fellow conspirator General  Fellgiebel informed Olbricht that: (QUOTE)  

"Something terrible has  happened. The Führer lives!"

Aftermath

Stauffenberg was able to escape and get to  Berlin safely. When he reached Olbricht,  

he assured him that he personally saw  a body covered with the Fuhrer's coat.  

Olbricht believed his word, and they took the  matter to General Fromm, the head of the Home  

Army, who refused to commence Operation Valkyrie  as he had just learned that Hitler survived.

Stauffenberg was convinced that this  news was a Nazi trick to seize control.  

But then Fromm ordered the conspirators arrested,  and when two junior officers came into the room,  

he was the one taken into custody,  as they were loyal to the resistance.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan,  

and the rebels issued orders to their  loyal army units to start the coup.

However, a radio broadcast suddenly  confirmed their worst fears:  

the Fuhrer had survived the assassination  attempt. An officer had moved the briefcase with  

the bomb to the other side of the table's base,  which had shielded Hitler from the explosion.

Operation Valkyrie was canceled,  

and as Fromm was released, he ordered  the execution of the conspirators.  

Beck, Olbricht, Stauffenberg, and two others were  arrested and sentenced to death for high treason.

Before he was shot, Stauffenberg's last words  were: (QUOTE) "Long live our sacred Germany."

It is estimated that almost 5,000 men were  executed for complicity in the coup attempt.  

Fromm, who had betrayed his fellow  conspirators to save himself,  

was also arrested and executed months later.

To this day, the rebels are no  longer regarded as traitors,  

and their actions are recognized as bravely  trying to change the course of history.

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