User:MattRhinehart17/Operation Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler

Summary
In 1944, several conspirators plotted to kill Hitler and take power in the Reichstag. The plan was to catch Hitler off guard at his Wolf's Lair in Poland and detonate a bomb inside his bunker, killing him and other prominent Nazi leaders. Months of planning went into it operation that took place on July 20, 19944. The leading conspirators were Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, General Friedrich Olbricht, General Henning Von Trescow,a former chief of staff Ludwig Beck, Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, Colonel-General Erich Hoeppner and Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz of Quirnheim. There had been over 40 attempts to kill Hitler before this point, but none of them came as close. The goal was to remove Hitler from power and negotiate an end to the War. The plan to kill Hitler failed, but did the conspirators fail in bringing a quicker end to the War?

Ludwig Beck
Before 1938, Ludwig Beck was the Chief of the General Staff for the German Army. He was against Hitler's attempts to take over the Sutenland and then all of Czechoslovakia. He eagerly tried to urge Hitler not to do such a thing, because he believed any invasion of any neutral country in Europe would bring a conflict with France and Britain. He was appalled by Hitler's ideas of the capture of all of Western Europe and then the USSR. As the Chief of the General Staff, Beck understood that such a war was one that Germany was not ready for and the use of such reckless force would in turn be the downfall of the Third Reich. In 1938, as Hitler prepared to take all of Czechoslovakia, Beck sent a messenger to Britain to ask Neville Chamberlin, the British Prime Minister, if he would promise to take military action against Germany if Hitler carried through on his plans. When Hitler learned of Beck's dissent, he was immediately removed from office and replaced with Franz Halder. Even after his removal from office, Beck continued to work very closely with others who were conspiring against HItler. In 1944, shortly before the July Plot, Beck approached General Erwin Rommel about joining the assassination attempt. Rommel refused because he thought that Hitler should be arrested and forced to stand trial. After the death of Hitler, Beck was going to be the new leader of Germany and try to negotiate a quick end to the War without losing too much of their land. After the plot failed, Beck was quickly arrested by General Erich Fromm. Beck was given the "honor" of committing suicide instead of being shot by a firing squad. After his first attempt only injured himself, Beck was killed by a shot to the back of his neck on July 20th, 1944.

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was born on November 15th, 1907. He attended the War Academy in Berlin and joined the General Staff in 1938. Stauffenberg served in a combat position in all of Hitler's offensives from 1939-1943 including Hitler's invasions of Poland, France, Tunisia and the USSR. While participating in Operation Barbarossa, Stauffenberg became appalled at the horrible crimes committed by the SS against Russian Jews and Prisoners of War. From 1940-1943, Stauffenberg served on the Army High Command. On April 7th, 1943, while serving under Field Marshal Rommel in Northern Africa, Stauffenberg lost his left eye, right hand and two of his fingers on his left hand after Allied Fighters strafed his vehicle. Before this event, Stauffenberg had already decided that he must join the conspiracy to kill Adolf HItler. In 1942, he proclaimed that he was ready to kill Hitler himself. In the post coup Germany, Stauffenberg was to become the State Secretary of the War Ministry. In June 1944, Stauffenberg was promoted Colonel and was appointed Chief of Staff under General Fromm. This would allow Stauffenberg direct access to Hitler and his briefing sessions. On July 11th, 1944, Stauffenberg planned to assassinate Hitler with a bomb in his brief case but circumstances out of his control prevented him from doing so. He was the one who put the briefcase containing the bomb in Hitler's briefing session. After planting the bomb and seeing it explode from a safe distance, Stauffenberg flew to Berlin to launch the planned coup. After the plans unravelled, Stauffenberg and others were gathered up by General Fromm, who, in an attempt to save himself, ordered the conspirators to be killed by firing squad. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg died early in the morning on July 21st, 1944. He is reported to have shouted, "Long Live Germany" as he was executed.

General Friedrich Olbricht
In the 1920s and early 30s, General Olbricht was one of the few German military officers who supported the democratic Weimar Republic. He commanded the 24th Infantry Division during the invasion of Poland. In 1940, he was promoted to General of the Infantry. His dissent with Hitler led him to develop the plan for Operation Valkyrie as early as 1941. In 1943, he asked if Colonel von Stauffenberg, the man who would attempt the assassination, would come work for him. During the coup, he was to lead the Reserve Army and take key buildings throughout Berlin. If he could achieve his goal, the Nazis would be overthrown. After the assassination took place, Olbricht withheld the Reserve Army until he received confirmation from Stauffenberg himself that the bomb had exploded. He waited for three hours before Stauffenberg arrived in Berlin. Some historians will argue that these three hours are a major contributing factor to the failure of the coup because the conspirators lost valuable time that could've been used to take Berlin. Other historians will argue that his move to withhold the troops was a good tactical plan because of the two attempts in the previous ten days in which Stauffenberg was unable to detonate the bombs. Whatever the reason, he withheld the Reserve Army until it was too late. General Olbricht was captured by Fromm by 9:00 p.m. on July 20th, 1944. He was executed by firing squad later that night.

General Henning von Trescow
Unlike General Olbricht, General Trescow was skeptical of the Weimar Republic. He initially welcomed the Nazi party, but quickly turned against them as well. In 1938, he decided to join those who were conspiring against Hitler. Through Trescow the gap between the military resistance and Ludwig Beck and other leading conspirators shrunk. From 1942 on, Trescow repeatedly organized assassination attempts, with each attempt disintegrating before it could go into action. In 1944, he was transferred to the front and was unable to directly participate in the planning of the coup. Before the assassination, Trescow strengthened Stauffenberg's resolve. On Jully 21st, 1944, after receiving word that the plan had failed, Trescow took his own life.

General Friedrich Fromm
General Fromm joined the German Army during World War I and by the end was already a lieutenant. He became the commander of the Reserve Army in 1937 and the Chief of Armaments at the outbreak of war. He became disillusioned with Hitler's mismanagement of the war and by 1942 supported a peace treaty with the Soviet Union. As their immediate superior, Fromm allowed the talks of the plot to kill Hitler to continue under him, while he himself showed no real interest in the matter. Since he would not commit to the coup whole heartedly, Fromm was distrusted by many of the conspirators. When he received news of the assassination attempt, Fromm was enraged and called the Wolf's Lair. Upon hearing that Hitler was very much alive, Fromm ordered that all the conspirators be arrested. However, believing that Fromm was trying to take power, the Nazi police arrested him instead. Once all of Berlin had received word that Hitler was alive, Fromm was freed and burst into von Stauffenberg's headquarters to arrest him and the other conspirators. Trying to save his own skin, Fromm ordered all of the conspirators (except General Beck who was allowed to commit suicide) to be executed by firing squad against Hitler's orders that the men be taken alive. His futile attempt was quickly pushed aside as Himmler had him arrested in the next few days. He was found guilty of not reporting his knowledge of the conspiracy and for not standing up to the conspirators. However, because he executed Stauffenberg and his conspirators, Fromm was saved from being strangled on meat wire. He was executed by firing squad on March 19th, 1945.

The Wolf's Lair
On July 20th, 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg traveled to the Wolf's Lair to have a briefing session with Adolf Hitler. His goal: to not only kill Hitler but other prominent Nazi leaders including Himmler and Goehring. The plan was to have a daily briefing session in the heavy concrete bunker, the bunker that would have kept most of the explosive blast from the bomb contained inside the room where HItler was giving his briefing. However, the meeting did not take place in the heavy bunker, but rather in a sort of barracks due to the fact that it was a very hot day. Furthermore, the meeting was moved up because of a second meeting between Hitler and Mussolini later in the day. Stauffenberg had originally brought two bombs to be detonated, but in haste was only able to activate the fuse on one of them. Once he got into the briefing room, Stauffenberg placed his briefcase containing the bomb under the table as close to Hitler as possible. It was leaning against a leg of the table but it was on the same side as Hitler. After planting the bomb, Stauffenberg excused himself on the pretext of "making a phone call". Once he left, one of Hitler's advisors, trying to get a closer view of the map Hitler was standing over, moved Stauffenberg's briefcase to the other side of the heavy wooden leg. Minutes later, as Stauffenberg was making his escape, the bomb went off. Watching the blast from a safe distance, Stauffenberg believed that they had killed Hitler. After making it through the first two checkpoints without being stopped, Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were stopped at the third and final checkpoint. They were not allowed to leave, but after Stauffenberg fakes a phone call with a Field Marshall, he is allowed clearance to leave. He immediately boards a plane and heads for Berlin.

Berlin
In Berlin, General Olbricht and other top conspirators eagerly awaited word from Stauffenberg confirming the Fuhrer's death. He waited for three hours before ordering the Reserve Troops to initiate Operation Valkyrie, a critical phase in the plot. These three hours allowed Hitler to compose himself and send word out that he was still alive and only injured. In the meantime, General Olbricht arrests General Fromm because he will not initiate the Valkyrie orders. When Stauffenberg arrives in Berlin, he finds that no plan has gone into effect and the conspirators do not have any of the crucial government buildings under their command. He immediately orders the plan into effect, however it is now too late. After an attempted coup of Nazi officials, troops still loyal to Hitler gain the upper hand. General Fromm is released from prison by loyal troops. He then proceeds to round up Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators. Fromm decides to execute the conspirators on the spot by a firing squad in an attempt to save his own skin, an attempt that would ultimately fail as he will be found guilty and executed in March of the next year. By 1:00 a.m. on the morning of July 21, 1944, all of the leading conspirators have been rounded up and were either in custody or had been killed. Stauffenberg was the last to be killed and before being fired upon, he yelled the famous words “Long Live Sacred Germany”.

How did Hitler survive?
On the morning of July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg and his advisors flew into the Wolf’s Lair. This was the first time that Stauffenberg was going to meet Hitler. The meeting was scheduled to be at 13:00, or 1:00 p.m. However, unknown to Stauffenberg until he arrived was that the meeting was to be moved up half an hour to accommodate another briefing session Hitler had scheduled with Mussolini. Stauffenberg was thus only able to activate one of the bombs he was carrying, meaning the explosion would be substantially smaller. Second, Hitler moved the briefing session from inside a heavy concrete bunker to wooden barracks outside, with their windows open. Had the meeting been inside, the explosion from just one of the bombs was likely big enough to kill everyone because it was contained. The meeting was in the wooden structure and thus the force of the blast was able to escape outward. A third factor was the heavy wooden leg that was in between Hitler and the briefcase. The fact that the officer move the briefcase to the other side away from Hitler caused the leg to act as a sort of barrier for him. Of the officers on the other side of the wooden leg opposite Hitler, there were four fatalities and eleven severe injuries. The fatalities were all within range of where Hitler was standing.

Operation Valkyrie failed, or did it?
While it is true that Hitler and most of the other high level Nazi commanders survived the blast, it can be noted that the conspirators did have a considerable effect on the outcome of the war. After the assassination attempt, Hitler rarely appeared in public and would not trust even his most decorated generals. What has come to light in recent years is the assertion of Mr. Walter S. Dunn that the conspirators are responsible for much more than just a scare. Some of the conspirators were in charge of the German Replacement Army, which was responsible for training new troops and sending them into combat roles. In the first seven months of 1944, Dunn asserts that the conspirators deliberately withheld 600,000 troops from the front lines, a claim that is supported by the fact that even after Normandy, when the Germans had sustained over 110,00 casualties, the Replacement Army only sent 10,000 troops to support them. Whether or not Dunn is correct cannot be confirmed because there is no written evidence of deliberate withholding of the troops, but he brings up an interesting point that seems to be supported by both statistical evidence and our knowledge of the Valkyrie Conspirators.