When it comes to Wehrmacht officers during World War II, everyone often thinks of a bunch of "vons" from the Prussian Junker aristocratic circle.
The word von, to some extent, can be regarded as a sign of the German nobility, similar to the Dutch meaning of "van", which was originally followed by the fief or source of his family.
For example, the familiar World War II German Field Marshal Erich von Manstein
However, not all of the former German aristocratic officers were from the Junker aristocracy of Prussia, and during World War I and World War II, the "vons" in South Germany (many of whom belonged to the rural nobility or the court nobility) also emerged some celebrities.
Typical, of course, is the one we will talk about below, Colonel Klaus von Staufenberg, who assassinated Hitler in "Operation Valkyrie 720".
On November 15, 1907, in the small town of Stuttgart in baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany (which later became the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Bosch), a Catholic aristocratic family inheriting the title of earl welcomed its heir, Klaus Philippe Maria Justinian Schenck von Stauffenberg (the longer the name of the European nobility, the more prominent its ancestors became).
Before German unification, Baden-Württemberg was an independent state, the Kingdom of Württemberg, which differed significantly from the beliefs and customs of the Northern Kingdom of Prussia
As a teenager, von Stauffenberg experienced the "humiliating experience" of Germany's defeat and reparations after World War I, and like most Germans, his heart was full of "disobedience".
After receiving a full elite education in private schools, the 19-year-old von Stauffenberg chose to join the army.
Von Stauffenberg at the door of the ancestral house
After graduating from military school, von Staufenberg, who came from a Catholic family in South Germany, had been doing a good job in the Wehrmacht, getting along well with his Juncker colleagues in Northern De prussia;
But at this time, the motherland he loved was in a bad situation, struggling in the shadow of defeat and economic crisis.
Von Stauffenberg, like many of his compatriots around him, began to eagerly await the emergence of a "great leader" who would lead the German people out of the quagmire and rebuild their glory.
It was as if they had really found such a person.
In 1933, von Staufenberg, along with a large number of germans who had been fooled into boiling with blood, elected the "savior" they followed to the throne of the German Chancellor.
Mr. and Mrs. von Staufenberg also married in 1933
To be honest, von Stauffenberg's feelings for Hitler were very mixed, and he remained an admirer and loyalist of Hitler until the beginning of World War II.
For example, when he was first sent to the Eastern Front, his letters to his wife, Nina Schenck von Staufenberg, were still enthusiastically praising the great Fuehrer and full of reverence for Hitler's power to revive the country, reorganize the army, and break the land.
In the movie "Action Target Hitler", Tom Cruise and the prototype are still quite similar in appearance, and the height gap is made up by the military boots that are raised inside and outside
The real von Staufenberg and his children
However, after entering 1942, his feelings of awe and admiration began to change (for details, see his own diary).
Subsequently, in 1943, von Staufenberg was seriously wounded on the battlefields of North Africa.
He was fortunate to save his life, but lost his left eye, right hand, and two fingers of his left hand, and his legs fell disabled.
Soon he was sent back to Berlin to recuperate.
During this time, he became acquainted with some anti-Hitler Wehrmacht underground organizations.
Gradually, von Stauffenberg's affection for Hitler changed from his early admiration, his previous suspicions, to hatred and hatred, and he introduced himself as the main mastermind and executor of Hitler's assassination.
By the summer of 1944, the Germans had already switched from offensive to defensive on the Eastern Front, the Allies on the Western Front had successfully landed in Normandy, and France was completely recovered, although many of the German people and the middle and lower-level officers and soldiers were still blinded by circular brainwashing, but the top brass had seen clearly that defeat was a foregone conclusion, and surrender was a matter of time.
At this time, Germany faced most of the world, and once it continued to resist hard, it would be dead and dead if it lost, and everyone could not eat and walk.
Obviously, in the view of the Wehrmacht top brass at that time, only by eliminating Hitler, overthrowing nazi dictatorship, establishing a new government, negotiating with the Allies by a new government led by itself, and at the same time, taking advantage of the contradictions between Western and Soviet ideology and reality, it is expected to maximize national interests.
This would not only prevent foreign troops from entering Germany and preserve the wehrmacht, but would also continue to maintain the main territories that Germany had held before the launch of World War II in September 1939, such as the state of German-Austrian annexation, the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, and so on.
In Pre-World War II Europe, this was also a post-war state that the Valkyrie team tried to maintain
We must hurry to get rid of Hitler, and we can't wait any longer.
In fact, there were more people trying to kill Hitler. Beginning in 1938, German officers plotted to assassinate Hitler no less than 40 times, but each time failed. Either an accident occurred, or Hitler avoided it vigilantly and changed his itinerary temporarily.
For example, according to the "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", Major General Schlabrandoff once made a bottle of dynamite wine disguised as brandy, intending to kill Hitler on the plane, but because the weather was too cold and other reasons, it could not be detonated. In the movie "Action Target Hitler", this scene has also been restored, and the scene is very tense.
Stills from "Action Target Hitler", after the wine is delivered, Major General Schlabrandoff smiles slyly
As for how to kill Hitler, the assassination team planned repeatedly and decided to go the old route and use a time bomb.
This, then, requires a man who is qualified to have access to Hitler in an honourable manner.
As mentioned earlier, Colonel Von Staufenberg, who was crippled, promptly introduced himself.
The tallest man on the left is Colonel Von Stauffenberg
His perseverance after his injury was once transmitted to Hitler's ears and was highly valued.
After recovering from his wounds, von Stauffenberg was transferred to the Berlin Native Corps as chief of staff – hitler desperately needed such a strong-willed and decent-looking "military man" in the face of the apparent decline of the German army on both the eastern and western fronts.
Stills from Action Target Hitler
This position gave von Stauffenberg the opportunity to meet Hitler and attend a number of berlin-level meetings.
On 11 July 1944, von Staufenberg decided to carry out the assassination, but after spending half an hour with Hitler and Goering at the venue, Himmler was temporarily absent. In the end, von Stauffenberg, who wanted to put the group in a cauldron, did not pull the bomb.
On 20 July, he decided to carry out another assassination.
In Action Target Hitler, early in the morning of 720, von Stauffenberg says goodbye to his wife
Following the plan of Operation Valkyrie, von Stauffenberg and Aide-de-camp Haveden flew to the Wolf's Lair, each hiding a time bomb in their briefcases.
Because the adjutant was not eligible to enter the venue, he had to wait outside.
The two bombs required von Stauffenberg to secretly assemble them in a very short period of time by relying on his own stump (one arm, one eye, only three fingers of his left hand) and then detonate them by releasing the firing pin by the corrosive metal wire of the solution.
This operation is very precise——— to insert the fuze into the bomb, and then use pliers to crush the glass tube so that the acid can flow to the metal wire that triggers the fuze, and after the metal wire is corroded by the acid, the firing pin will pop out to hit the detonator.
Von Stauffenberg used the excuse of changing clothes to assemble the bomb
The detonation time is set at 12 minutes, and he needs to get out of the time bomb before it detonates.
Then, speaking of this, there must be people who feel that this colonel must be a greedy and afraid of death, why he dropped the bomb and ran - directly face to face shooting, or stabbing the knife, so that the assassination of the life can be more reliable to ensure the "effect".
However, the contact element first passes the body search level, and all guns and knives need to be handed in in advance.
Von Stauffenberg did not choose the form of a time bomb for fear of death, but this operation was able to bring the parts of the bomb in.
After all, daring to carry out an assassination coup is itself a matter of life hanging in the balance, and people who are particularly afraid of death have such courage.
The reason why he was reluctant to die together was because he had to do more than kill Hitler – von Staufenberg also had to return to Berlin to help direct the coup!
According to the "Operation Valkyrie" plan, he needed to contribute from execution to organization, and the disabled colonel planted a bomb and then flew from the German base camp (Wolf's Den) in Rasthenburg, East Prussia, which became Polish territory after the war to participate in the coup.
The previous month, in order to prevent rebellion in Germany, the Wehrmacht Home Army had drawn up a plan called "Operation Valkyrie". The specific content is that in the event of a rebellion in the country, the local corps has the right to control various government departments, as well as communication facilities including radios, bus stations, train stations and other transportation facilities.
According to the plan of the assassination team, they will declare the Fuehrer dead, enter a state of emergency throughout the country, and then use "Operation Valkyrie" to complete the coup.
In Action Target Hitler, the guard battalion commander, Major Reimer, receives operation Valkyrie when he is "speechless" at first
So, when von Stauffenberg and his aide-de-camp Haveden planted the bomb, they were busy "catching planes" across hundreds of kilometers back to Berlin to organize a coup d'état.
That's called a busy.
However, whether from the historical materials of that year or in later films, we can also see that these Wehrmacht coups are indeed relatively laymen - their main "coup form" is actually .... Busy making phone calls.
The coup was very ceremonial, but it was mostly on the phone from the office
In fact, whether or not the assassinations carried out at wolf's dens really worked, the Berlin side should have acted in accordance with Hitler's plan to be killed – immediately occupying the radio stations, disarming the SS, controlling Berlin, temporarily cutting off all links between Berlin and the outside world, declaring a state of emergency, and at the same time promoting the explicit solidarity and support of troops stationed abroad everywhere – rather than a bunch of people huddled in the office talking about it, inquiring about the wind, and "carrying out a coup" by telephone. Spend hours waiting for exact news of whether they were killed before taking action... It wasn't until the radio broadcast Hitler's own voice that he was dumbfounded, and then shouted "Long live Germany" and resolutely died.
Von Stauffenberg was executed at the time of his death at the age of 36
The cemetery of the von Staufenbergs. The bones of Stauffenberg himself are still missing, and the only person in the cemetery is her wife, Nina, who lived to be 93 years old
One of the rather fatal mistakes was that the conspirators lurking in the "Wolf's Lair" did not cut off contact with the outside world in time, resulting in the "Wolf's Lair" being able to successfully announce that Hitler was not dead, proving the illegality of the Berlin coup team's unauthorized launch of "Operation Valkyrie" - as a result, the coup d'état was suddenly untenable, and people's hearts were immediately confused.
The informant of the coup team lurking in the "wolf's lair" did not act forcefully enough, and eventually died tragically
In addition, a more naïve operation was that they did not do the work beforehand on Major Otto Ernst Reimer, who was in charge of berlin's defense.
In the end, this little man disrupted the entire coup plan.
In "Action Target Hitler", Thomas Kleschumann, a German officer professional, portrays a cool, wavering guard battalion commander ~ Major Reimer, although there are not many shots, but it looks very neutral.
That's him
But its true historical prototype, however, was a Nazi die-hard loyalist, who spared no effort to spread Nazi poison until after the war.
Such a hardcore Nazi controlled the dispatch of troops in Berlin, and the coup team was so "big-hearted" that he carried out Operation Valkyrie and arrested Nazi bigwigs, including Goebbels.
As a result, as soon as Major Reimer heard Hitler's voice and determined that the Fuehrer was not dead, without saying a word, he turned around and killed the coup base camp with his men, and without much effort, he arrested the coup team that night, and cut off a number of coup organizers, including von Staufenberg.
In Action Target Hitler, Major Reimer receives a call from the Führer in Goebbels's office, immediately releases the Nazis, and turns around and captures Stauffenberg
Even more inexperienced is the fact that this plan seriously lacks a mass base and is simply a murder and coup d'état orchestrated by the organization of an IDF officer;
At the same time, the coup d'état failed to co-opt other senior German generals and hold local military power, such as Rommel and Guderian, who had more or less heard of the plan and organization, but only watched from the other side and did not provide any substantial help - sadly, many of these senior generals were still eventually accused of "false accusations".
Rommel, for example, was in a coma in a field hospital on the French front when the coup d'état took place, but could not stop his lieutenant from being swept in, and von Stauffenberg was still his old subordinate on the battlefields of North Africa...
Of course, Rommel was "given to death", which was a very decent "decision", but when placed on other generals, it was not so calm - these former high-ranking political and military officials were humiliated, for example, deliberately taking away their trouser belts, so that these proud aristocratic officers carried their pants and dressed in bad clothes throughout the trial.
Film characters and archetypes
The execution of the death penalty is even more sensational: the neck is strangled with piano strings, and it hangs on a hook in the slaughterhouse and slowly dies. The execution was also filmed for Goebbels to "appreciate".... Even some of them did not participate in the assassination at all, but only because their colleagues could not withstand the torture to extract confessions, when they were delirious, they casually recruited.
According to statistics, more than 7,000 people were arrested, of which nearly 5,000 were executed, until April 1945, during the artillery fire of the Battle of Berlin, the trial and death penalty for the "720 Incident" were still underway...
The Wehrmacht generals who died in a frenzied revenge
As for why Hitler did not die that day, everyone must have read a lot of analysis, probably the following three points:
1. The weather is hot, temporarily changed from the underground bunker conference room to a wooden shack, the windows are still open, and the power of the bomb is significantly weakened;
2. Von Stauffenberg is physically disabled, and three fingers of his left hand can be used, and the result is that time is too tight, and two bombs only have time to load one;
3. Colonel Brandt, who was in charge of the service of the venue, felt that the briefcase was too obstructive and moved to the side of the oak board at the foot of the table. And when the bomb exploded, Hitler was looking at the military map, and his upper body was almost lying on the table, and the thick oak table just acted as a shield.
Floor plan of the conference room: Blue is Hitler's location, red is the dead man
In short, this group of Wehrmacht has nothing to say about fighting, but it is still too naïve to engage in politics.
It was not enough to expect a single bomb to blow up hitler's years of authority, let alone to physically exterminate them.
The reason why Colonel von Staufenberg did not stay in the conference room until the last moment and die with his assassination target was because he wanted to do more than kill Hitler, in their plan, after the assassination was successful, there were still many things to be done...
Regrettably, whether or not these coup d'étatists were prepared to sacrifice their lives for righteousness, in the end, they all died the most unacceptable to themselves.