On July 20, 1944, in the "Wolf's Den" of the German Eastern Battlefield headquarters, a leather bag containing a time bomb suddenly exploded. The bomb killed 4 people on the spot and seriously injured nearly 10 people. Unfortunately, Hitler, the target of this operation, was only slightly injured.
The operation, named after Valkyrie, the maid of the god Odin in Norse mythology, was known as "Operation Valkyrie". The mastermind of the operation was Klaus Stauffenberg, a German Army colonel.
(Stauffenberg in film)
So why did Stauffenberg assassinate Hitler? Why did the operation end in failure? What happened to Stauffenberg after the failure of the operation?
Stauffenberg was born in 1907 into a german aristocratic family and held a distinguished status. After World War I, Germany, as a defeated country, was divided by the European powers. The young Stauffenberg was very sad, and he immediately made his ambition clear: he must make the motherland stronger.
Later, hitler came to power, and Stauffenberg became an admirer of Nazism. He admired Hitler's pure German national theory and was determined to follow Hitler.
After entering the army, Staufenberg traveled to many battlefields and accumulated rich combat experience. In early 1943, he was ordered to the Battlefield of North Africa. In a battle a few months later, Staufenberg was bombed, losing two fingers of his left hand, his entire right hand, and even his right eye.
Although unable to continue to lead troops on the front lines, Hitler appreciated his talents and transferred him back to the Eastern Front headquarters.
At that time, Germany had just suffered the defeat of Stalingrad, and the whole army was demoralized. Although Manstein subsequently recaptured a city in the Kharkov counterattack, he stopped the decline of the German army. But the Soviets also responded quickly in Kursk. After the Battle of Kursk, the defeat of the German army was already apparent, and the entire army was defeated.
in Manstein
The continuous defeat of the Soviet-German battlefield caused an uproar in the whole of Germany. More and more people began to oppose Hitler's rule, and the anti-war cries became louder and louder. Against this background, Staufenberg began to doubt himself, and his mentality began to slowly change.
After a long period of contemplation, Stauffenberg finally came to the conclusion that he was loyal only to Germany and not to Nazism. Today, Germany is deeply involved in the whirlpool of war, and his sons and daughters are constantly dying, but Hitler is still obstinate. The only solution, then, is the assassination of Hitler.
In June 1944, with the successful Allied landings in Normandy, Stauffenberg became increasingly aware of the urgency of the matter. He secretly contacted a large number of officers and began to prepare the assassination plan.
At first, Staufenberg contacted kleist, a dead man who was willing to die with Hitler. At that time, the German army was about to change to a new uniform, and some officers would try on and be examined by Hitler, and Kleist was one of them.
According to the plan, Kleist would tie the bomb to his abdomen and detonate it when Hitler stepped forward. But the factory where the new uniforms were stored was blown up by Allied planes shortly after, eventually leading to the cancellation of the parade. The first assassination plan failed.
Unable to do so, Stauffenberg then activated the second plan. At that time he was chief of staff of the reserve commander Fromm, and often had the opportunity to contact Hitler. He decided to personally use a time bomb to end Hitler's life.
On July 11, 1944, Staufenberg spent nearly half an hour with Hitler and Goering, but he did not think of detonating the bomb. In his view, Hitler, Goering, and Himmler were all targets that must be killed, and none of them could do without one.
in Goering
But as the opportunities diminished, Stauffenberg realized that time was running out, and he eventually targeted Hitler alone.
On 20 July, Stauffenberg was informed in advance of Hitler's coming. He put two bombs and a timer in his briefcase. But at noon, Stauffenberg was told that because Mussolini would arrive at 2:30 p.m., the meeting, which was scheduled to start at one o'clock, was brought forward to 12:30.
Stauffenberg's plans were completely disrupted, and he quickly hid in the toilet and began assembling the bomb. But since he only has 3 fingers left to move, the speed of assembly is really not fast. In the end, Stauffenberg hastily loaded a bomb and was forced to go to a conference room for a meeting.
Combat meetings are usually held in basements, and if the bomb explodes, it will be very powerful. But the meeting that day was in a wooden house with three windows, and the bomb power was greatly reduced. Stauffenberg decided to give it a go because he feared he would never find another chance.
Arriving in the conference room, Staufenberg placed his purse under the table about two meters away from Hitler. After a while he activated the timer and left the conference room on the pretext of making an emergency call.
However, at that time, one officer felt that the leather bag under the table was too obstructive. He picked up his purse and placed it on the other end of the thick base of the table.
A few minutes later, a loud noise came from the conference room. Four of the 24 attendees died instantly, and Hitler only burned his hair and shattered his eardrums as he was lying on a table looking at a map.
After hearing the loud noise, Staufenberg quickly arrived at the nearby airport and flew to Berlin for the first time. In his plan, blowing up Hitler was only the first step. He must take advantage of the enemy's lack of readiness to quickly sweep away nazi power in Berlin.
A few hours later, however, he received news that Hitler was not dead, and all his efforts were in vain.
After this incident, Hitler was furious and launched a frenzied campaign of revenge. He arrested more than 7,000 people involved, of whom more than 5,000 were executed. Stauffenberg did not escape. Before he died, he still shouted, "Long live the German Empire!" ”
(Reference: The Fall of the Third Reich)