20 July Plot

The July Bomb Plot or Operation Valkyrie was one of the biggest 'what if' moments in history. Only a thick wooden table leg stopped the assassination of Adolf Hitler and the end of The Second World War.

July Bomb Plot

Below is a timeline outlining the July Bomb Plot and other attempts on Hitler's life:

The Origins of Operation Valkyrie

When Operation Valkyrie was conceived, it had nothing to do with assassinations or coups. It was created because the German government worried that the Allied bombings of German cities could cause civil unrest. Consequently, they created a plan (Operation Valkyrie) to see the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany take control and continue government in the event of civil breakdown.

German Army officers Friedrich Olbricht, Henning von Tresckow, and Claus von Stauffenberg modified Operation Valkyrie, intending to use it to seize power, demobilise the SS, and detain the Nazi leadership after Hitler's planned assassination on 20 July.

Operation Valkyrie

By the summer of 1944, Germany was losing the Second World War; many German military leaders blamed their Führer and had begun to lose faith in Hitler's leadership.

Several high-ranking politicians and military leaders hatched a plan to assassinate Hitler. They planned that Claus von Stauffenberg would set off a bomb during Hitler's meeting at the Wolfsschanze (the Wolf’s Lair).

With Hitler dead, the conspirators would claim that the Nazi Party set off the bomb in an attempted coup. Using the Reserve Army, the conspirators would arrest the SS, take control of German institutions, and establish a new government led by Ludwig Beck as president and Carl Friedrich Goerdeler as Chancellor of Germany. Once the new government had been established, they would negotiate an end to the Second World War.

Fig. 1 - Claus von Stauffenberg

July 20 Plot Members

Here is a brief table outlining the 20 July Plot members:

July 1944 Plot

On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg arrived at Hitler's military conference at the Wolfsschanze. The bomb was concealed in his briefcase. Due to the hot weather the conference location was changed from the underground bunker to the main meeting room.

After planting the briefcase bomb, Stauffenberg took his pre-arranged phone call and left the Wolfsschanze. Whilst leaving the compound, an officer unwittingly moved Stauffenberg's briefcase, propping it against a thick oak table leg.

At approximately 12:45 PM, the bomb exploded, killing three officers and destroying the room. However, Hitler was shielded by a solid-wood table leg and survived with nothing but a perforated eardrum and a few scrapes.

Fig. 2 - The Wolfsschanze after the bomb explosion

Stauffenberg travelled to a nearby airfield and flew three hours to Berlin. Whilst travelling, however, Stauffenberg's fellow conspirators failed to act; they were unsure whether Hitler was, in fact, dead or not. By the time Stauffenberg landed in Berlin, it was already too late.

Fig. 3 - Hitler's tattered trousers after the assassination attempt

The Second Stage of the July Bomb Plot

Discovering that the bomb had not killed Hitler, Fromm refused to initiate Operation Valkyrie; Olbricht, however, had already initiated the plan in Fromm's name. Fromm declined to cooperate with the plan and was detained.

Although Hitler had survived, the conspirators managed to disarm the SS and the Nazi intelligence organisation. However, Heinrich Himmler had taken control of the situation by this time and revoked Operation Valkyrie. With Hitler alive and the coup in tatters, the less adamant conspiracy members began to change sides.

After a brief firefight, Fromm was freed from his imprisonment and managed to take control.

20 July Plot Executions

In a desperate bid to cover his involvement, Fromm swiftly sentenced and ordered the executions of Stauffenberg and Olbricht by firing squad. Beck and Tresckow committed suicide, and Goerdeler was sentenced to death by hanging during the show trials. Fromm himself was eventually executed for his failure to prevent the assassination attempt. As well as the plot's leaders, some 180 out of 200 conspirators were executed.

July Bomb Plot Summary

Despite meticulous planning, the July Bomb Plot failed for two simple reasons: the bomb failed to kill Hitler, and the conspirators failed to act when it mattered. Still, such elementary faults don't detract from the significance of such a plot nor diminish what it could have achieved. Had the coup been successful, the 175,000 troops who lost their lives during the Battle of the Bulge and 450,00 military personnel who lost their lives during the Allied invasion of France would have lived.

Immediately after the assassination attempt, Hitler spoke to the German public via a radio address. For six minutes, Hitler attacked the group of conspirators whilst asserting that he remained unhurt. After addressing the German public, Hitler turned his attention to the conspirators. Some 800 Germans were rounded up in connection with the plot and humiliatingly tried during a series of public show trials.

A year later, the aims of the Valkyrie conspirators were achieved; Adolf Hitler was dead, and Germany was negotiating a peaceful surrender with the Allies. Those who had arrested, tried, and executed the July Bomb Plot Conspirators were now themselves being tried.