The Devilish Luck Hitler "Operation Valkyrie"
Hello friend, today I am going to talk about the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler, since we all know that there were several attacks against Hitler, but they all failed after a long investigation that I was able to gather important information about these events and their characters, we hope to review what happened 77 years ago.
On November 8, 1939, luck saved Adolf Hitler from certain death. The carpenter Georg Elser had been on the verge of ending the life of the Führer after putting an explosive device in the Bürgerbraükeller, a local of Munich, but Hitler had been saved thanks to which it had retired of the place 20 minutes before the bomb - that killed 8 people and left another 63 wounded - it will explode.
The project to overthrow Adolf Hitler by the German military itself began to take place in an underground manner in 1938, by some senior Wehrmacht officers eager to avoid a great war on a European scale. Among these conspirators were General Ludwig Beck, former chief of staff, and field marshal Erwin von Witzleben however the indecision of army generals Franz Halder and Walter von Brauchitsch prevented such plans from being carried out.
In 1941, after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, another resistance group was formed led by Colonel Henning von Tresckow, who worked as part of the General Staff of General Edor von Vock, his uncle. Tresckow thought that the war against the Russians was lost beforehand and that this situation would lead Germany (as it ended up happening) to the abyss.
Henning Von Tresckow, chief of staff of the second army in the southern section of the eastern front since the end of 1943, a professional soldier and fervent defender of Prussian values, had been an admirer of Hitler from the beginning, but had soon become an implacable detractor of the Nazi regime. After the disaster of Stalingrad, which involved the capture by the Soviets of the sixth German army of Marshal von Paulus, Tresckow considered Hitler responsible for the safe ruin of Germany, so he was willing to kill him, after ensuring the collaboration from other military and officials such as the former chief of staff Ludwig Beck, the Reich price commissioner Carl Goerdeler, the Prussian finance minister Johannes Pipitz, the former German ambassador in Rome Ulrich von Hassell, Colonel Hans Oster, the magistrate Hans von Dohnanyi and other uniformed men, including Fabian von Schalebrendorff and Rudolph-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff.
One of the obvious problems with the conspiracy to kill the Führer was how to get close enough to Hitler, since Hitler was always heavily guarded by his SS bodyguards, with his pistols always at hand. Therefore, the main plan was to kill Hitler with a bomb. Tresckow asked one of the members of Hitler's entourage, Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Brandt, who was on Hitler's plane, to take a package from him to Colonel Helmuth Stieff of the army's high command. The package seemed to contain two bottles of cognac, but in reality it was the two parts of a bomb Tresckow had built.
Schalebrendorff took the package to the airfield and, after activating the bomb so that it exploded 30 minutes later, he handed it to Brandt just as he was boarding Hitler's plane. Everyone thought that the plane would explode in the sky before Hitler landed in Minsk, but none of that happened, because Hitler landed safe and sound in that place. Apparently, the intense cold had prevented the detonation of the bomb. Hitler had miraculously saved himself a second time.
Soon there would be another occasion to end Hitler forever. Gersdorff offered to sacrifice his life to kill Hitler during the ceremony of "Heroes Day", which was to be held in Berlin on March 21, 1943. The attack would be committed while Hitler was visiting the exhibition of war booty captured the Soviets. When the day arrived, Gersdorff stood at the entrance of the exhibition and raised his right arm to greet Hitler as he passed by his side with his entourage, while at the same time pressing with his left hand the detonator of a bomb that was to explode. in 10 minutes. Hitler was supposed to remain in the place for half an hour, long enough for the bomb to explode in the place and kill him, but Hitler, for fear of Allied bombing, only stayed in the place a few minutes before leaving. Gersdorff could not follow him and had to hurry to one of the bathrooms to deactivate the pump. Once again, an amazing luck seemed to accompany Hitler.
In 1942, Tresckow, with the help of General Hans Oster, succeeded in recruiting General Friedrich Olbricht, who was in charge of the army's headquarters in Berlin, controlling the autonomous communications system that linked the military reserve units. stationed in the territory of Germany. The conspirators sought unsuccessfully to join their conspiracy with field marshals Erich von Manstein and Gerd von Rundstedt, two veteran soldiers who enjoyed great prestige in the Wehrmacht for their successes and tactical knowledge in combat, who could help an effective overthrow of the Nazi regime and not a mere murder of Hitler and, although they refused to join the overthrow, they did not reveal the conspiracy. "The Prussian marshals do not riot", was the answer given Manstein, famous for being the brain of the blitzkrieg that supposed the fall in 1940 of Belgium and France.
When Colonel Treschkow was transferred in 1943 to the command of a regiment, far from his influential post at the headquarters of Army Armies, everyone thought that the conspiracy should be suspended. To further inconvenience, almost simultaneously, General Günther von Kluge, commander of Army Group Center on the Russian front, who was aware of plans to kill Hitler, was injured in an accident and was replaced by General Ernst Busch, a determined supporter of the German leader. That situation would have remained standby for a long time, if not the intervention of a soldier that would print new dynamisms to the efforts of the conspirators to end the life of Adolf Hitler. His name was Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.
Stauffenberg
The historian Ian Kershaw, in his remarkable book "Hitler: the definitive biography", tells that Claus Schenk Graf Von Stauffenberg
"Came from an aristocratic Swabian family. Like many young people, he was initially attracted to some aspects of National Socialism, especially because of his insistence on strong armed forces and his foreign policy to the Versailles Treaty, but he was opposed to his racial anti-Semitism. The growing barbarism of the regime horrified him. At the end of the spring of 1942 he became irremediably against Hitler, influenced by the incontrovertible first-hand accounts of the massacres of Ukrainian Jews by SS men. In April 1944, while serving in North Africa, with the tenth Panzer division, he was seriously wounded: he lost his right eye, right hand and two fingers of his left hand. But after he was discharged from the hospital, in August while talking to Friedrich Olbricht, he tested him to see if he wanted to join the resistance. There was not much doubt about what his response would be. He had already come to the conclusion that the only way to get rid of Hitler was by killing him. Already, at the beginning of September, Stauffenberg had already met the main opposition men. Like Treschkow, he was a man of action, an organizer rather than a theoretician "
The conspirators decided that, after killing Hitler, they should also seize the Nazi State, so they came up with the idea of reformulating an operational plan, code-named "Valkyrie", which Olbricht had already developed and Hitler would have approved. mobilize the reserve army inside Germany should there be serious internal disturbances. The only problem was that the order was to be given by Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, a military opportunist who was not particularly devoted to Hitler, but who in every order of affairs did not take sides and did not commit himself until the last moment, when he was Surely the circumstances were in his favor.
After talking, Staufenberg and Tresckow decided that, given the strong security measures that always surrounded Hitler, the attack had to be carried out in the Führer's headquarters, which at that time was his residence of the Berghof, in Bavaria, and the famous "Lair" of the Wolf ", in East Prussia. Then the only problem that remained was then only one: Who would perpetrate the attack against Adolf Hitler?
Stauffenberg wanted the attack on Hitler to take place at the end of November. So he contacted Captain Axel von dem Bussche, who offered to sacrifice his own life by detonating a grenade while the Führer visited an exhibition of new uniforms to be held in December 1943, but the misfortune was still conspiring against the plans of the conspirators , because an aerial bombardment destroyed the train that took the uniforms and the same Bussche was wounded in the Eastern front in January of 1944, losing a leg. Later the aide-de-camp Rittmeister Eberhard Von Breitenbuch, who was to accompany Field Marshal Busch in his meeting with Hitler on March 11, 1944 at his residence in the Berghof, offered to shoot Hitler in the head with his Browning pistol which he had hidden in His back pocket, but at that time he could not get close to Hitler, since the aides-de-camp were not allowed to enter the meeting.
However, on July 1, 1944 Stauffenberg was promoted to colonel and appointed chief of General Fromm's staff, which allowed him to have access to briefings with Hitler himself. In this way, Stauffenberg no longer needed to find anyone to perpetrate the murder, since he could do it himself. "It's time to do something. But the man who has the courage to do something must do so knowing that the history of Germany will pass as a traitor. However, if he does not do so, he will be a traitor to his own conscience" Stauffenberg told his colleagues.
The attack in the "Lair of the Wolf"
On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, after a two-hour flight from Berlin, arrived at the "Wolf's Den", Hitler's center of operations in East Prussia, to meet with him. Hitler himself and other officers. Stauffenberg carried in his briefcase two explosive devices, which would explode 15 minutes after being activated. Under the pretext that he had to cool off and change his shirt, both went to the bathroom to put the timers on the pumps, but just at that moment the presence of Stauffenberg was urgently required in the room, so he quickly closed his briefcase, so he did not manage to activate the timer of the second explosive device, which his aide-de-camp nervously kept in his own briefcase. The historian Ian Kershaw explained that "it was a decisive moment. Had Haeften put the second device in Stauffenberg's briefcase next to the first, even without the charge, the explosion would have blown it, so that its effect would have more than doubled. In that case, most likely no one would have survived. "
After returning to the living room, where Hitler and several of his generals were at the briefing, Stauffenberg and his aide-de-camp managed to put the case with the bomb on the right leg of the large oak table in the office, a few meters away. Hitler Next, Stauffenberg and his aide-de-camp looked for an excuse to leave the room again, something that did not attract attention among those present as comings and goings were common during daily meetings. When Stauffenberg and Haeften were getting ready to take a car to get out of the "Wolf's Den", they heard a deafening explosion coming from the hut where Hitler was. Then, not without difficulty, they went to the airfield to return to Berlin, but not before Haeften threw the package containing the second explosive along the way. Both were satisfied, believing that Hitler had died in the explosion.
The miraculous salvation of Hitler
The historian Ian Kershaw, recalling what happened after the bomb exploded, relates that "Hitler was leaning over the heavy oak table, studying on a map aerial reconnaissance positions, leaning on one elbow and with his chin in his hand, when the bomb exploded with a glowing blue-and-yellow flash, and a deafening explosion. Windows and doors burst, thick clouds of smoke rose, and broken glass, pieces of wood and paper, and other debris flew everywhere. Parts of the shattered hut were on fire. For some time that was chaos. There were 24 people in the cabin at the time of the explosion. Some were thrown to the ground or thrown around the room. Others had their hair or clothing on fire. There were cries for help. Some human forms walked in stumbling (shocked, half blinded, broken eardrums) in the smoke and debris, desperately looking for the exit between the ruins of the cabin. The less fortunate lay in the rubble, some mortally wounded. Of all the people who were in the cabin, only Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and Hitler did not suffer shock, and Keitel was the only one who did not have broken eardrums "
Kershaw adds that "surprisingly", Hitler had survived and had only suffered some superficial injuries. After the initial shock of the explosion, he saw that he was unharmed and could move, and went to the door through the rubble, knocking out the flames of his pants and removing the charred hair from the nape of his neck. He stumbled over Keitel, who hugged him, crying and shouting: "My Führer, you are alive, you are alive!" Keitel helped Hitler out of the building, his uniform jacket torn and his black pants and long white underpants in tatters, but he could walk without problems. He returned immediately to the bunker. They immediately notified Dr. Morell. Hitler's right arm was swollen and sore, and he could barely lift it, swelling and scratches on his left arm, burns and blisters on his hands and legs (which were also full of wood chips) and cuts on his forehead. But these, together with the broken eardrums, were the worst injuries he had suffered. When his valet, Linge, ran in and panicked, Hitler was calm and said with a sardonic smile: "Linge, someone has tried to kill me" ... By then, suspicions of the attack and fell on the missing Stauffenberg.
Operation Valkyrie fails
In Berlin, meanwhile, began to reign uncertainty and indecision among the conspirators. General Fromm, who was aware of the assassination attempt, refused to sign the order to start the Valkyrie operation, as he was not sure that Hitler had died. In fact, he had spoken to Keitel by telephone, and Keitel had assured him that the Führer had only minor injuries. The conspiracy to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime had failed not only because he was alive, but also because they had left too many loose (the mutineers had not flown the communications center of Hitler's barracks, they did not stop the top leaders of the Nazi Party and the SS, the Berlin radios were not silenced and they did not transmit any radio message to the German population).
The group of conspirators, imprisoned in the building of the high command of the Werhmacht in the Bendlerblock, were finally surrounded by a battalion of guards who had already been alerted of the attempted attack. After an exchange of shots, Stauffenberg was wounded in the shoulder, while General Fromm, who had been detained in a room, regained control of the situation and arrested all those present, although he allowed General Ludwig Beck to remain with his weapon so that he could commit suicide, something that he half managed (they had to finish him later). Trying to prove that it had nothing to do with the conspiracy, Fromm returned to his office and held a summary war council on behalf of the Führer: Mertz Von Quirnheim (a friend of Stauffenberg very involved in the conspiracy), General Olbricht, the aide-de-camp Hoeften and "this colonel whose name I will not mention" (referring to Stauffenberg), were condemned to death. Fromm was unaware that after these events he would also be arrested and executed in March 1945.
At 0:10 on July 21, the four convicts were taken to the courtyard of the building, where they were awaiting a firing squad consisting of 10 men from the guard battalion. When the platoon was about to shoot at Stauffenberg (General Olbricht had already been shot), his aide Hoeften threw himself in front of him and died first. When they put Stauffenberg back on the wall, he exclaimed before falling down shot down: "Long live the sacred Germany."
I will show you this movie starring Tom Cruise that tells what happened in the operation Valkyrie
Movie Operation Valkyrie The Plot to Kill Hitler
On the occasion of the failed attempt on Adolf Hitler, the GESTAPO, the political police of the Nazi regime, would arrest more than five thousand people. Most of the executions related to the coup of July 1944 would occur during the following weeks and even in the following months. When the killing ended, the death toll among those involved amounted to about 200 people. After meeting with the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on July 20 (the meeting was scheduled for weeks and Hitler did not want to suspend it despite his injuries), the Fuehrer told him that Providence had protected him: "When I think carefully , I come to the conclusion, due to my wonderful salvation, while others who were in the room suffered great injuries, that nothing will happen to me ". At midnight of that day, Hitler addressed all Germans on national radio, informing them that "a small clique of stupid, ambitious, unscrupulous and at the same time criminal officers have plotted a conspiracy to eliminate me and at the same time eradicate with me to (the dome) of the staff of the German armed forces ... But I have survived, which is a sign of Providence that I should continue with my task and, therefore, I will continue it. "
The historian Ian Kershaw, in this regard, concluded in his biography that "in reality, as so many other times in his life, it was not Providence that had saved Hitler, but luck; a devilish luck ".
REFERENCE:
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/hitler-9780141035888
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Valkyrie
http://www.dw.com/en/germany-remembers-operation-valkyrie-the-plot-to-kill-hitler/a-1271174
Part of the story was also taken from the movie Operation Valkyrie The Plot to Kill Hitler.
All the research of the characters was through wikipedia.org.
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