On this day, July 20, 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and others almost assassinated Hitler.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I'd like to see a monument to Claus von Stauffenberg replace the one to Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square.

This Day in #WWII #History: On July 20, 1944, Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (20 July plot).

Link to tweet

20 July plot


Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring, and Bruno Loerzer surveying the damaged conference room

Type: Decapitation strike
Location: Wolf's Lair, East Prussia
Coordinates: L-WM_type:landmark" target="_blank">54°04?50?N 21°29?47?E

Planned by:
Henning von Tresckow
Erwin von Witzleben
Claus von Stauffenberg
among others…

On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The name Operation Valkyrie—originally referring to part of the conspiracy—has become associated with the entire event.

The apparent aim of the assassination attempt was to wrest political control of Germany and its armed forces from the Nazi Party (including the SS) and to make peace with the Western Allies as soon as possible. The details of the conspirators' peace initiatives remain unknown, but they would have included unrealistic demands for the confirmation of Germany's extensive annexations of European territory.

The plot was the culmination of efforts by several groups in the German resistance to overthrow the Nazi German government. The failure of the assassination attempt and the intended military coup d'état that was to follow led the Gestapo to arrest more than 7,000 people, of whom they executed 4,980.

{snip}

[pandr32]

1. If only

[hatrack]

2. The table leg that rewrote history . . .

Think of it - no Hurtgen Forest, no Battle of the Bulge, no Courland Cauldron, no Arrow Cross massacres in Budapest, no death camp death marches, no Battle of Berlin . . .

A table leg.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. It's Worse Than That

Von Stauffenberg had two devices.
They were both triggered by acid attack fuses.
He couldn't get the second fuse inserted in time. So, he only used one device.
But, he didn't understand explosives.
If he had both in the same satchel, only one needed a fuse.
The detonation of the first almost instantaneously would have triggered the second.
Twice the blast pressure would have killed everybody in that room, and that table leg would have turned into a few hundred artery shredding missiles.
If he had just put both devices in that case.

[hatrack]

4. And this was like the sixth or seventh attempt . . .

The cognac bottle bomb on Hitler's plane that failed to detonate.

The Munich bombing in November of 1939 (he left earliy).

The Wehrmacht officer who agreed to suicide-bomb Hitler with grenades in his own coat at a display of new Army uniforms (the uniforms were destroyed in a bombing raid).

[rso]

5. Assassination attempt

There is quite a poignant memorial in Downtown Berlin at the City Square where Stauffenberg was executed.