Chapter 173 Chapter 28 The Army’s Explosion Plan (4)

"If the conspiracy is not to be exposed, it must first be complete and possible to succeed. Such an attempt requires many people to act, it takes a lot of time, and it also needs favorable conditions. All these increase the possibility of being discovered. , so, you can see how dangerous it is to engage in conspiracy!" Those who tried to blow up Hitler's plane with dynamite in a brandy bottle, who tried to kill him with a bomb hidden in a coat, were not disheartened by failure.Between September 1943 and February 11, 1944, they made four more attempts.In the first, a general named Hemot Stief tried to plant a time bomb in Wolf's Lair so that it would explode during a midday meeting, but at the last moment the general lost his nerve. A month later, an army captain named Bucher agreed to blow himself up along with Hitler while exhibiting a new army overcoat.But fate, in the form of bombs dropped by enemy planes, intervened.The day before the exhibition, Berlin was hit by an air raid, and the coat samples in the exhibition were destroyed.Buscher had no choice but to return to the front line.

On the second day of Christmas in 1943, another officer who returned from the front walked into the conference room where the noon meeting was held, carrying a suitcase containing a time bomb.for some reason.The midday meeting was canceled at the last minute.A few weeks later, they did another "overcoat" project.This time, it was Ewald Heinrich von Kleist, the son of one of the plot's initiators, who volunteered for the task.The RAF again saved Hitler's life.When the exhibition was about to start, it was canceled due to the British air raid. Two weeks after the last defeat, the Resistance was dealt a severe blow.Hitler ordered the merger of the intelligence service and the SS security service.This means that the heart of the conspiracy has been effectively destroyed.General Auster has been fired on suspicion.Although he still has freedom of movement, he is of little use since he is closely watched.Fate, it seemed, was indeed protecting Hitler; there was a sense of desperation in the conspirators' camp.The secret war against Hitler might have ended - were it not for a new leader.The man was a staff officer, lieutenant colonel, Klaus Philipp Shenck von Stauffenberg, and a count.Stauffenberg was the great-grandson of Gneissnau, a hero in the Liberation War against Napoleon.He gave up his plans to become an architect and entered the military in 1926.Like many other officers, he applauded Hitler's conscription, the German-Austrian annexation and occupation of Czechoslovakia, and the victories in Holland and France.It was Barbarossa who made him lose his illusions.He wholeheartedly supported Rosenberg's policy of emancipating non-Russians in the Soviet Union; this policy was later replaced by oppression and murder.He told an officer that there is only one way to solve the German problem, and that is to kill Hitler.By chance, he got acquainted with the leaders of the resistance movement and hit it off with them.However, his role appears to have been short-lived; his car was struck by a landmine, which cost him an eye and two fingers on his right and left hands.If it were another person, he would definitely be discharged from the army, but Stauffenberg firmly believed that only he could kill Hitler.So, at the end of 1943, he rejoined the team.On Christmas Day he entered the Führer's conference room with a bomb in his briefcase.He failed, but the failure itself spurred him on to more ambitious, though similar, projects.This time, he planned carefully: as soon as the assassination was successful, military takeovers were simultaneously implemented in Berlin, Paris and Vienna.

After arriving in Berlin, Stauffenberg served as the chief of staff of the commander-in-chief of the domestic garrison.This new role will allow him to rebuild the weakened cabal.He took over leadership from an aging leader, relying on the vigor of a strong personality, and received positive assurances from a powerful group in the Army: his own superior, the Army Logistics General, the Chief of Signal of the Supreme Command, whose troops would be killed after the assassination. Arrest the general in Berlin, as well as other key mid-level officers. To this day, however, no field marshal has wholeheartedly supported the plan.Kruger's attitude was ambiguous; Manstein was unwilling to commit prematurely because he felt that "such a coup would lead to the collapse of the Eastern Front".The most promising candidate was Rommel, but even he had serious reservations. "I believe it is my duty to save Germany", he said - but he opposed the assassination.That would only turn Hitler into a respected martyr.The Army should arrest the Führer, hand him over to a German court, and hold him accountable for his crimes.

In the spring of 1944, with the arrival of a new chief of staff, Lieutenant General Hans Speidel, Rommel became more and more involved in this conspiracy.Speidel is both a soldier and a philosopher. He once received a Ph.D. from the University of Tubingen with the highest grades.He persuaded Rommel to have a secret meeting with the French military governor, General Karl Stuernagel, in the countryside near Paris.Here, with the active help of their chief of staff, the two worked out a plan to end the war on the Western Front by signing an armistice.All German troops will withdraw to the German mainland, and the Allied forces will stop bombing Germany.Hitler would be arrested, and Germany would be temporarily taken over by resistance forces.Meanwhile, the war on the Eastern Front would continue, and British and American armies were expected to join the crusade against Bolshevism.Rommel was so enthusiastic that he even wanted to bring Lunsted into it.Runsted, while agreeing to the plan, would not be directly involved in the matter. "You're young," said Runstead. "You know the people, you love the people. Go for it."

Rommel was involved in this conspiracy, and Stauffenberg and his group were not very happy, because they thought he was a Nazi who had betrayed Hitler because he had lost the war.They also disagreed with the plan to continue to attack Russia, and felt that it was unrealistic to make peace with the West alone.Furthermore, Stauffenberg and others wanted to assassinate Hitler rather than arrest him.By June 1, 1944, they felt that the matter must be settled before the Allied invasion; once the enemy invaded the homeland, any kind of decent peace would be impossible.Now, they have a detailed plan for a coup.The plan, ironically, is based on a measure approved by the Führer.Officially called Operation "Goddess", it was a Hitler program to suppress unrest among wartime soldiers and foreign labor laborers in Germany.The plan calls for the declaration of a state of emergency and the immediate mobilization of sufficient forces to suppress any kind of rebellion or uprising.Stauffenberg's strategy was to use the "Goddess" as a signal for a coup d'état throughout the country and on every front.Hitler had made it clear that the warning order for the Goddess would be issued by General Friedrich Fromm, commander of the reserve forces—and Fromm was half-hearted about the Resistance.

D-Day caused panic among the conspirators.The older ones said that even if the coup was successful, Germany would not be immune to occupation.The best way is to rely on the West, hoping that they will do justice to Germany and prevent Russia from ravaging the homeland.Stauffenberg, however, was determined to make one last attempt at the assassination—and the opportunity presented itself almost immediately to help.He was promoted to colonel and served as Fromm's chief of staff.Now, the coup d'état does not depend on this half-hearted general.Stauffenberg himself would then have the power to issue orders to the reserve forces and thus capture Berlin.This new position also gave him constant access to the Führer. In early July, he made a plan of action: report to the Führer at the meeting held every day, and place a time bomb there to kill the Führer, Goering and Himmler. After succeeding, he will fly back to Berlin , personally directing the military administration of the capital.

In organizing such a complex project, he proceeded with such orderliness that the several accomplices of the General Staff were encouraged.A young lieutenant named Uban Tiech recalled: "Look at his energy on the phone, it's really pleasing! His orders are short and clear. For important people, he is polite and natural. Appropriate. He always manages the situation." Stauffenberg's time finally came. On July 11, Hitler summoned him and asked him to report on the situation of supplementary troops.He arrived at the Berghof with a briefcase containing many documents and an imperial bomb.Unexpectedly, however, Himmler was not in the conference room.He found an excuse and called the General Staff Building on Bendlerstrasse (near the Berlin Zoo). "Are we doing it?"

He asked General Albricht, director of the Army General Office.This bomb could still kill Hitler and Goering.Albricht told him to wait until he could kill three people at the same time. Four days later, the opportunity came again.Stauffenberg was again ordered to meet Hitler - he had moved his headquarters to "Wolf's Lair".He went to the "wolf's lair" with the bomb.This time, the conspirators were determined to win; General Albricht ordered the implementation of the "Goddess Operation" plan at 11:00 a.m., two hours before the meeting.This would give time for the conference reserves and the tanks of the adjacent Mechanized Military Academy to move troops into the capital in the early afternoon.

The meeting started promptly at 1:00 pm.After briefing Hitler, Stauffenberg went out and called Bendlerstrasse to tell them that Hitler was in the conference room, and he immediately went back to install the bomb.After he returned to the conference room, he found that Hitler had left for some reason and never came back. After 15 minutes, Stauffenberg found an excuse again and told Berlin the news.It was 1:30 in the afternoon, and the troops were approaching Berlin.Albricht hastily ordered the cancellation of "Goddess", and the troops had to quietly return to camp. The latest defeat has weakened and shaken some of the conspirators.Not so with Stauffenberg.He held meetings with his younger colleagues at his home in Wannsee.Stauffenberg's cousin (the liaison officer with the Rommel-Speidel group in France) reported a piece of exciting news.He said that the Allied forces were about to break through (the German front), and Rommel had made up his mind to support their plan no matter what the actions of Field Marshal von Kluge, who succeeded Rundstedt, would do.However, fate intervened again.The next day, Allied planes blew up Rommel's car, seriously wounding him.

Officers who returned to "Wolf's Lair" no longer recognized the place.The original short and small bunker has disappeared, replaced by a tall reinforced concrete building, and the roof is covered by transplanted vegetation.Due to the hot weather, Hitler often stayed in the new bunker, which was cooler than the wooden barracks. "He was in a bad mood," recalls Traudl Junger, "often complaining of insomnia and headaches." In order to make him happy, the adjutants often let him play with the guests.Hoffman, who drank more than before, has bored him, but the architect Professor Gisler often makes him smile with ingenious models.Hitler may have had a bad temper on this hot day, but he showed optimism.He told Goebbels (again smoking and sleeping on sleeping pills) that the pendulum of history would soon swing back—in Germany's favor.