While suffering heavy losses and forced retreats, German commanders were further disheartened by another tragic turn of events--the failed attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler and the savage revenge he exacted in reply.
As early as 1943, a group of anti-Nazi civilians and military officers including Karl Friedrich Goerdeler (a previous mayor of Leipzig) and Colonel General Ludwig Beck (a retired chief of the army general staff) had begun to solicit support from active military authorities in a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. Investigations following the failed attempt indicate that the initial conspirators were successful in recruiting General Friedrich Olbricht (deputy commander of the German Home Army) and several active-duty commanders.
Less than two weeks after D-Day, this dejected group of conspirators contacted Lieutenant Colonel Count Klaus von Stauffenberg and briefed him on the conspiracy. Stauffenberg, a seasoned combat veteran who had sacrificed an eye, a hand, and two fingers of his other hand to the war effort, seemed the ideal choice to carry out the assassination. He hated the Fⁿhrer passionately.
Stauffenberg agreed to murder Hitler and to communicate completion of the assassination using the code word "Valkyrie." Following the murder, a coup d'etat was to occur in which Olbricht and other commanders involved in the conspiracy would take control of the Reich.
When called to a meeting at Hitler's East Prussian headquarters on 20 July, Stauffenberg carried with him a briefcase containing a time bomb. Before the commencement of the meeting, he left this briefcase under a wooden table six feet from Hitler's legs. At 1237, after Stauffenberg had left the room, the bomb exploded.
In a strange twist of fate, someone in the room had inadvertently moved the briefcase away from Hitler, thus sparing his life. The explosion did take four lives and resulted in twenty casualties. Hitler, who was burned and deafened, suffered temporary paralysis in one arm.
Unaware of his failure, Stauffenberg flew back to Berlin, while Olbricht received word that the Fⁿhrer was still alive. Confusion reigned among the conspirators in Berlin and the coup miscarried.
Predictably, the already paranoid Hitler was enraged, and directed loyal Nazi units to capture and execute the conspirators. Olbricht and Stauffenberg were shot immediately. Rommel was wrongly suspected of being directly involved in the plot. In spite of his innocence, he and others were forced to commit suicide to save their honor and protect their families.
This was not the end of the blood bath. Nearly 15,000 suspects were arrested in a massive Gestapo roundup. Of this number, it is estimated that as many as 5,000 were executed. Prominent suspects suffered public executions. These conspirators were tried in a specially appointed court, quickly convicted, and slowly strangled on meathooks. Hitler ordered this macabre, sadistic scene filmed, and had it shown to selected military personnel as a deterrent to further dissension.
