Operation Valkyrie
Operation Valkyrie was the code name for an emergency continuity of government plan in the event of civil unrest in Germany during World War II. Three high-ranking officers of the German Army, General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow, and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg had different intentions for the operation. They devised a plan to assassinate Hitler, and after he had been killed they intended to blame his assassination on a coup by the Nazi SS. From there they would utilize the German Reserve Army to disarm and arrest the Nazi SS leadership. This alleged treasonous coup would then justify the removal of the Nazi Party government from office.
Colonel-General Friedrich Fromm, Chief of the Reserve Army opposed the conspirator’s plan. However, Olbricht was determined to press ahead with the plot, with or without Fromm’s cooperation. Tresckow and Stauffenberg at first considered other officers with access to Hitler to carry out his assassination. On July 7, 1944, General Helmuth Stieff had been in place to assassinate Hitler at an unveiling of new uniforms at Klessheim Castle, but in the end backed out. Tresckow tried on a number of occasions to be assigned to Hitler’s headquarters but to no avail.
Ultimately Stauffenberg volunteered. On July 1, 1944, Stauffenberg had been appointed Chief of Staff to the Reserve Army. This position enabled Stauffenberg to attend Hitler’s military conferences which would give him the opportunity to carry out his assassination. At one of these conferences on July 14, 1944, Stauffenberg had with him a briefcase containing a bomb. It had been decided that both Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goring would be assassinated along with Hitler. Stauffenberg had to abandon this assassination attempt because Himmler was not present. The following day at another conference meeting, Stauffenberg again had to abort the mission as Hitler was called out of the meeting.
On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg attended another meeting in Hitler’s conference room. Again he had with him a briefcase containing a bomb which he primed in a bathroom prior to the meeting. The detonator of the bomb consisted of a thin copper tube with copper chloride inside which would take approximately ten minutes to dissolve the wire holding back the firing pin from the percussion cap. Stauffenberg had been unable to prime a second bomb he had with him as he had been interrupted by a guard knocking on the bathroom door informing him that the meeting was about to start.
Stauffenberg left the briefcase underneath the conference room table close to Hitler. He then received a planned telephone call and excused himself from the meeting. The bomb exploded but Hitler survived, sustaining only minor injuries. Operation Valkyrie had failed. Stauffenberg and many of his fellow conspirators were later executed. Prior to 2007, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was believed to have been the mastermind behind Operation Valkyrie. However, documents recovered by the Soviet Union after the war, which were eventually released in 2007, pointed to Tresckow as the chief conspirator.