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The Aftermath
Stauffenberg is convinced that no one could possibly have survived the blast and races back to the airfield with von Haeften, leaving Fellgiebel to contact Berlin.
The Wolf's Lair is in chaos. Inside the briefing hut, General Keitel is the first to rise from the debris. Through the dust and smoke he sees Hitler try to stand and rushes to his aid. It is a miracle that the Fuhrer has survived the explosion with fairly minor injuries; his eardrums have burst, his right arm is stiff and swollen, he has cuts to his head and dozens of wooden splinters |
| Claus Von Stauffenberg waits for the explosion |
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are embedded in his leg, but he is able to stagger back to his bunker.
While being treated for his wounds Hitler proclaims 'I am immortal!' The fact that he has survived the attempt on his life has invigorated him; he is convinced he has been saved so he can lead Germany to victory. He tells his valet 'Providence has given me a sign. I am indestructible!'
| Fellgiebel soon realises that Hitler has survived. His message to Berlin is dangerously ambiguous, 'Something terrible has happened. The Fuhrer is alive.' This is a crucial mistake which confuses his |
co-conspirators. They have no contingency plan and waste precious time waiting for Stauffenberg to arrive.
The explosion itself was white and yellow in colour, typical of a certain type of British bomb, which at first leads officers at the Wolf's Lair to believe that the assassination attempt was a British plot. Keitel has the compound searched but no other devices are found.
Of the 24 men in the briefing, eleven have been badly injured, four fatally. These include the stenographer, whose legs were blown off, and Brandt, who unknowingly moved the bomb. Stauffenberg is found to be missing and by 13:45 it becomes apparent this was not the work of an enemy agent, but of a traitor from within.
Hitler greets Mussolini at 15:00 and shows him the wreckage of the briefing hut. On seeing the devastation El Duce agrees that fate must be on their side.
When Stauffenberg reaches Berlin he finds that his co-conspirators have done nothing to start the coup but believes there is still hope. He sends out the telegram which should have been sent immediately after the explosion, informing all army districts that the Wehrmacht is seizing control of the Reich.
General Fromm, believing the coup is doomed to failure, betrays his colleagues to save his own skin and orders their arrest and execution. Stauffenberg, von Haeften, Olbricht and General Albrecht von Mertz von Quirnheim are taken out to the courtyard at army HQ in the early hours of 21st July and executed by firing squad. Stauffenberg's last words are 'Long live holy Germany.' Fromm is executed two days later.
Over the next few months, hundreds more are executed or commit suicide. The main conspirators suffer an agonizing death, hung from meat hooks by piano wire. Almost 5,000 more are arrested and sent to concentration camps, while their children are put in SS run homes and classed as enemies of the people.
The war continues for a further 13 months. More people die in that time than in the previous five years. |
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