August 2, 2019 ▸ History, War & Conflict

Episode 408: Operation Valkyrie: Taking Down Hitler From Within

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we go back in time and look at Operation Valkyrie and the German plot to kill Hitler. Made famous by the Tom Cruise movie, Operation Valkyrie was not actually the plot kill Hitler, but it was all tied to it. Valkyrie was a plan that Hitler himself put in place for the replacement army to take control of the nation in case of a natural disaster, massive bombing, coup or uprising, or his own death. It was a plan to stabilize Germany in the face of something that would shake it up and keep the power from going to greedy SS Officers.

However, many people who loved Germany but loathed Hitler saw it as a way to get Germany to surrender to the West and get out of the war…but only after Hitler’s death. They couldn’t pull off a coup because Nazi officers swore a blood allegiance to Hitler, and nobody wanted to break their vows. So he had to die in order to save nation and end the war.

The most famous of these attempts at his life was the July 20^th Bombing. However, they started years before this, and somehow Hitler always managed to escape! First, the conspirators took some new experimental plastic explosives developed by the British SOE and tried to blow up his plane as part of their Operation Spark. The bomb was loaded on the plane; the detonator went off; the bomb did not. Next, there was a suicide bomb attempt, but Hitler left the scene after being there for only two minutes, so no go on the bomb. There was an attempt to blow him up at a fashion show, a would-be gun attack, and even an attempt to blow up his Eagle’s Nest Home by planting explosives in the water tower. None of it worked, and Hitler and the Gestapo were totally ignorant to all but the water tower explosion.

Eventually, the time seemed right. In July of 1944, the newest member of the conspiracy, Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, did his thing. The Colonel was wounded from the war, missing an eye, and only had one hand left with a couple fingers on it. He was not suspected as the guy who would kill the Fuhrer. However, he smuggled a bomb into a war conference on July 14th and again on the 15th but delayed the detonation because he wanted to kill as many high ranking SS as possible. Eventually, on the 20th, he got into the room and placed his right next to Hitler. In fact, he was cunning enough to get out of the building, fly to Berlin, and start a coup and gunfight in the streets.

But the building was wrong, and someone moved the bomb. It went off, but Hitler only suffered superficial wounds. Why didn’t the bomb have the effect they suspected it would? What happened to the coup on the streets of Berlin? How many people were arrested and killed for the July 20^th explosion? How did the conspirators change the orders that were to go out in Operation Valkyrie? Why is Tom Cruise so awesome? Listen, laugh, learn.