July Bomb Plot

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The July Bomb Plot of 1944 was an attempt by senior German Army officers to kill Hitler and end World War Two. The July Bomb Plot was not the first attempt to kill Hitler, but it was the one that came the closest to success.The July Bomb Plot of 1944 was an attempt by senior German Army officers to kill Hitler and end World War Two. The July Bomb Plot was not the first attempt to kill Hitler, but it was the one that came the closest to success.Stauffenberg was a career army officer. He had served in the Polish campaign, and the attacks on Western Europe in 1940. From here, he served in North Africa where, in July 1943, he was severely wounded from the gunfire of a low-flying plane. He lost his right hand and forearm and all but three of the fingers on his left hand. He had also lost his right eye. However, as Chief-of-Staff Army Reserve, he had to meet with Hitler on a regular basis. His presence there on July 20th, 1944, would not have aroused any suspicions. In 1943, the civilian element involved in conspiracies against Hitler were under attack. Many were arrested and imprisoned. Therefore, those conspirators in the army decided that a more direct approach was needed - Hitler should be killed, and those civilians concerned with the new order after Hitler's death could do their work once he had been killed. There had been attempts by military personnel before July 1944. Baron Henning von Tresckow, a staff officer, had sent two brandy bottles to a friend at Rastenburg - Major-General Helmuth Stieff. In fact, the bottles disguised a bomb. Stieff was a staff officer of the Army High Command at Rastenburg. He would have had the ability to put the bombs anywhere. The bomb failed to go off and Tresckow had to spend time retrieving them. Colonel von Gersdorff, a young officer in Tresckow's circle offered himself as a suicide bomber when Hitler was to open a museum in
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