To Kill Hitler by Constantine FitzGibbon

Author:Constantine FitzGibbon [FitzGibbon, Constantine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour
Published: 2017-01-15T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VII

THE atmosphere in which the conspirators lived during the last few weeks before July 20th was hectic and the strain great. Stauffenberg knew that on July 1st he was to be appointed Chief of Staff to General Fromm and would therefore have, at least occasionally, access to Hitler. He decided that he himself would have to kill the dictator, though this was certainly not an ideal nor even a satisfactory plan. Stauffenberg was now the driving force of the whole movement. When the rebellion broke out his place would clearly be in Berlin, in control. Furthermore, in his capacity as Fromm’s Chief of Staff, he and he alone could issue orders to the Home Army in Fromm’s name without giving away the fact that a revolution was in progress. In the event of Fromm refusing to cooperate, this might prove vital during the first hours of the putsch. On the other hand, he also had to be at Rastenburg, since nobody else was likely to be able to plant the bomb in the near future with any certainty. And time was running short. Therefore Stauffenberg must, on one and the same day, attempt to play two major roles in European history; within a few hours he must destroy one government and create another, and for a high proportion of those hours he must, for simple geographical reasons, be in an aeroplane, completely out of touch and unable to influence events.

Time was running short in two quite different respects. First, the German armies were losing two great battles. As the conspirators knew, it was only a matter of weeks before the American and British armies broke out of Normandy and rolled up Army Group B. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, Army Group Centre was in process of dissolution. Provided that the Russians could deal with their tremendous logistical difficulties, there seemed no reason why they should not push straight on through Poland into Germany. In fact the end of the war was close. Had the Russians been able to solve their supply problems, or had the Western Supreme Commander exploited the victory in Normandy by a normal concentration of effort, the war in Europe would certainly have ended in the autumn of 1944. To the officers of the German General Staff it was apparent that they had very little time indeed. For if they were to act, it was essential from their point of view that they do so while the German army still existed. There would be no positive purpose served in overthrowing a government which could no longer govern, and only the negative one of attempting to avoid further unnecessary destruction. Were Stauffenberg and Beck to take over during the final spasms of total defeat, not only would they be incapable of making any sort of peace with Germany’s enemies — even as Donitz was to prove a year later — but, more important, their action would be void of moral significance. Their purpose was two-fold, to save

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