The failed attack that could have changed the war

[Louis]

If everything had gone well, the story could have been very different. WW2 was able to end almost a year earlier. But everything went wrong. And the story is what is known.
On July 20, 1944, seventy-eight years ago, a bomb intended to kill Adolf Hitler and placed in a briefcase at his feet was moved, and when it exploded, it killed four people and left Hitler injured, but alive. Hours later, those plotting to behead the Third Reich launched a proclamation with their plan to take Berlin, the main German cities, and take command of the armed forces to end a war that was already lost.
They did not know that Hitler was alive. The one that was really dead was Operation Valkyrie. And those who were going to die were all those who had dared to give it. And many more.

Those who organized the attack were the same military hierarchy that had applauded Hitler as Führer years before. At the head of Operation Valkyrie was a brand new colonel, Claus von Stauffenberg.
Who was von Stauffenberg? He was thirty-six years old, he had participated in the North African campaign, in battle he had lost his left eye, his right hand and two fingers on his left. He correctly foresaw the end of the war and the German disaster, and was against the "atrocities committed by the SS on and across the Eastern Front against the Slavs and the Jews." And negotiating peace with the allies was essential.

There was even one more reason to kill Hitler. And it was not a minor reason, it was a Prussian reason, if you will: with Hitler dead, all the troops of the Reich who had sworn allegiance to the Führer, were released from that oath.

But Hitler survived with only minor injuries. The heavy oak table and open windows in the hall deflected the shock wave of the explosion. The coup had failed. Hitler addressed the town by radio and spoke of the "providence" that had saved him.
Finally von Stauffenberg and several conspirators are arrested and shot at night.

Long after the end of the war, those involved were still considered traitors. Stauffenberg's wife was even initially denied an officer's widow's pension. But - irony of fate - later, the conspirators received the status of heroes. Now there are streets, schools and barracks named after them.