Editing 20 July plot (section)

{{Short description|1944 attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler}}
{{Redirect|Attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler||List of assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler}}
<noinclude>{{Requested move notice|1=Hitler assassination plot of 20 July 1944|2=Talk:20 July plot#Requested move 7 May 2025}}
</noinclude>{{Use British English|date=January 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox military operation
| name          = 20 July plot
| partof        = the [[Assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler]] and [[German resistance to Nazism]] 
| subtitle      = 
| image         = Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1972-025-10, Hitler-Attentat, 20. Juli 1944.jpg
| image_upright = 
| image_size    = 300
| alt           = 
| caption       = [[Martin Bormann]], [[Hermann Göring]], and [[Bruno Loerzer]] surveying the damaged conference room
| scope         = 
| type          = [[Coup d'état]]
| location      = Several, including [[Wolf's Lair]], [[East Prussia]]
| location2     = and [[Berlin]]
| coordinates   = {{coord|54|04|50|N|21|29|47|E|display=inline,title|region:PL-WM_type:landmark}}
| coordinates2  = <!-- 2 through 10 for more locations -->
| map_type      = Germany 1937
| map_size      = 
| map_caption   = The location of the assassination attempt on Hitler
| map_label     = Wolf's Lair
| map_label2    = <!-- 2 through 10 for more locations -->
| planned       = 
| planned_by    = 
| commanded_by  = 
| objective     = {{blist|Assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]]|Ensure [[continuity of government]]|Make peace with the Western [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]}}
| target        = 
| date          = {{start date and age|1944|07|20|df=y}}
| time          = 
| time-begin    = 
| time-end      = 
| timezone      = 
| executed_by   = {{unbulleted list|[[Friedrich Olbricht]]|[[Erwin von Witzleben]]|[[Claus von Stauffenberg]]|[[List of members of the 20 July plot|''among others…'']]}}
| outcome       = {{blist|Hitler survives with minor injuries|Military coup fails within 5 hours|7,000 arrested; 4,980 executed, including 200 conspirators|Traditional military salute fully replaced by [[Nazi salute]]}}
| casualties    = [[List of people killed or wounded in the 20 July plot|4 killed, 20 injured]]
| fatalities    = 
| injuries      = 
}}

The '''20 July plot''', sometimes referred to as '''Operation Valkyrie''', was a failed attempt to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]], the chancellor and leader of [[Nazi Germany]], and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the [[German resistance to Nazism|German resistance]], mainly composed of [[Wehrmacht]] officers.<ref name=Kahn>{{cite book |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780271022758-005/pdf |last=Kahn |first=Arthur D. |title=Experiment in Occupation |chapter=2 ''We do Not Call Upon the Germans to Revolt'' fall 1944 |year=2003 |pages=13–20 |publisher=[[Penn State University Press]] |doi=10.1515/9780271022758-005 |isbn=978-0-271-02275-8 }}</ref><ref name=AxisCriminality>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VdUPVl2I2BEC&dq=%2220+july+1944+putsch%22&pg=PA1690 |author=Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality |title=Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Supplement B. |year=1948 |page=1688 |publisher=[[United States Government Printing Office]]}}</ref> The leader of the conspiracy, [[Claus von Stauffenberg]], tried to kill Hitler by detonating an explosive hidden in a briefcase. However, due to the location of the bomb at the time of detonation, the blast only dealt Hitler minor injuries. The planners' subsequent coup attempt also failed and resulted in a purge of the Wehrmacht.

As early as 1938, German military officers had [[Oster conspiracy|plotted to overthrow Hitler]], but indecisive leadership and the pace of global events stymied action. Plotters gained a sense of urgency in 1943, after Germany lost the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] and Soviet forces began to push towards Germany. Under the leadership of Stauffenberg, plotters tried to assassinate Hitler at least five different times in 1943 and 1944. With the [[Gestapo]] closing in on the plotters, a final attempt was organized in July 1944. Stauffenberg personally took a briefcase containing a block of plastic explosive to a conference in the [[Wolf's Lair]]. The explosives were armed and placed next to Hitler, but it appears they were moved unwittingly at the last moment behind a table leg by [[Heinz Brandt]], inadvertently saving Hitler's life. When the bomb detonated, it killed Brandt and two others, while the rest of the room's occupants were injured, one of whom, [[Rudolf Schmundt]], later died from his injuries. Hitler's trousers were singed by the blast, and he suffered a perforated eardrum and [[conjunctivitis]], but was otherwise unharmed.

The plotters, unaware of their failure, then attempted a [[coup d'état]]. A few hours after the blast, the conspiracy used Wehrmacht units to take control of several cities, including [[Berlin]], right after giving them disinformation on the intention of the orders they were given. This part of the coup d'état attempt is referred to by the name "[[Operation Valkyrie]]", which also has become associated with the entire event.<ref name="Valkyrie">{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/5629999/operation-valkyrie-july-plot/ |title=A Group of German Leaders tried to Kill Hitler in 1944. Here's Why They Failed |last=Hasic |first=Albinko |date=July 19, 2019 |magazine=Time |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=20 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420113253/https://time.com/5629999/operation-valkyrie-july-plot/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/July-Plot |title=July Plot |website=Britannica |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315073554/https://www.britannica.com/event/July-Plot |url-status=live }}</ref> Within hours, the Nazi regime had reasserted its control of Germany. A few members of the conspiracy, including Stauffenberg, were [[Execution by firing squad|executed by firing squad]] the same night. In the months after the coup d'état attempt, the [[Gestapo]] arrested more than 7,000 people, 4,980 of whom were executed. Roughly 200 conspirators were executed.<ref name="shirer1393">According to Shirer, ''Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs'', 1960, p. 1393.</ref>

The apparent aim of the coup d'état attempt was to wrest political control of Germany and its armed forces from the [[Nazi Party]] (including the [[SS]]) and to make peace with the Western [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] as soon as possible. The details of the conspirators' peace initiatives remain unknown,<ref>Hans Helmut Kirst "20th of July"</ref><ref>Winston Churchill, war annual books, "1944"</ref><ref>William L. Shirer ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', part IV, chapter "20th July"</ref> but they would have included unrealistic demands for the confirmation of Germany's extensive annexations of European territory.<ref>Klemens von Klemperer, ''German Resistance against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad 1938–1945''</ref>{{sfn|Hoffmann|1996|pp=608–609}}