Claus Von Stauffenberg: His Plot To Kill Hitler Was a Daring One

Claus Von Stauffenberg was a colonel in the German Army under Adolf Hitler during World War 2 who set in motion, with the help of others, a plot to kill the German leader not only because of their belief that he was inept as a military leader, but also over their objections about the war crimes they were ordered to commit against civilians and enemy troops.
By July 20 1944 the war in Europe was not going well for the Germans. It had been 5 weeks since the Normandy Invasion which gave the allies a beach head in France to begin their slow forward march towards Berlin and the Russian Army on the eastern front was closing in as well.
Stauffenberg was a young and rising star in the German military. Aristocratic by birth, he was the youngest officer to achieve the rank of colonel. He was the only one of the plotters who had regular and predictable access to the Fuhrer.
He was scheduled to attend a meeting with Hitler, along with several others in his command, at the German Military Headquarters at Rastenburg (now Ketrzyn, Poland). He arrived early that morning to prime 2 bombs before the meeting that was to take place that afternoon just after lunchtime. Stauffenberg had been injured in North Africa the year before. He had lost his right arm, his right eye, 2 fingers on his left hand, and much of his hearing, and despite all this he still volunteered to take this chance. At the meeting, he arrives and asks to be seated nearer to the Fuhrer in order that he could better hear him. He placed the bomb, (of the 2 bombs he brought he only had time to prepare one of them) which was in a briefcase, under the foot of the large wooden table on which the maps were laid for the meeting. As earlier arrainged, he is called out of the room to answer an urgent call by his Lieutenant, leaving the bomb behind.
After the explosion the briefing room is in chaos. Of the 24 men in the room, 11 were injured, and 4 killed. Hitler, at the far end of the table, is not only alive, but relatively well all things considered. He has suffered a swollen right arm, some cuts on his forehead, some splinters in his leg, and his ear drums have burst. After this incident he took it as a sign from God that it is his destiny to prevail in the war and bring Germany to victory. "Providence has given me a sign. I am indestructible." he later says to an aide. Hitler had a scheduled meeting later that day with Benito Mussolini which he kept despite his injuries.
It was quickly summized that the explosion was not the result of an Allied plan to kill Hitler but a plot from within. A roundup of the conspirators followed. In addition to Claus Von Stauffenberg, 8 other major players were identified including former General Ludwig Beck, and William Canaris, Head of Military Intelligence. Von Stauffenberg, who by this point had flown back to Berlin to assist with the next phase of the coup, was rounded up and taken out to the courtyard of Army Headquarters. In the early hours of July 21st he was executed by firing squad. He was 37 years old.