A different July 20th 1944...

POD - July 20th 1944.

Von Stauffenberg boards a plane to fly to the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia to assassinate Hitler. The flight runs into mechanical difficulties and crashes. Stauffenberg and all aboard are killed. The bomb in Stauffenberg's briefcase detonates upon the impact of the plane - mingling with the explosion of the plane's fuel supply, and all evidence is destroyed in the burning wreckage.

Word of the accident reaches Hitler and the other conspirators at about the same time. Hitler is annoyed by the loss, but pays little attention - why should he? The conspirators abort their coup for that day.

What now?

Germany is still doomed, of course. Is there another attempt? Does Rommel survive the war? What happens?

Mike Turcotte.
 
Do the plotters know why?

One interesting question is: do the plotters why this happened? Yes, they know that the plane went down and exploded, but how can they be sure that it wasn't an execution disguised as an accident? I know it sounds like paranoid thinking here, but living in Nazi Germany (especially when you WERE an enemy of the state) would make anyone paranoid.
 
One interesting question is: do the plotters why this happened? Yes, they know that the plane went down and exploded, but how can they be sure that it wasn't an execution disguised as an accident? I know it sounds like paranoid thinking here, but living in Nazi Germany (especially when you WERE an enemy of the state) would make anyone paranoid.

IIRC, the plotters were waiting to her from von Stauffenberg, so even if they don't know, they won't be hearing from him, so no coup.

Oh - the only thing I can think of in response to the execution question is that the Nazis were big on show trials - to demonstrate that they were In Control (intentional caps). While I'm certain they would have no moral qualms about blowing up a plane, it is out-of-character for them. Torturing the heck out of von Stauffenberg and then shooting him after a nice, airtight public trial would have been more their style.

On the other hand (and this is especially true in Nazi Germany), just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you, so yeah, maybe this drives the resistance deeper underground for a bit.

Mike Turcotte.
 
Conjurers lose heart, and abandon the idea of killing Hitler. The Generals sigh with relief and cut ties with the antinazis. Germany is crushed as per OTL, and after the war Ulrich von Hassel bothers the Hell out of the Allied Occupation Commission trying to convince them that yes there were "good germans" who wanted the Nazis out.
 
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