WI: Hitler killed by French 5th Columnists!

June 23rd 1940

What if following the fall of Poland and France a group of French forces that have already gone underground in Paris are tipped off to Hitler’s visit and stage a successful resistance assassination attempt on the Fuhrer while touring the Eiffel Tower?

How does Nazi Germany react to this loss of their leader at their moment of triumph, and how does WWII evolve, and how does this shape the latter half of the 20thC?



For the sake of the discussion, the ability for a group of resistance fighters to actually conduct such an operation is not questioned.
 
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The nazis decide to avenge Hitler by killing at least 100000 French Communists and everyone who looks like he might be one? (In Russia, they had a rule to kill 50 Communists for each German killed by partisans; and when Heydrich was assassinated, Hitler at first wanted to kill 50000 Czechs. As horrific as it sounds, Lidice was actually the toned-down revenge!)
 
I can think of some variables...

Depending on who takes control of the German government.

Nazis:
1. If they know who did it, he(they) die, and all his(thier) associates and families.

2. If they don't know who did it, then they'll round up all the possible suspects, thier associates and families, and kill them.

Military/Army
There will be a actuall investigation to make sure only the guilty/might be guilty are punished.

These are only first thoughts on the subject, of course.
 
In any Hitler dies early scenario I see a power struggle that hurts the German war effort.

In the short run, yes.

However, the power struggle would probably be settled by Barbarossa time in 1941.

It's possible a more competent military planner would be at the helm.
 
Perhaps. They were pretty much already at war in the sea by that time and, based on the reasonable assumptions made at that time, it did seemed like a good idea. The USA wasn't seen as the powerhouse it turned out to be, it would still take them time to gather strength. And, if they were still at war with the USSR by that time, the USSR would be their main worry. Also, it allowed the Germans to take their gloves out regarding American shipping in the Atlantic, which caused a lot of damage in the first half of 1942.

The other question is if, with Hitler gone, the British government can consider that a peace treaty has a good chance of being honored in the long range by Germany. But even if that happens, there is still the fact that Germany can't bring the UK to her knees, so the UK might still fight alone anyway.
 
June 23rd 1940

What if following the fall of Poland and France a group of French forces that have already gone underground in Paris are tipped off to Hitler’s visit and stage a successful resistance assassination attempt on the Fuhrer while touring the Eiffel Tower?

Resistance fighters are not "fifth columnists".

"Fifth columnists" are those who collaborate with an attacking or invading army. The term was originated in the Spanish Civil War by a Nationalist general, who stated that his forces had four columns advancing on Madrid, and that there was a "fifth column" of Nationalist supporters in the city.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
I don't think there would be a power struggle, Goring was already named succesor and anyone that tried would be seen as a traitor by the German people.
 
I don't think there would be a power struggle, Goring was already named succesor and anyone that tried would be seen as a traitor by the German people.

In June of '40, it wasn't quite so cut and dried, as IIRC, Hess was still Deputy Führer at the time and it wasn't until after he made his flight to England that Göring was named successor. Now were such an event to take place in '41, I would agree that there wouldn't be that much of a power struggle as Himmler doesn't wield any real power yet, and in my opinion everyone else is still too minor a person to take over except for Göring.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
I still don't think there would be a power struggle, I think there would be a 3 way power share with Goring as head of state, Hess as head of Party and whoever as head of Military.

But I am not an expert so I am probably wrong.
 
I still don't think there would be a power struggle, I think there would be a 3 way power share with Goring as head of state, Hess as head of Party and whoever as head of Military.

But I am not an expert so I am probably wrong.

It might not have been a power struggle per se, but imagine trying to get both of them to work together while at the same time they're both trying to consolidate their power. Nothing would really get done.
 
Depending on who takes control of the German government.

Nazis:
1. If they know who did it, he(they) die, and all his(thier) associates and families.

2. If they don't know who did it, then they'll round up all the possible suspects, thier associates and families, and kill them.

Military/Army
There will be a actuall investigation to make sure only the guilty/might be guilty are punished.

These are only first thoughts on the subject, of course.

The Germans were not known to care about ensuring that only those who were guilty were punished. See the reaction to Heydrich's assassination.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
Nah I think Hitlers word is Law, I think Goring would put away anyone that says otherwise and nobody would care
 
Nah I think Hitlers word is Law, I think Goring would put away anyone that says otherwise and nobody would care

Hess wasn't exactly the most popular Nazi, true. But if Hess is still around, you can bet he's going to make Göring work that much harder to hold onto power. Although given how close Hess was to Hitler, who knows.
 
Hmmm... In a WWII context, I would have thought that Laval and company were the 5th columnists....

That's a bit unfair. Laval was an enthusiastic collaborator with victorious Germany, but there's no evidence that he did anything to bring about France's defeat.

The "fifth columnists" cited by General Mola were supposed to be committed Nationalist suppporters, working underground.

During and after the fall of France, there was a lot of hysteria about "fifth columnists", with many claims that France's military efforts had been extensively sabotaged by pro-Nazi traitors. AFAIK this was all paranoid hoopla. There were some French fascists and reactionaries who wanted a German victory, but AFAIK none of them were in any position to sabotage or undermine anything.

After the German victory, those elements and many other opportunists such as Laval collaborated openly with the Nazis, but that was not fifth columnism.
 
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