Hitler & the Bomb-Plot Part III: In Paris

It is surely ironic that the German military conspiracy achieved its highest and indeed, its only point of success, not in Germany at all but in the heart of an occupied and hostile country. For in Paris the events of the 20th of July demonstrated what efficiency and resolution could achieve. The machinery of revolt moved with a well-ordered precision which betokened careful and tireless preparation and a certain genius of direction. Whereas in Berlin the military forces of the conspirators failed signally throughout the whole afternoon and evening in their initial task of eliminating the power of the SS and SD, in Paris the heavily armed force of these two organizations, amounting to over 2,000 men, was rendered harmless within the space of thirty minutes by means of an operation carried out without the slightest hitch, and only the infirmity of purpose displayed by the key figure at the top Field - Marshal Gunther von Kluge — prevented the revolt which had failed in Berlin from being continued successfully from Paris.