Abstract
The July 20th conspirators had relatively good prospects for success.
Through Stauffenberg and other high-ranking military officers, they had
access not only to Hitler but also to the Replacement Army, which
provided them with the forces needed to carry out the planned coup
d'état. One major drawback, however, was that "Operation
Valkyrie" required Stauffenberg to operate in two places at once.
He had to carry out the assassination in the “Wolf’s Lair,” the Führer's
East Prussian headquarters, and at the same time lead the putsch in
Berlin. Additionally, the operation depended on the spontaneous
cooperation of a number of high military officials who were not in on
the plan. Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators hoped that news of
Hitler’s death would prompt those officials to join them in overthrowing
the Nazi regime. (How they would have acted had this actually come to
pass is up for speculation.) As it turned out, official reports of
Hitler's death were not forthcoming (since he had not been killed), and
many participants hesitated to take further action. Others abandoned the
operation altogether. The Nazi regime quickly initiated effective
counter-measures, and with the help of the Wehrmacht, the police, and
the SS, rapidly regained control of the situation.