July44 Bomb plot

What would have happen if Stauffenberg had primed both bombs, would AH been killed?

 

Tempting to immediately say yes, but who knows ?

The effect of blast is notoriously difficult to predict ; there are so many recorded instances of people surviving a shell explosion alongside them while someone several yards away is killed.

 

One of the history channels had an interesting show a few weeks ago about the bombing. They went as far as they could to re-create the circumstances of the explosion. (room size, window size, the table and even had an explosives company put together the charge based upon the 1940s explosive)

They did two explosions one on each side of the table support. The first was done historicaly and the results were amazing. Many variables that could have been lethal were very low and the dummy representing Hitler received damage very similar to what was reported on Hitler. The second explosion with the bomb on the Hitler side of the support were completely different. The blast and the fragments were much more damaging to the Hitler stand-in, and, the room over-pressure was much different. Just the change in the way that the bomb was oriented in relation to the windows of the room changed the over-pressure to an almost lethal value. Hitler could have survived the explosion, but there is no doubt he would have been severely injured if the bomb would have been on the side of the table it was originally placed.

 

Yes it's a hard one, well even with both bombs primed I think AH may still had survived but more injured.

 

I think if the meeting had been kept in a bunker ( where the meetings were usually ) instead of the wooden house ( due to the warm weather ) Hitler would have died because of the bomb´s more powerful effect even with one bomb.

Unfortunately according to some sources the second bomb was not set because Stauffenberg and his adjutant were interrupted in the toilet during setting the bombs to take part in the meeting.

Definitely the war would be over soon but would there be civil war first if Hitler had died?

 

I believe based upon the pressure testing they did in the experiment that it would have been a fatal blast for all concerned if they would have been in an enclosed bunker.

I think that the Germans had enough fighting and losing by that time. I don't know if a cival war would have erupted. I think it likely that a military power struggle would have resulted, but that would have been confined to the military and I don't think it would have lasted long.

 

Actually setting only one of the bombs might have been enough, as the other one would have exploded as well. Thus even putting the bomb on the other side of the leg of the table would not have mattered.

Still wonder why Count left the other bomb out of his briefcase. Maybe they were in a hurry and just had to leave the other bomb.

 

On Discovery Channel´s " The secret plot to kill Hitler" it was said that Hitler started the meeting 30 minutes earlier in order to have more time with Mussolini who was coming the same day. This was the reason why suddenly there was not much time to prime the bombs. However why the second bomb was left out of the case could not be explained.

The "sad thing" is that Colonel Brandt who put the suitcase behind the table leg actually belonged to the plotters but did not know it was going to happen that day...

 

I remember reading something about that. The reasoning behind it is that when a round explodes, the fragments are thrown in a cone-like shape. The person next to the blast would be at the vertex of the cone and the further you move out from there, the more shrapnel. I believe this happened to Audie Murphy. The round exploded right next to him and he wasn't hit but the other guys around him were all killed.