ever suffered.”
Ignoring for the moment every other conse-
quence, just let me mention one, gentlemen: In what
light has the world until now viewed the Prussian offi-
cer? And how will he be seen henceforth?
If in South America this caballero liquidates that
camarilla and two months later vice versa, then they
do it with drawn pistols and aplomb with a lot of
gunplay.... Even among these gentlemen there is
some honor and chivalry. Not even in South America
is it the custom for a comrade to tuck a bomb under
his boss’s feet.The army plotters had intended to win over the air force
after getting rid of Hitler. Despite their failure to kill him, late
on July , they did make a lame approach to Stumpff’s
Luftflotte Reich at Berlin-Wannsee. But by that time Göring
had already issued a signal to all inspectorates, Geschwader,
squadrons, and flights reading (as the British code-breakers de-
ciphered it): “All Luftwaffe units in Reich territory are subordi-
nated to Colonel General Stumpff. Orders of army regional
commands (Wehrkreiskommandos) are not to be obeyed.”
Göring refused to allow Himmler to investigate any possi-
ble Luftwaffe involvement. “No officer of my Luftwaffe,” he
flatly declared, “would have a hand in such a thing.” The only
air-force officer involved, in fact, was Lieutenant Colonel Caesar
von Hofacker, but he was attached to the army’s general staff in
Paris. Hofacker had initiated the air force’s inspector of recon-
naissance, General von Barsewisch, into the broader conspiracy;
and Barsewisch had thereupon tipped off General Guderian;
and Guderian had thereupon tactfully stayed away from the
Wolf’s Lair until the dust literally settled. According both to
Gestapo chief investigator Georg Kiessel and to Rudolf Diels, the