Operation Foxley

Operation Foxley was a 1944 plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler, created by the British Special Operations Executive.

Although detailed preparations were made, the plan was not put into practice. Historians believe the most likely date for an attempt would have been 13 or July 14, 1944, during one of Hitler's visits to the Berghof.

Prior plans

The 1939 novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household features a description of how a British hunter on vacation in the Bavarian Alps puts Hitler in his gun-sight. The 1941 thriller film Man Hunt directed by Fritz Lang was based upon Household's novel.

One of the first actual British plans to assassinate Hitler was to bomb the train he travelled in. SOE had extensive experience of derailing trains using explosives, though the plan was dropped because Hitler's schedule was too irregular and unpredictable: stations were only informed of his arrival a few minutes beforehand.

Another plan was to put some tasteless but lethal poison in the drinking water supply on Hitler's train, which was used to prepare tea and coffee etc. However, this plan was considered too complicated because of the necessity for an inside man.

Sniper Attack Plan

Finally, a sniper attack was considered to be the method most likely to succeed. In summer 1944, a German who had been part of Hitler's personal guard at the Berghof had been taken POW in Normandy. He revealed that at the Berghof, Hitler always took a morning walk, around the same time (after 10.00 am) and for the same duration - about 20 minutes. In addition, Hitler liked to be left alone during this walk, leaving him unprotected near some woods, where he was out of sight of sentry posts. Finally, every time Hitler was at the Berghof, a Nazi flag was put up, which was visible from a cafe in the nearby town.

The basic plan was to assassinate Hitler during his morning exercise, as he walked unprotected to the tea house in the Berghof compound. The scheme called for the British to parachute a two-man killing team into the area surrounding the compound. The two soldiers were a German-speaking Pole and a sniper. The men would infiltrate the Berghof compound before moving to a spot where they were concealed, within effective sniper rifle (which was intended to be a Karabiner 98K, Hitlers favorite gun, and the standard infantry rifle for the Wehrmacht at that time.) range, and had a good view of the path used by Hitler on his morning walk.

Security around Hitler was minimal because he felt nothing could touch him. As a result, several attempts had been made to kill him, including one that took place during the planning of this operation by the German officer Claus von Stauffenberg (see July 20 plot). However, none of these were successful. Stauffenberg's attempt only injured Hitler. It did, however, have the effect that public appearances of Hitler were greatly reduced, to just one or two every year, thus limiting the opportunities for another assassination attempt.

A sniper was found and briefed and the plan was submitted. The sniper practiced by shooting at moving dummy targets, under conditions which simulated the actual assassination. An inside man was even found - Heidentaler, the uncle of a captured soldier, Dieser, who was vehemently anti-Nazi, lived in Salzburg, situated 20 kilometres from the Berghof. He regularly visited a shooting range 16 km from the Berghof with like-minded shopkeepers.

There had been some resistance to the assassination plan, particularly from the deputy head of SOE's German Directorate i.e. Lt Col Ronald Thornley. However, his superior, Sir Gerald Templer, was a supporter of the plan and Winston Churchill was also in favour. The sniper and a Polish companion who spoke German were to be dropped by plane and sheltered with Heidentaler, after which they could make the approach to the killing zone disguised as German mountain troops.

The plan was submitted in November 1944, but was never put into practice because there was some controversy over whether it was actually a good idea. Hitler was considered to be such a poor strategist that it was believed whoever replaced him would probably lead a better war-effort. Additionally, Thornley argued that Germany was almost defeated and if Hitler were assassinated, he would become a martyr to some, as well as causing speculation that perhaps Germany would have won if Hitler had survived. Since the idea was not only to defeat Germany but destroy Nazism in general, this would have been an unfortunate development. However, there were strong advocates on both sides and the plan was not put into practice because no actual decision was reached. By late November Hitler left the Berghof, never to return, as he committed suicide in Berlin on 30 April 1945 a few days before the war ended.

Literature

• Roger Moorhouse, Killing Hitler, Jonathan Cape, 2006. ISBN 0-224-07121-1
• Operation Foxley - The British Plan to Kill Hitler, Public Record Office, 1998

Operation Foxley on television

The BBC made a docudrama about the operation, entitled 'Killing Hitler' (written and directed by Jeremy Lovering), which is a combination of re-enactment with regular voice-overs, historical footage, interviews with various witnesses and a present day analysis.

In the BBC docu-drama, a scenario was devised by the analysts regarding what would have happened if the plan had received the green light and the assassins had succeeded in killing Hitler. The death of Hitler in 1944 might have ended the war and saved many lives (possibly 10,000,000), notably through German cities like Dresden not having been bombed, the concentration camps being liberated earlier and Russians not having to fight on at the Eastern Front. Although the analysts agreed that the assassination plan would probably have failed during the sniper team's approach to the firing position, they said that it was worth pursuing, bearing in mind that if the sniper had reached a viable firing position, there was a fair chance of shooting Hitler dead.

German TV documentary "Hitler's Berg" shows the Man Hunt scene, and also a test of the smoke screen. Late in the war, when Leibstandarte troops (Hitler's normal bodyguard) were sent to the front, replacements came in the form of BDM Girls, who were brought in to operate the smoke screen, and young RAD workers to operate the flak emplacements.

External links

• BBC article on Operation Foxley
• Chronicle of all assassination attempt's of Adolf Hitler (in german language)