User:Umbire the Phantom/Operation Valkyrie
On July 20, 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. You may already be hearing the name "Operation Valkyrie" in your head right now.
This... is not that operation. Or at least, it wasn't at the time.
The name "Operation Valkyrie" originally referred to one part of the conspiracy—specificially, it was an emergency plan for government continuity issued to the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany, to be carried out in the event order broke down within the nation. German Army officers General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg modified the plan with the intention of using it to take control of German cities, disarm the SS, and arrest the Nazi leadership once Hitler had been assassinated.
The plot was the culmination of efforts by several groups in the German resistance to overthrow the government, and Hitler's death was specifically required to free German soldiers from their oath of loyalty to him. The apparent aim of it all - besides wresting political control of Germany and its armed forces from the Nazi Party (including the SS) - was to make peace with the Western Allies as soon as possible. Details of the peace initiatives remain unknown, but would have included demands for the confirmation of Germany's extensive annexations of European territory, which were largely considered unrealistic.
After lengthy preparation, the plot was activated in 1944... and met with catastrophic failure, as did the military coup d'état that was to follow - the Gestapo arrested more than 7,000 people, 4,980 of whom were executed. "Operation Valkyrie" soon came to be associated with the entire plot rather than just the government-focused contingencies, especially as World War II became the stuff of contemporary popular culture.