Hitler must die!
Ian Baxter details Operation Foxley, the British plan to assassinate the Führer
As if the attempts on his life by his own side weren’t enough, the British also had secret plans to assassinate the Führer in Operation Foxley. See what kind of schemes were being considered.
After more than 75 years, secret plans by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to assassinate Adolf Hitler have been revealed. The unclassified documents, held at the National Archives at Kew, stamped ‘Top Secret’ and titled Operation Foxley, provides an intriguing insight into British intelligence during the final stages of WWII. The revealing papers show the extent of SOE’s intelligence on Hitler’s movements, personal security and surroundings, including details of topography and layout of his alpine mountain retreat.
Dangers to Hitler’s life
Throughout his political and military career, Hitler was constantly exposed to numerous situations where his life was in danger. Although he accepted this as inevitable, often visiting dangerous parts of the front, he steadily developed a fixation with assassins who might end his career suddenly before he could accomplish what he considered his sole mission in life.
During the war period security precautions were constantly intensified and modified, especially after gaps in security were discovered, or assassination attempts against him had been made or prematurely revealed. Although many security efforts were self-defeating, either due to over-organisation, or to methods too complex to be implemented and supervised, Hitler usually made sure, through personal orders, and his control over his bodyguards, that he was well guarded and protected.
As the war dragged on, resistance to Hitler grew. Although the SD (Sicherheitddienst) or Security Service, was particularly effective at infiltrating opposition groups and stamping-out conspiracies, it found the task more difficult combating enemy insurgents from the Allied coalition. Throughout the war the British fostered resistance in the occupied countries with the SOE German or X Section. There were numerous plans to undermine the Nazi government and mount a co-ordinated assassination attempts against the German security
forces in occupied Europe. However, it was not until 1944, that the SOE seriously decided to attack the greatest target of them all - Adolf Hitler.
Preparing Operation Foxley
On 1 July 1944, Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies, the Chief of the
Secret Service, agreed with Major General Colin Gubbins, head of the clandestine sabotage organisation, to provide extensive information on Hitler’s movements and whereabouts in order to work out plans for a possible assassination attempt. The code-name for this operation was Foxley, and it was agreed that SOE would be given the task. There had already been another failed attempt on Hitler`s life at the Wolf`s Lair on 20 July 1944 by his own staff, and this prompted the Secret Service to speedily plan the operation.
The primary location to assassinate Hitler under examination was the area around the town of Berchtesgarden in southern Bavaria. Here on the Obersalzberg, Hitler had built the Berghof. Over the years it had grown into a huge development of supports services, barracks and the construction of chalets for other members of Hitler’s staff. In the summer of 1943, underground bunker-buildings were built on a massive scale. They were to house Hitler and his immediate suite, his mistress Eva Braun, valets, household personnel, Martin Bormann and his family and aides. Other bunkers were built, complete with drainage, heating systems, gas and air pressure chambers for the SS barracks.
The security across the entire area that covered some seven square kilometres, was manned by a vast number of guards, and was enclosed by a series of chain-link fences and barbed wire. Additional fences sectioned off construction sites or minor secondary zones. Fences in and around the immediate vicinity of the Berghof were built of mesh wire and were about 7ft high. The SOE documents note that:
‘They are supported by steel tubes placed at intervals of 3-5cm. The tubes are bent over inwards at the top, the bent part carry 3-4 strands of barbed wire. There are numerous gates in the wire - also of wire mesh - all of which are locked except those covered by guards. There are no electric current in the wire. As far as is known there are no trip wire or automatic alarm apparatus.’
The whole area was divided into three districts, and different coloured passes were needed for each of them. District I, immediately around the Berghof, required a red pass, and comprised of three gates manned by RSD sentries from the SSWachkompanie-Obersalzberg.
When Hitler moved to the Obersalzberg, most of his HQ moved with him including his aides, office personnel, signal corps troops, FBB troops (Führer-Begleit-Battalon) or Führer Escort Battalion, and Leibstandarte-SS personal guard troops. Essentially, personal protection of the Führer at the Berghof was the task of 20 RSD men who were always at his side. To get past these well-armed security guards required tactical ingenuity.
To the SOE planners, assassinating Hitler at the Berghof, seemed a difficult task. His movement, habits, personal likes and dislikes, the precise layout of the Berghof, the number of guards who watched him had been detailed in a 120 page report. According to informants, Hitler was a late riser. He never rose from bed before 9am, had milk and toast for breakfast between 11am and 11.30am, and lunch mainly consisted of vegetables with apple juice. In the afternoon he worked.
Poisoning Hitler’s tea or apple juice was considered. A disguised local anti-Nazi agent, or undercover soldier working up at the Berghof having access to the kitchens could drop a tasteless and odourless chemical substance called ‘I’ into his drink. Because the chemical had a delayed action, making Hitler gradually fall ill, it would allow the assassin time to flee.
Another options for killing Hitler were considered. One was the use of snipers disguised as German Gebirgsjäger, or mountain troops. Armed with a Mauser sniper rifle with telescopic sight, the assassin or assassins would also carry high-explosive grenades for self-protection. The plan involved these uniformed men cutting through the perimeter fence and avoiding German dog patrols, then laying in wait for Hitler on his 20-minute daily walk to the teahouse, where he took his customary breakfast. If the sniper, however, failed and Hitler reached the teahouse unharmed, a backup team armed with the (PIAT) British Infantry Anti-Tank Gun or American bazooka would move in and fire an explosive charge at the teahouse.
A second less fanciful idea was ambushing Hitler’s heavily guarded motor convoy as it left the Berghof. However, although his bullet-proof Mercedes tourer’s roof was often open, his car was heavily protected by two Führer Escort cars, and then normally by two armoured cars, and followed by the cars of the suite and more yet more FBB troops. In total there were usually some 10 cars, of which Hitler’s was either the leading or second car. If the assassins had any chance of killing him, then it was agreed that in order to launch an attack they would have to wait until his car drove slowly around one of the mountain bends. Escaping from such an attack would almost certainly see the assassins captured or killed.
Another plan, which was the most farfetched of them all, was a paratrooper assault into the Berghof. However, the area was heavily protected with ant-aircraft guns, and by July 1944, there were no fewer than 12 anti-tank guns stationed within the vicinity of the Obsersalzberg.
Apart from the huge amounts of information relating to Hitler’s alpine mountain retreat, considerable intelligence had been examined about Hitler’s special train known as the Sonderzug. Plans were drawn up on the various opportunities for attacking him
as he stepped on board or while it was in motion. It was agreed that in order to have any degree of success of killing him a sniper, or someone armed with a PIAT, would have to shoot whilst he boarded the train. But, yet again, the train was well armed, and security tight with a host of armed soldiers and escort personnel. Even planting a bomb onboard was considered, but the chances of success was improbable.
Other plans were compiled, including recruiting foreign workers who cleaned the exterior of the train. It was considered that one or two of them could somehow get into the train and poison its drinking and cooking water using the chemical ‘I’.
Other ideas were put forward too in the document. A suggestion was made about somehow derailing the train. However, the Reichsbahn, or National Railway, had made considerable efforts in securing almost complete secrecy of the Sonderzug runs. Entire projected routes made by the train were withheld from the authorities, and various railway districts were often told no more than 10-15 minutes in advance of the train’s passing. Lines were completely cleared and whole routes were heavily patrolled. Even the idea of a would-be agent waiting on a station for the train was put forward. Here the saboteur would stand in readiness for the distinctive maroon carriages to pass, before throwing a luggage full of explosives. From the report there seemed no foresight for how the explosives would be detonated, and how the assassin would have any knowledge that the train would pass through the station.
The end came anyway
Though the Operation Foxley papers show that the SOE was serious about its plans for killing Hitler, the plans widely differed and many were not thoroughly worked through. In parts of Foxley, planners had under estimated Hitler’s security, especially in the last year of the war. The Führer was well guarded, and even he himself had taken considerable personal measures to ensure he was kept safe. As a result, there was extensive security precautions and directives with Hitler having personal control over his bodyguards. In fact, after the 20 July 1944 bomb plot, he became even more morbid and, perhaps, to some extent, irrationally concerned about his security.
His mentality had gradually become one of living as a recluse in a fortress, which was heavily defended. As the Third Reich crumbled he would end his life entombed 50ft below the Reich Chancellery building, knowing that no one had assassinated him. Yet, when he took his own life, it was actually an ultimate self-defeat of his own personal security.