THE BOMB THAT WAS PUSHED TOO FAR UNDER THE TABLE

CLAUS von Stauffenberg, the man who tried to kill Adolf Hitler with a suitcase bomb in 1944, was hailed this week by Angela Merkel as one of a group of “true patriots”.

Stauffenberg placed a suitcase containing a single kilogram of plastic explosive under the meeting table during a military conference in East Prussia on July 20. He then left the room to take a pre-arranged telephone call.

The bomb detonated with a terrific blast, killing four people, including a stenographer, and causing extensive damage.

Stauffenberg initially thought he had succeeded in an act that could have ended the Second World War nine months early.

The tide had turned by this stage: Allied forces were making steady progress north in Italy; a new front had opened in France the previous month with the Normandy landings; and Soviet forces had nearly seized back control of the Baltic states. It might be possible, Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators believed, to stage a coup and negotiate a peace that somehow allowed Germany to retain some territorial acquisitions.

But Hitler survived. The suitcase was inadvertently nudged further under the table, behind one of its legs, which served to deflect the subsequent blast.

Stauffenberg and three collaborators were executed by firing squad the following day. Thousands more would follow. MICHAEL DAVENTRY