In 1940, a group of High-ranking, anti-Nazi German officers came together for one reason; to kill Hitler. Known as the Schwarze Kapelle, the Black Orchestra, they came up with a plan called Operation Spark.
Operation Spark was called so because the leader of the group, Major General Henning von Tresckow, believed that the death of Hitler would be the spark that would sweep the Nazis out of control.
Several plans were attempted but due to bad luck, none succeeded, until Lt. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg came up with a plan; to bomb Hitler in his Wolfschannze haven, then launch a coup to take control of Germany. It was put into action on July 20th, 1944.
It didn't work. Sadly, Hitler survived the bombing and the coup fell apart. An estimated 4980 people were executed in relation to the coup.
This TL is in memory of them, of those who saw evil and stood against it. The plotters knew they might fail, but they knew they had to try, if nothing else just to prove that there were some in Germany who were brave enough to stand up for what was right.
This TL is also to explore the world today- if the plot had worked.
On July 20th, 1944, Hitler and members of his government, including Himmler and Goring, were killed in the July 20th plot. Immediately, the coup swung into action, as on all fronts of the war, and in Germany itself. Goebbels was arrested and given a summary trial before his execution. Of Hitler's close confidants, only Keitel and Bormann survived. They fled north, to Flensburg, and mounted a defense there with loyal members of the Wehrmacht and SS. Rommel now declared his support for the coup and though hospitalized he urged all troops to make a ceasefire with the Western allies.
After a short civil war, in which Bormann was killed and Keitel arrested (though at the cost of the life of Ludwig Beck), the Republic of Germany was declared, and a ceasefire asked for on the Western front. In exchange for the German evacuation of France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium, the (Western) Allies would agree to declare a ceasefire and make Alsace-Lorraine autonomous.
The world today is very different than OTL. Germany is a superpower, controlling one of the world's largest industrial bases. The Soviet Union failed after the disatrous battle of Warsaw, when surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned German troops managed to outmanuver the Russian troops and totally destroy them at little cost to themselves.
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