Guarding Hitler: The Secret World of the Führer

by Mark Felton

Throughout the war the British and Americans never seriously targeted Hitler’s numerous military headquarters for destruction; that was, somewhat ironically, until the final days of the war. The reason was not that they did not know where these complexes were located – on the contrary, the British, Americans and the Soviets had detailed information about the Obersalzberg, the Reich Chancellery in Berlin and the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. The reason was that such a strike was viewed to be counter-productive to the Allied cause. The same reason was given for cancelling Operation Foxley, the British plan to use a sniper to shoot Hitler during one of his daily walks at the Obersalzberg. The reasoning was that if the Allies had bombed Hitler out of his home, they would simply have bound him further to the German people, who were suffering greatly under the Allied aerial onslaught. If Hitler was killed in an air raid the Allies feared that they would have made him a martyr. The same outcome would have been likely from shooting him using a concealed sniper. ‘Hitler and his like can only be irrevocably discredited if he is at the helm when the final collapse comes,’21 read one American report on the subject. There was also the compelling argument put forward by many Allied assessments that Hitler’s bungling attempts at grand strategy were actually aiding the Allied cause and shortening the war. If Hitler was removed, the German General Staff may have run the war considerably mor...