69. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 489–91, 493. Fest, Staatsstreich, 261, has 12.40p.m. Below, 381, and some other witnesses suggest that time, others (e.g., in his much later second set of memoirs, Linge, 225, who, however, is frequently unreliable with detail) a slightly later time. Benz, Graml, and Weßs, Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus, 814, give the precise time of 12.42p.m., though without source. According to the summary of the evidence in Hoffmann, Widerstand, 817 n.43, the explosion can not be timed more precisely than between 12.40 and 12.50p.m. Sander’s comment about explosions occurring as a result of animals setting off mines was later echoed by Hitler’s secretary Christa Schroeder (Schroeder, 147). Hitler’s valet, Heinz Linge, stated much later that he initially thought Hitler’s dog had set off a mine (Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 224). Since, however, Linge was close to the hut where the explosion took place, this sounds contrived.
70. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 491–3; Hoffmann, Stauffenberg, 267.
71. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 493–5; Fest, Staatsstreich, 261; Irving, HW, 662–3; Below, 381; Schroeder, 147; Irving, Doctor, 145.
72. Below, 381.
73. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 496–7; Spiegelbild, 83
74. Speer, 399; TBJG, II/13, 139 (23 July 1944).
75. Below, 381; Schroeder, 148; Hoffmann, Widerstand, 496.
76. Irving, Doctor, 146–8 (where Hitler’s pulse and blood-pressure are said to have risen, but not excessively, following the attack); Below, 381; Schroeder, 148; TBJG, II/13, 139 (23 July 1944); Redlich, 204–5; Schenck, 317–18. Morell told Paul Schmidt, the interpreter, that afternoon that Hitler’s pulse had been quite normal following the explosion (Schmidt, 593).
77. Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 225.
78. Below, 382; Hoffmann, Widerstand, 498–501; Irving, Göring, 430.
79. Schroeder, 148. Hitler asked Christa Schroeder, so she later wrote, to send the tattered coat and trousers to Eva Braun for safe keeping. One of Hitler’s other secretaries, Gerda Christian (Daranowski before her marriage in February 1943), later recalled that Hitler had been calm when he spoke to them on the evening after the attempt on his life. (Library of Congress, Washington, Toland Tapes, C-63B, interview with John Toland, 26 July 1971.)
80. Below, 382; see also Speer, 391; and Reuth, Goebbels, 548.
81. TBJG, II/13, 141 (23 July 1944); Below, 382; Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 229; Schroeder, 148–9; Hoffmann, Widerstand, 597. According to the account compiled by Linge in the 1950s, he heard from a telephonist that Stauffenberg had left the barracks in a direction from which it could be concluded that he was leaving the Führer Headquarters, and had this information conveyed to Hitler (Linge, ‘Kronzeuge’, BI.83). Since Stauffenberg left the barrack-hut without cap and belt, heading in the direction of the adjutants’ building, well away from any exit from the compound and in the opposite direction to the airfield, this seems like a later elaboration by Linge, designed to play up his own role.
82. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 506ff.
83. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 509 and 823 n.88.
84. Gisevius, To the Bitter End, 546.
85. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 506–11; Roon, Widerstand, 192. Himmler had ordered the communications block lifted around 3p.m.. Full clearance was only attained around an hour later. (Hoffmann, Widerstand, 504, 510–11. See also Spiegelbild, 330.)
86. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 511, 823–6 (notes 93, 95).
87. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 519 and 833 n.122. That Stauffenberg had seen a person carried from the briefing hut covered in Hitler’s cloak, presuming that it was the Führer, as he (and later Fellgiebel) claimed (Fest, Staatsstreich, 261; Hoffmann, Stauffenberg, 267), seems, however, unlikely. The adjutancy, where they heard the explosion, was some distance — around 200 metres (Hoffmann, Widerstand, 490) — from the hut. There were other buildings, and trees, which would have obscured the view. And it is doubtful that, following the explosion and when time was of the essence, Stauffenberg and Haeften would have hesitated long enough before hurrying away to await the first casualties being carried from the hut. It is possible that they caught a glimpse of someone being taken from the hut as they drove away. Whether, in the mêlée, it was feasible to ascertain that he was draped in Hitler’s cloak, seems doubtful.
88. Gisevius, To the Bitter End, 545; Hoffmann, Widerstand, 513–14.
89. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 514; Hoffmann, Stauffenberg, 269.
90. Gisevius, To the Bitter End, 546–7; Hoffmann, Widerstand, 519–20; Hoffmann, Stauffenberg, 270.
