The Explosion in the Bunker

The 20th July, 1944, was a cool day for summer. Unseasonably so, some said, though the sun still shone down warmly on the Prussian forests and the men inside them.

The concrete bunker that dominated the Wolfsschanze was warmer than the air outside, but it was not so oppressively hot that that day's military briefing would have to be moved elsewhere. The Führer would see his generals in the bunker as planned.

At 12:45 an explosion rocked the bunker. The pressure created by the heavy concrete of the walls and the lack of windows magnified the already large detonation, killing everyone inside the bunker at once. Among the dead was Adolf Hitler.

In the days that followed Hitler's death, a provisional government was established and the Nazi regime torn down. While many members of the Nazi party quietly submitted to arrest, a number of the more hardline members rallied behind Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Schutzstaffel and self-proclaimed successor to Hitler. This marked the beginning the German Civil War and a new phase in the Second World War, one which saw the new German government cooperate with the western Allies against the remaining Nazis.