Editing 20 July plot (section)

=== New plan ===
{{main|Operation Valkyrie}}

Olbricht now put forward a new strategy for staging a coup against Hitler. The [[Replacement Army]] (''Ersatzheer'') had an operational plan called Operation Valkyrie, which was to be used in the event that the disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities would cause a breakdown in law and order, or an uprising by the millions of [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labourers from occupied countries]] now being used in German factories. Olbricht suggested that this plan could be used to mobilise the Reserve Army for the purpose of the coup.<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite web |url=https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/operation-valkyrie |title=Operation Valkyrie 1944 |website=University of Cambridge |date=27 April 2015 |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203103140/https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/operation-valkyrie |url-status=live }}</ref>

In August and September 1943, Tresckow drafted the "revised" Valkyrie plan and new supplementary orders. A secret declaration began with these words: "The Führer Adolf Hitler is dead! A treacherous group of party leaders has attempted to exploit the situation by attacking our embattled soldiers from the rear in order to seize power for themselves."<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Nigel |year=2009 |title=Countdown to Valkyrie: The July Plot to Assassinate Hitler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N8SIDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Pen & Sword Books |isbn=978-1783461455 |access-date=March 7, 2021 |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411174733/https://books.google.com/books?id=N8SIDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Detailed instructions were written for occupation of government ministries in Berlin, [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s headquarters in East Prussia, radio stations and telephone offices, and other Nazi apparatus through military districts, and concentration camps.{{sfn|Fest|1997|p=219}}

Previously, it was believed that Stauffenberg was mainly responsible for the Valkyrie plan, but documents recovered by the Soviet Union after the war and released in 2007 suggest that the plan was developed by Tresckow by autumn of 1943.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1524/VfZg.2007.55.2.331|title=Oberst i.G. Henning von Tresckow und die Staatsstreichspläne im Jahr 1943|year=2007|last1=Hoffmann|first1=Peter|journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte|volume=55|issue=2|pages=331–364|s2cid=143574023|doi-access=free}}</ref> All written information was handled by Tresckow's wife, Erika, and by [[Margarethe von Oven]], his secretary. Both women wore gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.{{sfn|Fest|1997|p=220}} On at least two other occasions Tresckow had tried to assassinate the Führer. The first plan was to shoot him during dinner at the army base camp, but this plan was aborted because it was widely believed that Hitler wore a bullet-proof vest. The conspirators also considered poisoning him, but this was not possible because his food was specially prepared and tasted. They concluded that a time bomb was the only option.{{sfn|Moorhouse|2007|p=241}}

Operation Valkyrie could only be put into effect by Hitler himself, or by General [[Friedrich Fromm]], commander of the Reserve Army, so the latter had to be either won over to the conspiracy or in some way neutralised if the plan was to succeed.<ref name="Cambridge" />