One of the worst blunders in World War II was the failure of German opposition to Hitler to unite against him. Typical was the bomb plot of 1944 at the Wolf’s Lair in the Rastenberg forest in East Prussia. There, a young aristocratic officer called Von Stauffenberg had placed a briefcase bomb under Hitler’s map table. When this failed to kill the Fuehrer the disorganised conspirators were soon rounded up and hanged.