Review: Operation Foxley: The British Plan to Kill Hitler

This short book consists mainly of a long and very secret memorandum, illustrated with maps and photographs, prepared by the British in 1944. The document lays out a series of options for killing the German dictator. The main options seem to have been a sniper attack on Hitler at his mountain retreat near Berchtesgaden, or an attack on his train. The report is full of incredible detail, collected mainly from captured Germans who served close to Hitler — including the fact that the Führer really enjoyed apple juice. There are also the occasional bloopers — the description of Eva Braun, for example, as the Führer’s “secretary”. As Ian Kershaw points out in his foreword, from the time the plan was drafted until the time Hitler last visited Berchtesgaden, there was only a two-week window of opportunity. After that, the Führer never returned, spending more and more of his time in Berlin until the final defeat of Germany in May 1945.