(3 of 3)
Through this welter of blood, bullets, terror, hysteria, flight and death, it seemed clear Heinrich Himmler had the upper hand. How long he could keep it, with Germany's military situation growing more critical every day, was anybody's guess. For the first deep fissure between Wehrmacht and Nazis had cracked the solid-seeming total state. Sooner or later the tremor of, doubt and fear would reach from the top down to the smallest private in the ranks, and the crack would indeed become the crack of doom.
Meanwhile people in the outer world peered at the blood-and-iron orgy and wondered. What they felt about the misfired assassination was neatly and stoutly said by Prime Minister Winston Churchill (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS) : "They missed the old bastard* but there's time yet. There are grave signs of weakness in Germany. They are in a great turmoil inside and none can measure the extent."
* It was 12:59 a.m., Berlin Time. * In euphemistic press reports: "bounder."