Led by Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, several German High Command officers plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler and take control of the German government, with the ultimate intention of surrendering their country to the Allies. Stauffenberg manages to plant a bomb, hidden in his briefcase, in Hitler's battlefield headquarters. By sheer luck, Heinz Brandt unwittingly moves the briefcase slightly, and Hitler survives the subsequent blast. In the final hours of July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg, Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, General Friedrich Olbricht, Ludwig Beck, and Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim are arrested and tried. Beck commits suicide, and the rest are taken to be executed. Stauffenberg declares "Long live the sacred Germany!" before being killed, and the others are also killed beside him within seconds.