Georg von Boeselager Georg Freiherr von Boeselager ( 25 August 1915 – 29 August 1944 ) was a German nobleman and an officer of the Wehrmacht , who ultimately reached the rank of Colonel " ( Oberst ) " of Cavalry . Along with his younger brother Philipp von Boeselager , he participated in the 1944 July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler . Returning to the front after the plot failed , Boeselager was killed in action against a heavily fortified Russian position in 1944 . He was posthumously promoted to full colonel and awarded the Knight ' s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords . Biography . Early years . Boeselager was born near Kassel into the noble Roman Catholic Boeselager family . He attended secondary school at Aloysius College in Bad Godesberg and considered becoming a priest . However , he finally decided to follow a military career . Enlisting on 1 April 1934 , he trained with the 15th Cavalry Regiment in Paderborn . He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1936 , and in March 1939 was promoted to First Lieutenant . When World War II began , took part in the Invasion of Poland and was awarded the Iron Cross , Second Class . His service on the Western Front in 1940 was equally distinguished . For his actions in bridging the Seine near Les Andelys on 13 June 1940 , he was awarded the Iron Cross , First Class . The following January , he won the coveted Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross . By July , he had been promoted to " Rittmeister " ( Captain of Cavalry ) . An efficiency report praised Boeselager as " . . . a spirited cavalry officer , who thinks boldly and surely in taking decisions , but who is modest and unassuming , the idol of his men . " In Operation Barbarossa , Boeselager ' s company performed reconnaissance for the double - pronged sweep around Brest - Litovsk to take Białystok and Minsk , seized bridgeheads over the Neman and Daugava rivers , and participated in the Battle of Moscow . For accomplishing his duties with distinction , he was granted the Knight ' s Cross with Oak leaves on 31 December 1941 . He was then detached from his regiment and made Instructor of Tactics at the " School for Shocktroops " in Krampintz . Boeselager was assigned to instruct students in Panzer tactics , though he preferred commanding traditional horsed cavalry , which he felt still had a place on the modern battlefield . While an instructor at the school , Boeselager became acquainted with members of the military resistance , who realised the war was not going well . Anti - partisan operations in Soviet Union . Boeselager took part in anti - partisan operations conducted within the territory of Soviet Union . On 23 June 1943 as commander of cavalry regiment of Army Group Centre he sent a report to Henning von Tresckow regarding tactics of partisans and ways to reduce " risk of gangs " , including his ideas on the subject ; in the report he wrote Von Tresckow warmly received Boeselager ' s proposals and on 27 June he personally sent copies of Georg ' s ideas to all the armies within Army Group Centre , High Command of the Army and the Commanding Officer of the Eastern Troops . The plot to kill Hitler . Boeselager next was assigned to train troops of the Romanian Third Army to fight alongside the German Sixth Army , which at first advanced deep into the Soviet Union but was destined to eventual capture at Stalingrad . After an audience with " Generalfeldmarschall " Günther von Kluge , commander of Army Group Centre , Boeselager was assigned as Deputy Commander , Cavalry Regiments Centre , a freestanding cavalry force fighting on the Eastern Front . Boeselager made frequent trips to confer with Kluge , sometimes flying along with the field marshal ' s staff on his transport plane . At a 1943 field conference , the feasibility of an assassination of German dictator Adolf Hitler was discussed among some of the officers present . It was proposed to kill Hitler with a pistol , but no officer could be found willing to attempt it . Many who would have willingly given their lives in battle abhorred the idea of going alone to assassinate an unarmed head of state . One year earlier , a Luftwaffe officer had waited in ambush for Hitler while the Führer was out walking in the woods , but found he was unable to move his arms when the moment came . Boeselager confided to his new friend and future superior , Major General Henning von Tresckow , that he would likely freeze up as well . It was the method , not the fact of the killing itself , that bothered Boeselager . In fact , he had come to believe that he had a duty to God and his fellow men to eliminate Hitler , who was the antithesis of all that his religious upbringing represented . Instead of a lone assassination , Boeselager envisioned a scenario where , in command of a cavalry honor guard , he would overwhelm Hitler ' s SS bodyguard and kill the Führer in a fair fight . This was rejected because Kluge did not like the idea of a large numbers of German soldiers fighting each other . Boeselager later offered to charge the Wolfsschanze with a full battalion of cavalry . It was rejected because of the extremely high casualties the unit would likely suffer and because it was also impossible to transfer the unit from West Prussia to East Prussia . Another suggestion was that a bomb be smuggled into Hitler ' s plane . This last idea was adopted , with a bomb being placed by lawyer Fabian von Schlabrendorff . The device failed to detonate and " Rittmeister " Boeselager returned to the front . On 1 June 1943 , Boeselager was promoted to Major . In a campaign in October 1943 he was wounded . On 1 December he was promoted to Oberstleutnant . After receiving another wound in February 1944 , Boeselager , still not fully recuperated , was assigned in June to a rear echelon squadron . He began to plot a new attempt on Hitler with Tresckow . Boeselager was dispatched by Tresckow to urge his old commander , Kluge , to change his strategy and to join the conspiracy against Hitler . Kluge was now Commander - in - Chief in the West . In the East , German lines were spread so thin that multiple Soviet breakthroughs were inevitable . Tresckow wanted Kluge to open the front in the West , begin negotiations for peace with the British and Americans , and transfer units to the Eastern Front to fight the Soviets , rightly viewed as a much more cruel and uncompromising enemy . Hitler and his national socialists would be eliminated . As Tresckow envisioned it , Kluge would arrange for the former ' s transfer so that he could help consolidate the coup . However , Kluge felt the Americans and British soon would be " opening up " his front no matter what he actions he took . He did not trust most of his staff to keep silent about the conspiracy , and therefore declined to participate in the plot or any planning . Boeselager returned to Tresckow empty - handed , but he still had a contribution to make . In support of the German resistance , Boeselager would wait with the greater part of his brigade in the Prussian hinterlands , then advance to take Berlin and hold it . Boeselager also helped Wessel von Freytag - Loringhoven in procuring the British Hexogen plastic explosive and other parts used in the bomb meant to kill Hitler ( a fact that his friends who were tortured by Hitler ' s security services never revealed ) . At the appointed time , Boeselager and his brother began marching their columns on Berlin . But before they could reach Berlin , they were informed about the unsuccessful bombing carried out by Claus von Stauffenberg . Boeselager accordingly led his troops back to the front , doing the utmost to camouflage the reason for the troop movement . Thus , he and his brother were not implicated in the plot . About 5 , 000 others were arrested and approximately 200 executed for their roles , however minor . Death and legacy . Although the Boeselager brothers escaped initial suspicion , investigators sent a message to one of Georg ' s old units in France requesting that " First Lieutenant von Boeselager " be detained for questioning . His former comrades replied ( semi - truthfully , since Boeselager had long since been promoted ) that they knew no such officer . Even though he was now a field - grade officer , Georg continued his hard - charging cavalryman ' s ways . Aware his life was in danger , he may have wished to die a hero , reasoning that his family would be less liable to Nazi persecution . Alternately , he may have been despondent over the failure of the plot and the future of Germany under probable Soviet occupation . Boeselager carried his motivation to the grave . He fell leading an assault against a heavily fortified Soviet position near Łomża on the Narew River on 29 August 1944 . Two days later , he was posthumously promoted to full colonel and awarded the Knight ' s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords — one of only 159 German soldiers so decorated in the history of the award . Legacy . The Bundeswehr ' s " Freiherr von Boeselager Kaserne " ( " Baron von Boeselager Barracks " ) in Munster is named for him , as are " Georg - von - Boeselager - Straße " ( " George von Boeselager Street " ) and " Georg - von - Boeselager - Schule " ( " George von Boeselager Secundary School " ) in Swisttal . For many years , the Bundeswehr conducted an annual ( then a semi - annual ) armoured reconnaissance competition composed of eight events open to all NATO nations . The competition was called the " Boeselager Cup " . It was cancelled in 1998 as pressure from operational commitments on the NATO countries restricted their ability to participate . The events were :