“Afterwards, he couldn’t just run, so he went to the communications building where Fellgiebel, also one of the group and in on the plan, was waiting to cut all lines. They talked, completely calmly as though they were just having a coffee break, and smoked on the porch. Then the bomb went off and although he knew exactly when it would happen, to the second, the very moment, and although he’d himself placed it there, Stauffenberg flinched. One of the other officers smoking nearby saw it and although he didn’t quite realize why at the time that detail was what threw him off. Military men were specifically trained not to react to explosions, even close exposions, because in battle that reaction could kill them and Stauffenberg was one of the most promising. And he’d flinched.”
