For twelve years Adolf Hitler ruled Germany with an iron hand.

It was the period of the “good” German, going along with the regime, controlled by the strident coercion of state propaganda or the brutality of the SS, overcome by lethargy or convinced that Hitler and his juggernaut were Germany’s destiny.

But not all Germans. A few belonged, in the words of Winston Churchill, to the “greatest and most noble group in the political history of our times”.

This is the story of these few who tried, by their own hand, to change the course of history by assassinating Hitler.

Beginning in 1938, with a kidnap plan by General Ludwig Beck and Colonel Hans Oster, one desperate attempt followed another.

At first, the motivation was to prevent the outbreak of another world war, later to stave off the ruination of Germany, and finally to salvage what little was left of personal honour.

The would-be assassins included Wehrmacht officers, hardened company commanders led by Captain Freiherr Georg von Boeselager, noblemen such as Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a meek cabinetmaker, the patient Georg Elser, and Maurice Bavard, a drop-out from a French seminary.

As one failure followed another — sometimes because of technical malfunctions, more often because of Hitler’s legendary animal instinct for danger — new assassins arose, driven to try again.

In To Kill Hitler Herbert Molloy Mason investigates what it was that drove the would-be assassins on. His minute-by-minute descriptions of how they stalked the world’s biggest game make gripping reading, as events move inexorably from the first sparks of resistance to the Götterdämmerung of 1944 and 1945, when Hitler exacted his terrible revenge.

Herbert Molloy Mason (1927-2013) was a noted writer of military history, and has written sixteen books, including The Lafayette Escadrille and The Rise of the Luftwaffe. He lived in San Antonio, Texas with his wife who was an artist.