[carumba]

With Hitler gone, the German high command would of been some what more militarily rationalized and more efficient.
I wonder if the surrender would have happened sooner with Hitler gone. We can only speculate.

[Leisler]

They wanted to have an conditional armistice and continue fighting the Russians.

Never going to be accepted, and they would not of accepted an unconditional surrender.

The die was cast.

[Stonewall Jackson]

There was a good book that came out a few years ago, “Fox on the Rhine”, in which the assassination is successful, but Himmler escapes the attempt on his life and assumes command of Germany. He has the ringleaders rounded up and shot and then confronts Rommel and other senior officers with evidence of their complicity in the plot. He then tells them that he is willing to let bygones be bygones, so long as they follow his lead. A peace treaty is then signed with Stalin, giving the Soviets control of most of Eastern Europe, and then the bulk of the German military is concentrated against the Americans and British under the Command of Field Marshal Rommel.