Operation Foxley

The British plan to kill Hitler

The name Foxley derives from Operation Foxley - the British plan to kill Hitler in 1944.

There is an increasing amount of information about Operation Foxley available to public view. The most comprehensive background material can be found in the Public Records Office where the de-classified SOE files give a wealth of information from the plot to the method of execution (a lone sniper infiltrated into the Berghof, Hitler’s Alpine retreat on the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden).

Much of the outline plot of Operation Foxley is similar to the plot of “Rogue Male”, a 1939 thriller by Geoffrey Household, concerning an Englishman’s attempt on the life of a European Dictator’s life (recognisably Hitler). This was later turned into a film by Fritz Lang called Man Hunt which starred Walter Pidgeon as the hero. The film was released in 1941, shortly before America’s entry into the war.

Foxley Books is planning to publish a travel guide to Berchtesgaden in the near future. It will investigate the locations where a British sniper could have executed Operation Foxley.