In 1944, the British conceived a plan to assassinate Hitler while he was staying at his vacation residence. However, they ultimately decided against it as Hitler was such a poor strategist at that stage that they believed whoever replaced him would do a better job of fighting the Allies.

Thornley also argued that Germany was almost defeated and, if Hitler were assassinated, he would become a martyr to some Germans, and possibly give rise to a myth that Germany might have won if Hitler had survived. Since the idea was not only to defeat Germany but to destroy Nazism in general, that would have been a highly undesirable development.