transferred to Tomaszew in central Poland, close to Warsaw, nearer to the new Soviet frontier, where in spite of his junior rank he took command of a battalion. Graf Hans-Jürgen led his battalion to the gates of Kiev, where in July 1941 he was badly wounded by a dumdum bullet, his right arm rendered useless. He was in the army hospital in Leipzig until December 1942. His only son, Hubertus, was born in May 1942. By this time, he was once again actively collaborating with the German Resistance. After his recovery, he joined the Führer Reserve in Berlin and worked at the General War Office. There he got to know other opponents of the regime and introduced Mertz von Quirnheim to Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who was an intimate friend of Graf Hans-Jürgen's cousin Albrecht von Blumenthal. The latter had introduced Stauffenberg to the mystical poet Stefan George, from whose circle other conspirators were drawn. Furthermore, in the late 1930s Dietrich Bonhoeffer had operated an underground seminary for training Confessing Church pastors at Albrecht's estate at Schlönwitz. In April 1943 Graf Hans-Jürgen was promoted to Major. He was the liaison officer between the Berlin Group and the Stettin High Command, Army District II, and was thus closely involved in the planning of the 20 July Plot of 1944. In his book Geist der Freiheit (1956), Eberhard Zeller wrote: It is known that in the weeks before 20 July, Major Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal was frequently driven to Stauffenberg in the evening. His driver waited for him – he went in fatigues [Trainingsanzug] – to an appointed place close to the Barracks at Düppel, which was close to where his department (General Weidemann) was supposed to have been off the Bendlerstrasse. Elsewhere Zeller mentions that he worked in the department of Colonel Siegfried Wagner and which gave him contact with Goerdeler. On the day Stauffenberg planted his abortive bomb, Graf Hans-Jürgen was on duty at OKH in the Bendlerstrasse. It was his task to control the messages which were to mobilize Operation Valkyrie in favour of the coup. As his name was at the top of the duty roster, he was the first to be identified as a conspirator. He evaded capture but could not get out of the building. He spent the night under an archway from where he witnessed the execution of Stauffenberg, Olbricht and his friend Mertz von Quirnheim.