Hitler Dodges Death by Ten Minutes was one of the dramatic Advertiser front page headlines this week 70 years ago.

A time bomb in an attic was thought to have caused the explosion at the Buergerbrau beer cellar where Hitler had previously delivered a speech to the Party Old Guard in celebration of the failed 1923 Nazi putsch.

With the explosion timed for 9.22 pm, Hitler had already left the building, unexpectedly recalled to Berlin on urgent business.

Early reports announced that Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, was believed to be among the six people killed in the explosion which injured more than 60 others.

The Berlin newspaper ‘12 Uhr Blatt’ laid blame for the explosion on the British Secret Service and a reward of £25,000 was offered “for the discovery of the perpetrators.”

Meanwhile the Swedish newspaper ‘Aftonbladet’ exposed German plans for vast attacks on the whole Western Front, combined with an air attack on Britain on an unprecedented scale.

“Moscow is dubious of the results,” reported the Riga correspondent, “but Berlin is unlikely to give up the plan, which, it is considered, will mark the real beginning of the war.”

“This is only one of many reports which seem to indicate that the Germans are about to embark upon operations of a larger scale,’ reported the Advertiser.

‘A larger number of ‘planes have been sent on reconnaissance flights over the Allied lines, on land there have been three German raids of some important, and movements of reinforcements have been observed behind the Nazi lines.”