Radio Prague

On the twenty-ninth of May, 1942, Radio Prague announced that Reinhard Heydrich, Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, was dying; assassins had wounded him fatally. On the sixth of June he died..commeration_stamp


Prestige Target

In London the strength of the resistance in all occupied countries was periodically reviewed, and the countries were listed in the order of the assistance each gave the Allied cause. In 1941 Czechoslovakia was always ranked at the very end. Eduard Benes, its president-in-exile, was deeply embarrassed. He was also gravely concerned that the Allies, if his people failed to fight, might give short shrift to any Czech claims after the war.

Then President Benes hit upon the idea of contriving to assassinate a prominent Nazi or Quisling inside the tight dungeon of the Protectorate; such a bold stroke would refurbish the Czech people's prestige and advance the status of their government in London. The German retaliation would be brutal, of course, but its brutality might serve to inflame Czech patriotism.

SS3

SS-3 Heydrichs car after the Assassination.

After the Death of Heydrich The Germans began a massive and bloody retaliation campaign targeting the entire Czech population. A village called Lidice was wiped off face of the earth and almost all of its people were murdered.

Operation Anthropid

The first problem was finding one or two men who could and would do the job, the second problem was how many people would have to know.

Of the 2,500 Czech soldiers in the brigade some 700, most of them volunteers, were already engaged in parachute training under British instruction. Two officers were assigned to the brigade, one to the parachutists and the other to the ground troops, not as aides but actually as spotters. These two officers knew only that they were to choose the best candidates for a dangerous assignment.

Men recommended by the spotters were interviewed by Lt. Col. Stragmueller.

They were seperated into small groups and put through tough physical conditioning and thorough schooling in commando tactics. They ere filtered down to eight men. The filtering process kept going until two men remained.

Their names were Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik (see the above picture).

Both men had gone through the hard training without illness or complaint. Both spoke fluent German. Both were excellent shots. General Moravec spoke separately to each of them. He explained that the mission had the one purpose of assassinating Heydrich. He stressed to each of the young men the great likelihood that he would be caught and executed.

Escape from encircled Czechoslovakia after Heydrich had been killed would be practically impossible. And the survival of either, hiding inside the country until the war ended, was extremely unlikely. The probability was that both would be killed at the scene of action.

The Assassination

Ambush siteJan Kubis and Joseph Gabcik were parachuted into Czechoslovakia on 29th December, 1941. Five months later, on 27th May, 1942, after several inital ideas failed or proved not feasible the attack on Heydrich's open staff car as his chauffeur drove him through the ouskirts of Prague,

Four were involved in the attack Adolf Opalka,Josef Valcik,jan Kubis and Josef Gabchik..Lookout was being kept by Valchik and Opalka. Heydrich was, unusually, late, but an hour after the expected time, Valcik and Opalka gave the signal that the German staff Mercedes car was approaching. The spot had been carefully chosen at a point where the vehicle must slow right down to negotiate a very steep turn in the road. As the car approached and slowed, Josef Gabchik snatched aside his overcoat, lifted his concealed Sten gun and clicked the trigger. It jammed and failed to fire. The surprised Germans, believing Josef was a lone assassin,reacted quickly, braking to a stop and reaching for their weapons. Jan,realising that Josef's gun had misfired, hurled a grenade which exploded against the right rear wing of the Mercedes car, puncturing the tyre and blowing a large hole in the bodywork. The explosion and grenade fragments severely wounded Heydrich.

Both Germans opened fire with their pistols,and the Czechs fled, Kubis was injured in the head and face by splinters from his own bomb.Opalka and Valcik escaped unnoticed.

Heydrich slumped on the bonet of his car and ordered his bodguard to persue the attackers.He ran after Gabchik, the men duelling with their pistols as they went, and Gabchik was able to wound the bodyguard and escape.
Death

Heydrich was brought to a hospital in Prague and Himmler sent his best doctors to try and effect his recovery. Although Heydrich's condition appeared to stabilise after a few days, he eventually died on June 4 of blood posioning.