# Operation Athropoid-Heydrich´s assasination, 66 years ago



## seesul (May 27, 2008)

After France and Great Britain abandoned Czechoslovakia at Munich in 1938, it was only a matter of time before the now indefensible country was overrun. The country was transformed into the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia", and then gradually referred to merely as "the Protectorate", thus subsuming the country into Greater Germany and destroying its national identity. In 1941 Reinhard Heydreich was appointed Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate. Heydrich was the head of the Sicherheitdienst, or SD, the intelligence-gathering arm of the Nazi secret state police (by rank an Obergruppenführer, or general), and Hitler's personal choice as his successor. Heydrich was particularly efficient in two tasks as Reichsprotektor - firstly, ensuring the productivity of the Protectorate's war economy (Bohemia and Moravia had been the main industrial belt of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), and secondly, in trampling what little local resistance existed. But he would later become the highest-level Nazi to be assassinated during the war.

Worried by Heydrich's successes in driving one of the most important parts of the Nazi war economy, the British had soon decided he had to go. The Special Operations Executive had been training teams of dedicated Czech patriots in Cheshire to parachute into their homeland to organise the underground resistance and assassinate the Butcher of Prague. This assassination was nicknamed Operation Anthropoid, and was the bravest and most decisive act to emerge from the Czech resistance movement - perhaps one of the most decisive in the whole of occupied Europe. A mere two months after Heydrich had moved to the Protectorate, in December 1941, a band of seven assassins parachuted into the country near the town of Lidice. Armed with British weapons and explosives, they quickly went underground and began intelligence-gathering. After spending five months building up a detailed picture of Heydrich's movements, they decided to strike.

*On May 27, 1942, four of the men (Lt. Adolf Opalka, Sgt. Josef Valcik, Sgt. Jan Kubis and Sgt. Josef Gabchik) had finally found their opportunity. Heydrich, believing himself to have succeeded in pacifying the Czech population and expecting transfer to France soon, had taken to driving around his dominions in an open-topped, unarmoured Mercedes. This day found Heydrich being conveyed in such a manner through the suburbs of Prague, whilst his nemesis awaited near the Troja Bridge. Valcik and Opalka kept lookout waiting for the car to approach (one account has Gabcick's girlfriend keeping watch), and signalled to the others that it was without a military escort. As the car slowed to turn around a hairpin bend, Gabchik lifted his overcoat and opened fire with his Sten submachine gun. To his horror, the gun jammed, and Heydrich screamed to his driver to run the man down. Jan reacted quickly, realising what had happened, and tossed one of his modified anti-tank grenades at the vehicle. It failed to enter the open-topped car, but ripped through the right wing, embedding fragments of itself and the car into Heydrich's body.

As the Germans open-fired, the Czechs fled. Heydrich, barely able to walk, staggered out of the vehicle and collapsed on the bonnet. His driver was relatively unharmed, and Heydrich ordered him to pursue the men. He ran after Josef, the men duelling with their pistols as they went, and Josef was able to wound the man and escape. Heydrich was conveyed 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. The exact cause of death is not known - it could have been blood poisoning or, perhaps, poisoning. The turnaround in his health was so dramatic and the symptoms he displayed so akin to botulin poisoning that there has long been speculation that the modified anti-tank grenades contained the toxin. Although the files on the operation are still sealed, it is known that Paul Fildes, head of the Porton Downs research center that was developing BTX weapons, was involved in the pre-planing stages. He would later claim that the death of Heydrich was "the first notch on my pistol."*

Meanwhile, the German reprisal was beginning. They pieced together evidence from the scene of the attack to identify resistance members, and accidently stumbled across a briefcase which contained details of Czechs who were soon to acquire false papers. They pounced on numerous members of the resistance and interrogated them, although some committed suicide to avoid capture. The Gestapo offered 10,000,000 Crowns for information leading to the capture of the assassins, and two of their own team - Sgt. Karel Curda and Cpl. Vilem Gerik - betrayed them. Holed up in an Orthodox Church on June 18, 1942, the Czechs made their last stand.

Germans stormed the Church, and the seven men (the four assasins, and Sgts. Bublik, Hruby and Svarc) holed up inside fought bravely with pistol, rifle, submachine gun and grenade. Opalka was killed in the firefight, and Kubis and Svarc fatally wounded. The other four men were hiding in the crypt, afraid to tunnel away for fear of giving away their position, although it might have saved them at this point. The Germans discovered they were in the crypt and tried to storm it repeatedly, first through the entrance hatchway and then by blowing up the stone entrance. The defenders acquitted themselves bravely, killing fourteen Germans and fighting until they ran out of ammunition, and the Nazis began to flood the crypt through its sole ventilation hatch. At this point they committed suicide with their revolvers.

Horrendously, this was not the most brutal of the reprisals carried out by the Nazis for the death of Heydrich. On June 8 they had surrounded the village of Lidice, and placed all the men aged over 16 in a barn. The next day they were shot, and the women and children were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. The village was destroyed and removed from German maps - but placed on others as villages around the world renamed themselves Lidice to commemorate the senseless destruction. The Nazis declared that for every further act of "Jewish terrorism" they would kill hundreds of Jews in their custody, and the total death toll for the reprisals is estimated at 1,300.

Like many of the men and women involved in the resistance movement in occupied Europe, the ones lost in Prague were among the finest their country had to offer. They are justly remembered be memorials in the Czech Republic and Great Britain. A monument to the children of Lidice was created by a survivor, made out of the melted-down remains of statues of Lenin and Czech Communist leaders. The crypt is now a museum in Prague, and anthropod reports that is is very moving to visit. 

Source: Operation [email protected]

BTW, one of the Czech soldiers, Josef Valcik, was born and grew up in a small village few miles away from my born town...


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## wilbur1 (May 27, 2008)

Cool story Roman, thamks for sharing it


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## RabidAlien (May 27, 2008)

Recently read a book titled "A Man Called Intrepid", about the formation and some operations of the OSS during WW2. I remember this being in there...I believe that the OSS had some input in the operation, too.


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## seesul (May 27, 2008)

RabidAlien said:


> Recently read a book titled "A Man Called Intrepid", about the formation and some operations of the OSS during WW2. I remember this being in there...I believe that the OSS had some input in the operation, too.



RabidAlien, have you ever heard about the book ''OSS Tragedy In Slovakia", written by Jim Downs?


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## David Cohen (May 27, 2008)

Wow that is interesting


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## RabidAlien (May 27, 2008)

Seesul, nope I haven't...until now! Hmmmmm....how many Amazon.com browser windows can one have open before one's monitor becomes top-heavy and falls off one's desk????

What I really found interesting was how much influence Stephenson had with both Churchill and Roosevelt, convincing them to take certain steps/risks and doing everything he could to get the US into the war. The man was a genius, certainly!

Headin over to Amazon right now, to look up your book...


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## seesul (May 27, 2008)

RabidAlien said:


> Seesul, nope I haven't...until now! Hmmmmm....how many Amazon.com browser windows can one have open before one's monitor becomes top-heavy and falls off one's desk????
> 
> What I really found interesting was how much influence Stephenson had with both Churchill and Roosevelt, convincing them to take certain steps/risks and doing everything he could to get the US into the war. The man was a genius, certainly!
> 
> Headin over to Amazon right now, to look up your book...




I got this book signed by Jim Downs. I´m in touch with him. If you want PM me for his e-mail address.


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## Wildcat (May 28, 2008)

Roman have you seen the movie about this event, it's called "Operation Daybreak". After reading your post, it seems fairly accurate and it's not a bad movie as well.
Operation: Daybreak (1975)


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## seesul (May 28, 2008)

Wildcat said:


> Roman have you seen the movie about this event, it's called "Operation Daybreak". After reading your post, it seems fairly accurate and it's not a bad movie as well.
> Operation: Daybreak (1975)



Wow, I´ve never known about this movie! Did you see it?
There´s a Czech movie ''Atentát'' (Assasination) about this event...from 1964.
AtentÃ¡t (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Wildcat (May 28, 2008)

Yep, numerous times. I taped it off TV a few years back, it's well worth a viewing if you can get your hands on a copy.


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## seesul (Jun 5, 2009)

Pics of the crypt in Prague. Sorry for the quality but the holes after the machine gun bullets still can be seen there around the small window...


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## imalko (Jun 6, 2009)

During one of my stays in Bratislava when I was visiting my sister in summer 2007 I went to the Slovak National Museum where I took this photo. Heydrich's Mercedes in which he was at time of the assassination was temporarily exibited here at the time.


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## seesul (Jun 6, 2009)

Thx for posting this pic. I still regret I didn´t have a time to visit this exhibition...


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## A4K (Jun 10, 2009)

Interesting thread, thanks Roman!


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## Airframes (Jun 10, 2009)

Very interesting to read more about the operation Roman. The movie 'Operation Daybreak' was very well done and, as Andy says, appears to be accurate and authentic. The scene where the S.O.E. team are parachuted in actually shows a Halifax, the correct aircraft used for this work, although, of course, the footage must have been 'stock shot' material.
It's interesting to know that the team were trained in Cheshire. If the training took place where I think it did, then the location is only about 4 miles (6.5 Km) from where I live, and I've actually been there. Wish I knew at the time that this team trained there!


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## seesul (Jun 10, 2009)

Terry, the world is small...one of the assasinators, Josef Valcik, that one, who gave the signal by mirror, that Heydrich´s Mercedes is closing, was born few miles away from my born town.

_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4hlURkFA5Y_ , time 9:20


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## Arsenal VG-33 (Jun 10, 2009)

Today is also the 65th anniversary of the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane.

Oradour-sur-Glane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## seesul (Jun 11, 2009)

Arsenal VG-33 said:


> Today is also the 65th anniversary of the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane.
> 
> Oradour-sur-Glane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



I think this very sad event would deserve its own thread...


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## seesul (Jun 11, 2009)

One more link 
_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wghsIzXi0nU_


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## imalko (Jun 30, 2009)

Hello Roman!
I have accidentally found this article about Heydrich in Czech language and I though you might find it interesting. So here's the link:

Reinhard Heydrich: Ekonomický manipulátor - M??ec.cz


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## Soren (Jun 30, 2009)

If my memory serves me right there was some similar attempt which went wrong, with the intended target stepping out of the car and shooting at the assassins. Can't remember when or where it was however. Could ofcourse be confusing it with something pre WW2.


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## RabidAlien (Jul 2, 2009)

I think you're remembering the same incident. The bomb didn't actually make it into the car with Heydritch, it blew the door off and it was shrapnel that did him in. I'm wanting to say he got off a couple of shots at the assassins before collapsing, but my noggin is throbbin right now (wish I could blame a hangover...nope, this one's pure "work") and I'm not trustin the facts it digs up.


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## vikingBerserker (Jul 2, 2009)

I think you're right RA, I believe he did get off a couple of shots as well.


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## RabidAlien (Jul 2, 2009)

It was in William Stephenson's book "A Man Called Intrepid" that I read a bit about that, and the repercussions that the local population was forced to endure. Serious times, drastic measures, but I always pictured the scene playing out like in a cheesy 50's B-gangster flick: assassin sneaks around corner of building in broad daylight, dramatic music playingllltosses bomb while standing (practically invisible to all around him) in the middle of the street, about five feet from his victim. Music peaks. Big cloudy poof, ill-timed bang, door to car (undamaged) is seen flying open as cloud of fake smoke unfortunately parts at an inopportune time. Heydritch staggers from car with really jerky motions, reaches for luger in belt holster (which is buttoned closed), fires a few blanks with tell-tale puffs of smoke gracefully wafting from end of barrel (holser is still buttoned closed), grimaces in exaggerated pain whilst clutching chest of immaculate uniform (no holes/damage of any kind), falls to street. Cut to very determined-looking would-be assassin running down street as pedestrians continue doing what producer told them to do five minutes ago. Cut back to Heydritch, lying in street (different position, as he had to get a latte during the break and couldn't remember where he was laying) as medics in cheap labcoats and stethoscopes scurry over to where he lies, trying to look authoritative and medical. Give him two aspirin, have him call them in the morning.

That's just how the voices in my head see it happening.


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## seesul (Jul 5, 2009)

imalko said:


> Hello Roman!
> I have accidentally found this article about Heydrich in Czech language and I though you might find it interesting. So here's the link:
> 
> Reinhard Heydrich: Ekonomický manipulátor - M??ec.cz



very interesting, many thanks!


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## seesul (Jul 1, 2016)

New movie heading to USA first 
_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blAKCJcXC5c_


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## seesul (Oct 23, 2016)

seesul said:


> New movie heading to USA first
> _View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blAKCJcXC5c_



Did anyone of you have a chance to see this movie?
If not please do it. You won´t regret Anthropoid - Official Site


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## seesul (Dec 25, 2016)

seesul said:


> Did anyone of you have a chance to see this movie?
> If not please do it. You won´t regret Anthropoid - Official Site


Saw it few months ago. Highly recommended.


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## Airframes (Dec 25, 2016)

Been looking out for it, but not seen it yet.


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