Steven. Thanks for posting and reminding us of the heroic bravery of these exiled Czechs. Interestingly i have been looking recently at the SOE development of the grenade and sten gun used in the operation.There is a recent publication relating to those who developed these weapons for Anthropoid and the Norwegian heavy water operation and entitled "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" by Giles Milton.....previously reported to be a 6 strong group.Two have been named previously but as i see it the other 4 have not been disclosed by name There have been many books written on Operation Anthropoid over the years and the subsequent reprisals carried out at Lidice However the Czech Army have also produced an account on the operation....http://www.army.cz/images/id_7001_8000/7419/assassination-en.pdf One of the best insights on the assassination is the film (1976) entitled "Operation Daybreak" which it transpires has minor errors....reported to be filmed in Prague.
Operation Daybreak has huge errors and in some instances merges several characters into one but is still worth watching all the same, specifically because as has been said, it was filmed in Prague. Modern day, the attack corner is much changed with a new road lay-out. The new Anthropoid film starring Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan is due for release in UK on 9th September although sadly it isnt free from errors ("Directors Licence"?) either.
I did not see the new "Anthropoid" movie yet but I can also recommend Czechoslovak movie "Atentát" (Assassination). It was filmed in 1965 and it´s definitely not bad. It´s not 100% accurate but it is quite an impressive piece of film-making (however, as an apology to authors, it should be said that most of the inaccuracies are those situations which were wide-spread myths about the operation and its aftermath, some of them were still not uncovered back in 1965...). I´ve made short market reconnaissance and it seems that all DVDs available on eBay are only in Czech, w/o English subtitles. However, believe it or not, there is a complete version with English subs available on Youtube. I believe that there is a copyright issue with it so no link will be provided but...
Trailer for movie here Not very positive review from the Guardian here: Anthropoid review: a humdrum account of an extraordinary plot
The Church Crypt museum in Prague is well worth a visit. It must have been a real hell hole being trapped in complete darkness with water being pumped into the crypt from the street wall vents. True heroes although many innocent people paid the ultimate price as reprisals. Regards Tom
