The day they got Heydrich

While military governor of Bohemia and Moravia, exercising real executive power above the President and Prime Minister of the so called Protectorate, Heydrich often drove alone in a car with an open roof.
This was typical of the arrogant egotist that Heyditch was.

In the December 1941, two brave Czech soldiers [Gabcik and Kubis], who had escaped to Britain, agreed to return to Prague in an attempt to assassinate the bastard.
On the 27th May 1942 they ambushed Heyditch's car in the Prague suburb of Kobylisy as the car slowed down on a bend.
When the sten that Gapcik was carrying failed to fire, Kubis threw a mills bomb into the car which injured Heyditch but also himself.
Gabcik himself shot the pursueing driver in the leg and made his escape.

Heydrich's injuries were not immediately dangerous. However, the bomb explosion drove fragments from the car seats into his body, including bits of springs and dirty upholstery. This led to massive infections of his internal organs. Despite Himmler sending his best doctors, Heydrich died in a Prague hospital eight days later. The autopsy stated that Heydrich's death was the result of blood poisoning from an infection from the horse hair in the seat.
A poetic end to a real bastard and I wish it could have ended there.
But reprisals started immediately with over 13000 innocent people losing their lives.

As an ajunct to this, the War Cabinet in Britain were reluctant to carry out any more officially sanctioned assassinations.

A pic below of Heyditch with the cruel face that suited him.
A pic of the car he was riding in that day with the number plate SS 3.

Taken from this site
Reinhard Heydrich - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Funnily enough I was looking at a picture the remains of Heydrich's grave earlier.
Pretty thorough removal but I thought the Soviets wouldn't have even left that much:

Heydrich_Grave.

Certainly more than he deserved.

tom

 

It's one of the great ironies of the war that Reinhardt Heydrich should think himself such a sure bet that he could drive through Prague on a regular basis, using the same route, without an escort vehicle of any kind, and with just his officers Walther pistol for protection....the Czechs soon put paid to that little fantasy....

Heydrich was not only unprotected, the assassins were dead set lucky...they thought they had failed, and like Gavrilo Princep at Sarajevo, they were on their way back to base when Heydrichs car swung into view......Heydrich was arrogant or stupid enough to stand bolt upright in the car, but this is not what killed him...apparently, the horsehair seats he was sitting in were blown into his wounds, and caused an infection that Doctors could not control........

Was their only motivation the fact that Reinhard Heydrich was slated as Hitler's next in line? (unofficial)...The British planners and their Czech cohorts knew what the consequences of the action would be...the reprisal murder of tens of thousands of Czechs...and theres the REAL REASON....

KNOWING the Nazi pechant for reprisal killings, they knew that a target like Heydrich would DESTABILIZE an entire region; even the most prominent critics of Reinhard Heydrich have to admit, that under his direction, Bohemia-Moravia was operating very smoothly, with little or no partisan/resistence activity....something that niether the Czechs in exile, nor the British, wanted to continue....

It is often said that in a guerilla war, the only thing that reprisal actions do is recruit for the other side...this was the one region of the Reich at the time that was running smoothly...If the Czechs got the idea that their lot was to be an easier one than the rest of occupied Eurpoe, that would mean the Reich's heartland areas would be humming along till the end....

They needed to destabilize the region in the fastest possible way....if they could get the Nazis to react, then any number of people killed would therefore be completely justified...

And thats exactly the way it turned out....a great victory for British and Czech planners, and another country that was to oppose the Germans, passively, if not in outright revolt....Two Czech agents achieved all this in one afternoon...
You might call it one of the 'coups' of the war....

 

QUOTE FROM WIKIPEDIA Heydrich appeared not to be injured seriously. He gave chase and tried to return fire but his pistol was not loaded. After running some distance, he became weak from shock, and sent his driver Klein on foot to chase Gabčík. But in the ensuing fire-fight, Gabčík shot Klein in the leg and escaped.

Further to Heyditch's arrogance, his pistol wasn't even loaded.

 

Thanks...great correction....he was arrogant AND a silly bugger at the time.....Glad they got him....Poor Lidice...

 

Good quality actual footage of the man.

YouTube - Operation Anthropoid Part 1

YouTube - Operation Anthropoid Part 2

YouTube - killing heydrich part3

YouTube - killing heydrich final part

 

Anthropoid was just great.....loved the clor footage of Heydrich...from Eva Braun's home movies...just think...if it wasn't for Eva, everything concerning the nierarchy of the Third Reich would have been in black and white....Eva's home movies are a genuine historical bonus....

And those gallant Czechs....my God...I hope they were mdecorated...it would have been appropriate for these boys to get a very high medal of some sort....I hope the czech government looked after their families with a widow's pension payment or two....such selfless sacrifice benefits us all.....brave men....great heroes for the Czech nation...truly inspiring stuff...

 

Heydrich was buried at the Invalidenfriedhof,Berlin, the resting place of a number of Germans thus honoured in both wars.However the Soviets destroyed the grave after the fall of Berlin.I understand later that the cemetery fell into further disrepair when the Berlin Wall was built very close to it.

The grave photograph appears to have been taken by Geoff Walden but from what I understand the grave was untraceable after its destruction in 1945.

Heydrich eventually died from septicemia, having developed peritonitis.When taken initially to Bulov hospital he refused the help of a Czech local doctor who recommended an immediate operation.Heydrich demanded attendance of German surgeon and would only agree to surgery if the operation were carried out by the top Nazi consultant in Prague, a Professor Hollbaum.When Himmler got involved in Prague, he put Gebhardt, his personal physician in charge of the case to no avail.It has been said that Himmler was in Prague to remove personal files from Heydrich's safe as it was well known that as the "heir apparent to Hitler", Heydrich had covert files on all leading members of the Party.Himmler was aware that Heydrich under the influence of drink had said he would take over the bulk of Himmler's responsibilities assuming a still higher postion in the Third Reich.It has been further added that Gebhardt was at the Bulov hospital to ensure that Heydrich did not survive.

The Sten had the characteristic of jamming and inaccurate fire,a feature well known to its uers.However it was attractive to the Germans who used them as a trophy weapon.Cases have been reported that Allied soldiers and operatives particularly those involved in clandestine activities knew thay had a chance of bolting and escaping from capitivity if they knew their captors were brandishing a Sten.There was always a chance that the Sten would jam or they would have a chance of survival from inaccurate fire.

 

Good post Harry. Thanks for the further info.

 

Yes, that was a good one from Harry, particularly the bit about Himmler speeding Heydrichs Heydich's recovery in the opposite direction.....Pundits also accuse Himmler of attempting to kill Hess....it seems Himmler had his own adjenda.....Probably the only time I've ever wanted to pick up a biogrphy of Himmler...a very disagreeable character, 'Trauer Heinrich'....It's a pity that The Americans did not pump him for information at Luneburg camp, whilst they had the chance...but of course, nobody had any idea he was so deeply compromised....Shame to our human race.....Rest In Irritation, heinrich himmler......(I'm not going to capitalize that name)

 

hi. does anyone know where i can see heydrichs car today? i am in prague right now and struggling to find it. i would love to see it if anyone can help!

 

This Heydrich is interesting s.o.b, "Since Heydrich's death, it has been suggested that Heydrich had Jewish grandparents and that this was known to high Nazi leaders including Hitler and Himmler" he's cruel against jews but he is a jew himself.."Heydrich chaired the 1942 Wannsee conference which finalized plans for the extermination of all European Jews".It looks like he is really loyal man, and a hero "Heydrich was one of the very few prominent Nazi leaders to actually serve in combat, as he flew 97 missions in a Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin engine fighter and won two Iron Crosses (first and second class) for his bravery. In fact, Heydrich was actually shot down over Russia but was rescued by German forces."

The grave was really funny and a too disrespectful, as a christian i think that God is the one who will judge us after life.And this on the picture is just one hole..
Sorry for my late late response to this thread, but the facts were really interesting and nobody pointed them..


Dani

 

QUOTE FROM WIKIPEDIA Heydrich appeared not to be injured seriously. He gave chase and tried to return fire but his pistol was not loaded. After running some distance, he became weak from shock, and sent his driver Klein on foot to chase Gabčík. But in the ensuing fire-fight, Gabčík shot Klein in the leg and escaped.

Further to Heyditch's arrogance, his pistol wasn't even loaded.

Why wouldn't his pistol be loaded? That doesn't make any sense.

 

Why wouldn't his pistol be loaded? That doesn't make any sense.
What Aviator is trying to say is that he is arrogant because he though nobody would try to assassinate him.But to tell you the truth thats surly not the case, his car is open because, most of the ''modern'' cars during ww2 were opened.Why his pistol should be loaded? I was in peace keeping mission in Kosovo and i had my pistol unloaded, i mean there were rounds in the magazine but not in the barrier, sorry i cant explain on english..

 

What Aviator is trying to say is that he is arrogant because he though nobody would try to assassinate him.But to tell you the truth thats surly not the case, his car is open because, most of the ''modern'' cars during ww2 were opened.Why his pistol should be loaded? I was in peace keeping mission in Kosovo and i had my pistol unloaded, i mean there were rounds in the magazine but not in the barrier, sorry i cant explain on english..

I've read alot about Heydrich but I've never read about his pistol not being loaded. I'll try and find it but I'm sure the ATB article about Heydrich never mentioned it.
I know Heydrich was arrogant but surely no one in wartime conditions would carry a pistol unloaded, after all why carry the pistol then?
I know Hitler was very unhappy about Heydrich riding in a open car and with no escort.

 

The pistol he had may not have been 'cocked', or it might have jammed......speculation on this topic really does require more research.....what type of pistol did he carry (Walther?....Luger parrabellum?)....what sort of jamming frequency did it have and what do German records of the recovered pistol say.....I cannot imagine it NOT being loaded, just NOT READY FOR ACTION or in an UNCLEAN state that would cause it to jam after being cocked once......a 'misfire" maybe....if he was using local issue Czech made ammunition there is good reason to suspect that a significant proportion of it would have been rendered as 'misfiring' due to the unsung efforts of patriotic and daring Czech arms workers.....I do have a reference to prove that the Czechs engaged in this sort of sabotage....if Heydrichs pistol was loaded with locally made rounds, this may well be another explaination.....

 

hi. does anyone know where i can see heydrichs car today? i am in prague right now and struggling to find it. i would love to see it if anyone can help!

There's a car used by Heydrich in the Czech Military Museum but I don't think that it's the one from the assassination. That one is, I think, privately owned. The link is to an English language tourism site; it has a link to the museum's own one but it's only in Czech. The Museum is in the Zizkov district & I had a bit of trouble finding it, although it's walkable from Wencelas Square. There is some signposting, which gives just the Czech name; Armádní muzeum Žižkov.

PRAGUE Heart of Europe: Museums

The main exhibition on Operation Anthropoid is in the Cathedral of St Cyril & St Methodius, where the Czech commandoes fought to the last man.

http://http://www.heartofeurope.cz/museum_2.html