Ambush scene of Operation Daybreak.
'Operation Daybreak' is a 1975 World War II film based on the true story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
In London, the Czechoslovak government in exile (Prozatímní státní zřízení) was plotting to assassinate Heydrich. Two men specially trained by the British SOE or Special Operations Executive, Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, were chosen for the operation. After receiving training from the British, they returned by parachute in December, dropped from a Halifax of 138 Squadron RAF.
On 27 May 1942, Heydrich was scheduled to attend a meeting with Hitler in Berlin. Heydrich would have to pass a section where the Dresden-Prague road merged with a road leading to the Troja Bridge. That intersection was a perfect spot for the attack because Heydrich's car would have to slow down to make a hairpin turn. The attack was, therefore, scheduled for 27 May. On that date, Heydrich was ambushed while he rode in his open car in the Prague suburb of Kobylisy. As the car slowed to take the hairpin bend in the road, Gabčík took aim with a Sten sub-machine gun, but it failed to fire. At that very moment, instead of ordering his driver to speed away, Heydrich called his car to a halt in an attempt to take on the two attackers. Kubiš then immediately threw a bomb (a converted anti-tank mine) at the rear of the car. The explosion wounded Heydrich and also Kubiš himself.
It is alleged that when the smoke cleared, Heydrich emerged from the wreckage with his gun still in his hand and he gave chase after Kubiš and tried to return fire. At least one account states that his pistol was not loaded. He ran for half a block, became weak from shock, and sent his driver, Klein, on foot to chase Gabčík. In the ensuing firefight, Gabčík shot Klein in the leg and escaped. Heydrich appeared not to be seriously injured.
One version suggests that a Czech woman went to Heydrich's aid and flagged down a truck delivering floor polish. First, Heydrich was placed in the back seat, but after complaining that the movement of the truck was causing him pain, he was placed in the back of the truck, lying on his stomach, and he was taken to Bulovka hospital. He had suffered a severe injury to the left side of his body with major damage to his diaphragm, spleen, and lung, as well as a broken rib. The doctors immediately performed an operation and, despite a slight fever, his recovery appeared to progress quite well. On 2 June, during a visit with Himmler, Heydrich reconciled himself with his fate by reciting a part of one of his father's operas:
"The world is just a barrel-organ which the Lord God turns Himself. We all have to dance to the tune which is already on the drum."[9]
After Himmler's visit, Heydrich slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness. He is said to have died at 4:30am on 4 June at the age of 38. The autopsy states that he died of septicemia. Of peculiar note, Heydrich's facial expression as he passed from the earth (his "death mask") betrayed an "uncanny spirituality and entirely perverted beauty, like a renaissance Cardinal," according to Dr. Bernhard Wehner, a police official who investigated the assassination. (The Order of the Death's Head, Hohne, p. 495')
Hitler was enraged that his "protector" of Czechoslovakia had been assassinated. He ordered a quick investigation into who was responsible. Intelligence linked the assassins to the town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia. In retaliation, Hitler ordered a series of deportations in Lidice. Children who had blond hair and blue eyes were separated from their families and "adopted" by German families. In fact, the assassins had nothing to do with Lidice.
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