The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

Book I: The Assassins

Jan Kubiš , Josef Gabčík and “Operace Anthropoid”

“the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life”

[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington]

INTRODUCTION

At first, the two Czech patriots thought their mission had failed. One had attempted to directly shoot and then the other grenade their target - Reich-Protector Reinhard Heydrich - the highest Nazi German official of Bohemia-Moravia. He had driven past in his open-top car. 

However their target and his driver both sprang from the car to fight back. The assassins, the Slovakian Josef Gabčík and the Czech Jan Kubiš hurried to make their desperate escape.

These two parachutists - under the administrative control of the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) - had been sent nearly six months before from England, supposedly tasked with this very mission were eventually to be crowned with luck, before they were eventually unmasked and their lives ended when their hiding was discovered.

         However on this Wednesday May 27th 1942 in an inner suburb of Prague, the most powerful administrator of the Third Reich had indeed suffered mortal wounds from tiny pieces of shrapnel - which ended his life eight days later.

This event unleashed a cataclysm of ferocious reprisals by the Nazi leadership who held at this time a definitive and all intents and purposes an unassailable domination of the Western half of the Eurasian continent.

For several days, Nazi Germany occupying an area greater than the Roman Empire at its greatest extent convulsed with white hot anger. Hitler demanded thousands be killed in reprisals. Famous prisoners of Czech nationality like Alois Eliáš were suddenly and brutally executed, many at the infamous Kobylisy Shooting Range on 19 June 1942. In private conversation with the writer Stanislav Berton who published the shorter version of the Pannwitz report recalled hearing shots being fired at various times throughout night and day while he was in his late teens in wartime Prague.

Most infamously, the menfolk of an entire Czech village Lidice, were exterminated and the labour service of the German Reich employed to remove brick by brick - all traces that it had ever existed as a human habitation. 

Their crime?

They had supposedly colluded with the Allies and hosted a Czech patriot transmitter making contact with Allied intelligence in London. According to Heinz Pannwitz, the professional Gestapo investigator man tasked with solving this crime this was due to an originally innocent letter sent by a young man to impress his girlfriend.

 Eventually the war was to erase this one death and its reprisals as the casualties grew and the scale of suffering became exponentially greater and greater. As many people perished in the final year of this second Great War as did during the initial five. 

Germany was slowly becoming a boiling cauldron, from early 1943 the Allies – under US leadership - pushed for an unconditional surrender. The far-sighted Geo-politicians glimpsed a post-war world of virtual dominance. The scale of Communist atrocities stil masked by the need to put Nazi Germany front and centre as the "enemy of humanity”. This one and a myriad other horrifying events eventually became subsumed within the general mass of events comfortingly labelled under the heading of World War Two. 

Then from the perspective of the astute professionals this period of conflict merged seamlessly with the Cold war confrontation with fellow victor and ally-of-convenience the Soviet’’’ Union.

  What can be learned from focusing upon this one assassination? The fact that 1942 was the turning point is of more than passing interest. 

How can this event shed light upon the initial goals of the British, the Americans and others? 

In any case, speculation aside, a very simplified and concretized chronology is still with us today.

           Basically, those two formerly decorated Czech soldiers had briefly joined the French Foreign legion. They had then fought in the battle of France and then been evacuated to England. 

In June 1941, they were accepted into a special program run by the S.O.E. and then parachuted into the occupied territory in late December 1941 to carry out this pre-planned mission.

It is said they had been tasked by Eduard Benes and his intelligence chief from the very beginning - they had no other assigned role.

 According to this simple timeline virtually within days of newly-appointed Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich taking power in Bohemia-Moravia on September 27th 1941 they were purportedly tasked to kill him.

After they had finished their intensive and highly specialised operational training, at the instigation of Benes, the exiled former Czech President, they were handpicked by the London-based head of Czech intelligence Colonel Moravec and his Deputy Strankmueller for the crucial mission of making an attempt upon the life of SS Gruppenführer Heydrich - known concretely  as Operation Anthropoid.

In July 1941, with the Soviet Union now at war with a domineering Nazi Germany, and with the majority of opinion assuming a Russian defeat as a matter of time, two Czech soldiers were intensely engaged in Special Forces training and would one day be chosen to participate in a mission which fundamentally altered the second Great War at a critical juncture.

Nazi ideology had ripped up the fault line separating the Germanic realm from the Slavic world. Living space was required, no further compromise – all questions were now racial and all solutions totalised.

Politically this totalising network had originally been centred upon the party but increasingly the SS hierarchy was growing stronger by the day as their power pervaded deeper and deeper and they elbowed aside their rivals.

The SS was founded officially on April 4^th, 1925. Before then it had been a “Staff guard”, which had been disbanded after the failed “beer hall” Putsch of November 9^th 1923..

The Stabswache had been issued with unique badges, but at this point the Stabswache was still under overall SA control. It was Julius Schreck who had resurrected the use of the Totenkopf (i.e. skull) as the unit's insignia, a symbol various elite forces had used throughout the Prussian kingdom and the later German Empire.

He was then tasked with building the SS as it came to be known. Schreck also died early in life from the complications of an illness – meningitis. He too was given a state funeral.

As huge numbers of Soviet POWs fell into their hands, the internal war grew to equal the external war.

The Democracies may not have overtly seen the extent of this inner ideological world but their increasingly powerful and highly competent intelligence agencies did – those which are with us to today under a variety of guises.

These two disciplined and upstanding men were going to sacrifice themselves at some future point in time. They would not leave offspring but rather enshrine the abstract idea of freedom deeper into the human soul. Their geographical country had been second on the menu of German-speaking areas after Austria and had then become a weakened province absorbed into the Greater Reich and the other a controlled region under German protection. 

They would never be able to tell their story. 

This would have to be resurrected from the flow of history, layer upon layer of speculation, disinformation, and hearsay with a leavening of small doses of facts that has been turned into various narratives from which we must reassemble fragment by fragment careful not to allow what is known in academic fields as “tendentiousness”, which is really a euphemism for lies, innuendo and exaggeration.

The crux of the problem was that these men spent the last 9 months of their lives within a secretive realm – within the far less illuminated realm of the military. They were either training, readying for their mission or within the occupied protectorate of bohemia & Moravia.

 Their lives were also affected by the cross-currents of 4-5 key European languages – Czech, German, English, French and Russian. What from one linguistic perspective appears to be solid ground is pulled apart in another language.

Their mother tongue of Czech had become subordinate to the most ferocious conflict ever unleashed where each side saw the other in brutal, dismissive and even bestial terms.

By mid-1941 all Diplomacy had withered on the vine with all nations close to the full mobilisation of their material, human and spiritual resources.

Winston Churchill experienced an inner re-birth from failed politician to a role that he adopted as a birthright - saviour of the very human form.

However the lives of these assassins are far below the level of the great Valkyries who presided over Strategy.

The storytelling tradition which is fused with human nature creates a dramatic word by word foreground to our lives but eventually as a single thread naturally weaves its way through our own consciousness one dominant overwhelming narrative creates the background to which the present must answer.

This has been a philosophical or poetryjungle project over two decades in gestation in order to allow the truth to dis-fragment from the walls of the outer cave of false reality, the cavern we are aware of but only dimly see until we adjust to the light..

The assassination of Heydrich by these two Czech soldiers was by no means an everyday event yet has slowly and irrevocably become concretised as just one of those background tales we hear in childhood and do not question until reaching mature life.

History as Compulsion Force

The main participant Josef Gabčík is an originally Austro-Hungarian citizen from the Slovakian region. He was born on April 8^th, 1912 in Poluvsi, in Žilina district, Slovakia, which was merely one of the smaller regions within the multi-cultural Empire of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria-Hungaria itself was of course one of the half a dozen greater players in the so-called European concert which flourished from 1648 to 1918 when cataclysmically four great Empires were annihilated – the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman. 

The latter had been “invited” into the concert or “sponsored” at the treaty of Paris which concluded the Crimean war in 1854.The secular French empire would be  left so severely weakened it could render very little resistance when the ideologically mobilised Germans rose up in a brutally efficient revolution under the National Socialists in 1933.

Eventually, Gabčík’s home state of Slovakia became a pro-Axis satellite but his individual choice was diametrically different. He seemed to fight with all his might at each twist of fate. He was prepared to fight for Czechoslovakia, then Poland, then the French Legion, then a Czech Legion and finally moved to England.

   When the Germans conquered France in June 1940, it meant that Europe itself had been conquered. This fact was to play a pivotal role. 

Churchill’s England required a war at a global scale to have any semblance of a return to the status quo. Poland & Czechoslovakia had been the double-dissolution trigger for a war. Germany had become ravenous and un-appeaseable. Poland itself had received some of Czechoslovakia’s territory. Then Soviet Russia received some of Poland’s territory before it becomes a target of the Nazified war machine.

Bohemia-Moravia existed like a piece of meat in the mouth of the German-speaking Wolf. Geographically this whole area was part of the massive Elbe basin – Czechoslovakia was the source of the German Nile and Hitler was astute – he also had the example of Bismarck who welded the Germans into a tighter confederation as short and sharp and brutal wars against Austria-Hungary and France were carried out. 

Geo-politically by September 27^th, 1941, massive changes were occurring at the highest possible level when a key German administrator came to temporarily take control in bohemia & Moravia and impose a Teutonic discipline upon the Czechs. Tis would be the same Heydrich who was to become the target of the two assassins. 

Josef – as he preferred to write his name - came from a hard-working family. His father František was a worker who travelled to the USA and Argentina to earn an income. Did he ever plan to emigrate? If so, now his offspring would be scattered but contented in Michigan or some other Northern state. Perhaps his name would be associated with some invention or product which poured out of the energetic company research centres of the USA, creating the final overlay of the modern world. There could be no Old Testament return to blood and soil – done with Teutonic precision.

His mother Mária, maiden name Baránková was a housekeeper who no doubt imbued her son with a deep loyalty. When František suggested somewhat light-heartedly emigrating to North or South America, did she respond with a serious No? It would be too difficult to raise a family in a distant and alien country. He had two brothers and a sister, who at the time of the assassination they had at least some protection of being in a pro-German state and could not be whisked off to a concentration camp. They would spend each day in increasing trepidation.

    According to the school records, in 1927 he graduated in the nearby village of Kovářov near Kostelec on the Vltava. He then  trained as a blacksmith and farrier and was also taught clock-making, until 1932. Their house still stands together with the outbuilding and yard which was used as a smithy. The house is located some 50 meters down a small hill which leads from the village centre where the church stands.

. He lived in Kostelec on the Vltava in South Bohemia staying with the family of the local master blacksmith J. Kunike. The routine of his life may have been little different than it had been pre-1648 when every society on earth was dominated by fathers and Sons. The later are born and the former die. Females and young children must be corralled into a secure area protected from violence, abduction and the vagaries of nature – before “nature” was broken down into elements and families broken down into individuals and geographically deliberated nations coalesced into ‘concerts” and their elite began to converse in French..

In essence he was trained as a craftsman, the life which had existed since the Christian middle ages. A life of routine and precision, moral decisions could be handed over to the church, along with births, deaths and marriages.

Being born is really our greatest accomplishment but without the conscious awareness at the time we are forced to see this event through the vicarious tyranny of our own children. 

It would be the German philosopher who slipped assiduously into this existential gap in our knowledge and used the word ‘Dasein” for a constant regurgitation of our inner being. However the peasant life and that of the ‘proletariat” is associated with stricter modes of thought. It was into this “revolutionary space” the communist ideology had taken root. However, the loyalty of the assassins would always be Democratic and Western. However their overall leader the former Czech President would have to span this political gap, which we can see would influence his decision on to organize an assassination.

The modern flow of history has already become unstoppable.

Two months before he was born the eccentric Frenchman Franz Reichelt made his fatal experimental leap from the Eiffel tower in a home-made parachute. The shipping and aviation industries will remake human conflict are advancing around him. 

Is an inventor really a type of assassin of their own externally-driven imagination? Their curiosity is a diluted form of fear.

 Four days later the unsinkable cruise ship Titanic would hit that iceberg and usher in the century of grotesque tragedies and accomplishments. On the 16 April – American aviator Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly the English Channel, making the crossing from Dover, England, to France in 59 minutes.

Within decades, women will achieve what men took millennia to accomplish – altering the external environment to control their own lives. This composite ideology now dominates our present rather than the twin “masculine ideologies” of Fascism & Communism” – World War two marking the highest point of their collision..

In 1933 the “unsinkable Folk” of a united Germany will rally behind one leader as if they are a tiny persecuted minority seeking solace in a chosen land where they will have peace and freedom.

Instantaneous modes of communication have replaced the era of failed gods.

We must resist the temptation to look backward as though history was a prison full of procedures and limitations and realise that these actors and actresses are compelled forwards exactly like us. The modern world appeared through equally regressive and progressive leaps.

Two years after his birth the loving couple the Archduke and Duchess Ferdinand will be assassinated in another part of Austro-Hungary. Purely by chance as Gavril Princip was cooling his heels having assumed he had failed and missed his chance. Some of his fellow assassins had thought better of the attempt as they didn’t want to harm a woman and a few others had fired a few shots and one had let off a bomb which greatly angered the Duke.

Why were they there?

It seems that the Duchess was only nominally of that rank, she was really a countess and if he visited some other area of his realm by protocol she would be relegated to a lesser role – they couldn’t be seated side by side. 

 As mentioned, his first name is written with an “s” because that is how he signed himself and his name also appears in that form in his school reports. His father František went as a labourer went overseas for work as a coal miner in the USA and Argentina. His mother Mária, born Baránková, was taking care of the household and helping out at a local farmer’s. He had three siblings. He learned to be a blacksmith and a locksmith. 

Coming from a tough disciplined family he must have been attracted to the military and naturally the chance of a regular income. A soldier is really a well-dressed “labourer” for the state – the creative art of surgical destruction of an enemy..

In October 1932 his life changed dramatically. He started his service with the 14th infantry regiment in Košice and subsequently he was sent to a school for non-commissioned officers in Prešov. 

Josef has on the one hand taken a regressive step by subsuming his individuality into such an organisation but he is contradictorily in a superior position to participate in history - or more precisely historical forces.

In that great phrase which sounds better in German, he has entered the “fixed frame” of the state. He has abandoned his peasant-hood on the banks of the Vltava.

In September 1934 his application to further service, as a non-commissioned officer with a longer service, was accepted and later he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. This is a key rank; in a battle he needn’t waste time with maps like an officer or merely look down a barrel at one target but rather view the battle as a complete and discrete although ever-changing unity.

Its origin is the Latin word "serviens", "one who serves", through the French term "Sergent" –which has many grades. Within the Arabic world it is "raqeeb", meaning "overseer" or "watcher". In Turkish it has the original meaning of messenger.

In German “Feldwebel” which bares a root with the German word for woman or wife – Weibe which can be traced back to old high German meaning to hover, fluctuate move around, move to and fro.

In other words, someone who is moving frequently almost in a spiritual fashion and is the centre of attention.

At the time Tacitus wrote his famous monologue on the German people when the Germans had an unparalleled military reputation as foot soldiers on the periphery of the Roman Empire – matched only by the mounted Parthian warriors.

The Germans had ever seen themselves as the distilled core of inner European self-awareness just as the French saw themselves as the intellectual Gallic core of higher consciousness that fought but also imbibed foreign influence.

Europe, after two millennia has finally turned German, it has abandoned all attempts at imbibing foreign influence and now has woken as a pure force.

Looking closely, we see Slovakia had its empire period too when in the ninth century the Greater Moravian realm represented the unity of various Slavic tribes. In a sense this area is the true geographical heartland of Europe.  It is the fault line where German-speaking races crept slowly up the littoral area of the Baltic.

The Boii an ancient Celtic tribe gave their name to both Bavaria and Bohemia.

In June 1939 he fled to Poland, signed a commitment to serve in the French Foreign Legion and on board of the ship “Chrobry” sailed to France and then to Algiers. 

This ship is named after the first king of Poland - Bolesław I the Brave who commenced his reign in 1025.

The first king of greater Bohemia started his reign as vassal to Louis the German, king of East Francia, he consolidated his rule to the extent that after 855 he was able to repel a series of Frankish attacks. It was upon his initiative that two famous brothers, Cyril and Methodius sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III in 863, translated the most important Christian liturgical books into Slavonic in his realm wiki

It is within Czechoslovakia that the catholic, protestant and orthodox churches meet and it can be said neither managed to cleanse the other of their dominance.

In the English language a Bohemian is someone who is of a highly individualistic if not artistic nature, as if they have subconsciously internalised these three streams.

Just as in French who are beloved of their double negatives only in Czech does it make sense to use a triple negative:

"I did not never go nowhere."

Kovarov which is near to Kostelec Nad Vltavou may be geographically one area but linguistically and geo-politically there is a nebulous and poorly-defined overlap..  

This town having been part of a German-speaking Empire has a parallel German name Kosteletz an der Moldau. It appears to enter a different stream within history itself. Its original meaning as a Czech village disappears and it appears to get a promotion as well. 

This part of Europe has been stamped linguistically and this drew the Nazis into their curiously perverse attempts to define the inhabitants according to their physiognomy.

Most gloriously of all this is the name of the river which runs through Prague where his fate was to be later sealed.

It is the longest river in Czechoslovakia and is held in the same veneration as the Mississippi or the Volga in their respective countries. “It is commonly referred to as the "Bohemian sea" and the "Czech national river".

When he was to be an undercover parachutist Josef had the dismissive catch phrase to describe his actions – watching ducks on the Vltava. Due to the common Indo-European roots of these three languages – Czech, German and English the name shares some syllabic resonance with all of us.

“The Czech name Vltava and the German name Moldau are believed to originate from the old Germanic words *wilt ahwa ("wild water"; compare Latin aqua).

In the USA, the battles from the Civil War frequently have two names. The Union prefer a battle to be called after a river and the Confederates after the nearest location. So we have The Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg, and Bull Run or Manassas Junction.

Gabčík is still venerated and the building which housed the school is today the Municipal Office. A marble plaque was erected in 2010, together with historical documents on the wall there. These documents were all placed there by the citizens of Kovarov. 

He joined the military service on 1 October 1932 in the 14th Infantry Regiment in Košice. He graduated from the Nobel Prize School in Prešov with very good results. After completing his full-time service in 1934, he continued on his own request as a non-serving non-commissioned officer and was promote. 

Then we discover something extraordinary. He undertakes a job which enters him forcefully into history. In 1937, he has seemingly completed his military commitment and now works as a civilian employee joining a military gas-fired power plant in Žilina. 

This chemical plant has been taken over by the Czech defence ministry and is making chemical weapons for use by the Czech army.

It is here, obviously undertaking dangerous work possibly for higher pay he has an accident, 

He gets some toxins in his eyes, so he changes workplace to a warehouse in Trencin. This is obviously the storage facility for the finished weaponry. The new area of his employment is close to a major road junction and nearly halfway along a main road to Bratislava the capital

The site of Trenčín has been inhabited since time immemorial. Trenčín Castle, a typical medieval fortified castle is situated high on a rock above the city.

It belongs to the oldest Slovak towns. Its origin was determined by the narrow place of the valley of Váh, where Trenčín Castle was built on the ridge above the river, with a view of the valleys upstream and downstream. 

Trenčín is best known for a Roman inscription on the rock below the Trenčín Castle dating from 179 AD, the era of the Marcomannic Wars, a series of wars between the Roman Empire and the Germanic Quadi and Marcomanni. It denotes the site as Laugaricio and for long time it was the most northern known evidence of the presence of Roman soldiers in central Europe (until the Roman fort by Mušov and marching camps by Olomouc and Hulín were found).[2]

Interestingly, Trenčín is one of the suggested locations for the capital of Samo's Empire in the 7th century. This was the forerunner of the greater Bohemian empire already mentioned.

 Wogastisburg (Vogast castle) was probably located somewhere on the Vah (Vogas) river and was the site of a decisive battle between the Slavic and Frankish armies in 631. It appears that in the Ancient world this area was a crossroads. This is one of the loci of the great interactions between two tribal forces the Germanic and Slavic.

Like his birthplace this town is haunted by other names: German, Hungarian and Polish forms are Trentschin, Trencsén and Trenczyn, respectively. Below Trenčín castle there is an extraordinary Roman inscription done by some overconfident gropu of soldiers.

: “Victoriae Augustorum exercitus, qui Laugaricione sedit, mil(ites) l(egiones) II DCCCLV. (Maximi)anus leg(atus leg)ionis II Ad(iutricis) cur(avit) f(aciendum)”

 (Done by 855 Legionaries of the Augustus victorious army, who are stationed in Laugaricio. Done under supervision of Maximus legatus of II legion.)

The more we see Czechoslovakia the harder it is to dispute that this area is the spiritual heartland of Europe and that in order to forcibly make itself the spiritual heartland the Nazis were forced to launch a series of never-ending cleansing expeditions which conflated Religion, politics, martial valour and language in a fused amalgam that only the indoctrinated could follow.

Crucially, we learn that Josef at one time was working at a chemical plant in Žilina until 1939.  We need to learn more about this city – the fourth largest in Slovenia.

This city boomed in the second half of the 19th century as new railway tracks were built:. The invention of the railroad led to mass industrialisation, the power of steam, gas that little used third pseudo-element and of course the rise of the robber barons and industrialists. 

The Kassa Oderberg Railway was finished in 1872 and the railway to Bratislava in 1883, so new factories started to spring up straight away as the transportation had been so improved. , Among these was  the drapery factory Slovena (1891) and a chemical works (1892).

In 1893 the Hungária - Hungarian company for the production of sulfuric acid, artificial fertilizers and chemical products was founded, today it still exists as the Považské chemické závody Žilina was to become politically historical when on 6 October 1938, shortly after the Munich Agreement, the autonomy of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia was declared here.

>> In 1890, the Hungarian Business Bank of Hungary established a general joint venture for the production of sulfuric acid, artificial fertilizers and chemical products (popularly called Hungaria) based in Budapest. She also bought the Pyrenees mine in Smolnik. However, it needed a suitable location for processing this raw material found in Zilina, thanks in particular to the excellent rail link. In 1882, it started to build a factory in an unstable space on Závažie, east of the Košice-Bohumín railroad colony (on the Hungarian maps Kénsav és műtrágya gyár). Production in the factory began in the year. 1893. From the beginning, all mineral fertilizers used in agriculture, especially superphosphate, were produced there. Hungária was one of the biggest races of its kind, In 1897 she became a member of the newly-developed cartel of artificial fertilizer plants, which completely dominated the Austro-Hungarian market. Outside of Austria-Hungary, the products of Hungaria were not exported.

>> From 1 January 1932, the company merged with the Federation for Chemical and Dense Production in Ústí on the  Elbe. They later sold the plant to the Ministry of National Defense. <<

Here we get the very interesting information that the Defence ministry used this very same factory to produce yperite or a mustard blistering agent.. Its standing operation was launched in the year. 1937 (volume produced in 1938 was 12-thousand tons). 

Why this unusal name?

>> 1917: Mustard gas

Plate X, Microscopic section of human lung from mustard gas poisoning, American Red Cross and Medical Research Committee, An Atlas of Gas Poisoning, 1918

The most widely reported and, perhaps, the most effective chemical agent of the First World War was sulphur mustard, known as "mustard gas". It is a volatile oily liquid. It was introduced as a vesicant by Germany in July 1917 prior to the Third Battle of Ypres.[8] The Germans marked their shells yellow for mustard gas and green for chlorine and phosgene; hence they called the new gas Yellow Cross. It was known to the British as HS (Hun Stuff), and the French called it Yperite (named after Ypres).

Mustard gas is not an effective killing agent (though in high enough doses it is fatal) but can be used to harass and disable the enemy and pollute the battlefield. Delivered in artillery shells, mustard gas was heavier than air, and it settled to the ground as an oily liquid. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several days, weeks, or even months, depending on the weather conditions.[40]

<< 

Chlorine gas, used on the infamous day of April 22, 1915, produces a greenish-yellow cloud that smells of bleach and immediately irritates the eyes, nose, lungs, and throat of those exposed to it. At high enough doses it kills by asphyxiation.

Phosgene, which smells like mouldy hay, is also an irritant but six times more deadly than chlorine gas. Phosgene is also a much stealthier weapon: it’s colourless, and soldiers did not at first know they had received a fatal dose. After a day or two, victims’ lungs would fill with fluid, and they would slowly suffocate in an agonizing death. Although the Germans were the first to use phosgene on the battlefield, it became the primary chemical weapon of the Allies. Phosgene was responsible for 85% of chemical-weapons fatalities during World War I.

Mustard gas, a potent blistering agent, was dubbed King of the Battle Gases. Like phosgene, its effects are not immediate. It has a potent smell; some say it reeks of garlic, gasoline, rubber, or dead horses. Hours after exposure a victim’s eyes become bloodshot, begin to water, and become increasingly painful, with some victims suffering temporary blindness. Worse, skin begins to blister, particularly in moist areas, such as the armpits and genitals. As the blisters pop, they often become infected. Mustard gas could also contaminate land where it had been deployed. Exposure sensitized victims; further exposure even at lower doses produced symptoms. Mustard gas caused the highest number of casualties from chemical weapons—upward of 120,000 by some estimates—but it caused few direct deaths because the open air of the battlefield kept concentrations below the lethal threshold.

In this operation Josef Gabčík worked at the yperite reactor. In mid-March 1937, there was an accident that damaged his sight. Later, he received an offer at the Military Warehouse III in Skalke near Trenčín, where he worked from 1938. After the conflict with the German patrol in early June 1939, he opened holes in the yperite bombs in the warehouse. The leaking gas supposedly caused poisoning by several German soldiers, and there was a capital loss of 50,000 marks. 

Josef Gabčík and his friend went with illegally removed weapons and ammunition under threat of punishment for sabotage to Poland.

He is now on the run, a soldier in name only, from the German perspective he is already a terrorist. He like many other Czechs went to the closest Polish city. It was to be here he met his future fighting companion Jan Kubiš  – like him a professional soldier just one year junior.

 In August 1939 the yperit production facility was dismantled with the assistance of German soldiers. Also, the central plant was out of service. This fits in with the viewpoint that after the defeat of France, the German army began to wind down until the Nazi leadership gave it a new target. With the invasion of Russia it was seemingly reopened at the request of the German Armed Forces.

Yperit, or Mustard agents was one of the original chemical weapons used in World War One. It could be deployed by means of artillery shells, aerial bombs, rockets, or by spraying from warplanes or other aircraft.

Pure sulphur mustards are colourless, viscous liquids at room temperature. When used in impure form, such as warfare agents, they are usually yellow-brown and have an odour resembling mustard plants, garlic, or horseradish, hence the name. The common name of "mustard gas" is considered inaccurate because the sulphur mustard is not actually vaporized,

So to re-iterate our future assassin is at this point a very competent saboteur – the terrorist from the perspective of a friendly army. He has fled Czechoslovakia to Poland  under danger of arrest and without doubt incarceration in a concentration camp and execution. 

Prior to the takeover of ahis military warehouse by the German army, he had damaged some holding tanks. This displays significant initiative although no doubt accomplished in partnership with comrades or possibly under higher orders?. 

In Krakow he joined up with an emerging Czech-Slovak army. His loyalty has now switched. However Czechoslovakia is formally allied with France. Together with Kubiš  and others he sails to France in July 1939, It is here the legalistically minded French demand that they must either leave French territory or surrender themselves – join – the infamous French Foreign Legion. They entered the 1st training Regiment in Sidi Bel Abbes in Algeria. 

Along with many others, Gabčík served briefly in the 1st regiment of the Foreign Legion in the famous Legion town of Sidi bel Abbes garrison in Algiers. The French government had put aside 4000 places for those Czechs displaced by the loss of their country. 

However politically events are moving fast as the phoney war has begun. Documents are being signed and organisations being formed. On 26 September 1939 they return to France proper – the hexagon - at Agde they now join the emerging Czechoslovak Foreign Army in France. 

All these men have shown a persistent desire to fight.

After the war broke out he returned to France and was assigned to the 12th company, a machine-gun company of the 1st infantry regiment, of the re-constituted Czechoslovak army. As a deputy commander of the platoon he took part in some retreat battles in France, from where he was evacuated to England

Agde is halfway between the historical port of Marseilles and the current recruit training depot of the French foreign legion – now the fourth regiment. It had also seen men leave from there to participate in the Spanish civil War.

Gabčík was soon ranked as the deputy commander within the 1st Infantry Regiment. On December 29, 1939, he was promoted again.. He would now participate in the disastrously short campaign fighting simultaneously for Czechoslovakia, France and of course a peacefully re-modelled Europe.

The Czech soldiers would not come into action until the initial crippling phase of “case yellow” had been complete. This involved the bottling up of British, Belgian and French forces north of the channel port of Arras. The British had made the survival of the main body of their expeditionary force a priority and leaving their heavy weapons behind, successfully completed their evacuation by June 4^th. 

Throughout history warfare has been limited by logistics, mountains and rivers. The enemy will defend the passes knowing your forces will be channelled there and the enemy will defend bridges.

World War two was the first conflict where rivers became a minimal barrier and may have tricked generals with large scale maps and Napoleonic thinking that they could use them as natural and impenetrable barriers even though they were more of a psychological barrier.

The Germans had unleashed a brutally simple plan that replaced the even simpler Schlieffen plan of WW1. Here Belgium was invaded as if slowly shutting a door, the German Army swept irresistibly from right to left but faltered at Mons, stopped by the elite BEF and French troops fighting grimly in front of Paris.

The most horrific battle of WW1 was Verdun where over a half a million French and German men died, not so much for their countries but to gain the crucial tactical space between two rivers.

Essentially the British and the French methodically began to refight the First World War. The Germans however unmasked a new plan – Plan Manstein which received the blessing of Hitler.

Advance through the sensitive belly button of Northern Europe, seize bridges and engineer pontoons over the Aisne and then race to the channel.

>> Case res consisted of two sub-operations, a preliminary attack in the west began on 5 June, over the river Somme in the direction of the Seine and the main offensive by Army Group A started on 9 June in the centre over the river Aisne. <<

In the simplest of terms it is as if an assailant turns side on to his opponent who is expecting a mere straightforward punch and he then swings a right hook through 180 degrees, rather than the still effective 90 degrees. The Manstein Plan was in essence a “Double-Schlieffen. Phase one was case yellow and Phase two was phase Red, the attack into the heart of France proper.

The allies were passively defending France as if the war was a carbon copy of World War one. However, the Nazi leadership were proactively altering their thinking, eventually enabling them to conquer Europe – utilising the entire battle space.

Hitler could always claim that the Allies were planning to break Belgium neutrality first – as they had nearly successfully done in Norway. The failed attempt to seize Norway ahead of the Germans was another failed strategic initiative by the great weaver of myths – Winston Churchill lord of the Admiralty until becoming Prime Minister. 

The Czech forces were parcelled out, attached to two different second-ranking French divisions and tasked with defending an area south of Paris – again another river line.

>> On 10 June, the French government declared Paris an open city. The German 18th Army advanced on Paris against determined French opposition but the line was broken in several places. Weygand asserted it would not take long for the French Army to disintegrate. On 13 June, Churchill attended a meeting of the Anglo-French Supreme War Council at Tours. He suggested a Franco-British Union, which the French rejected.[17] On 14 June, Paris fell and the Parisians unable to flee the city found that in most cases the Germans were extremely well mannered. <<

 Czechoslovak land forces would participate in battles with the Germans in the areas of of Coulommiers , Giers and Les Béreuls, however they never amounted to more than major skirmishes as the more mobile German forces probed for weaknesses rather than seized hard ground.

Overall the German Army had moved to a war of Movement – Bewegungskrieg better known of course as “Blitzkrieg. . They fought well, but on June 22 and 23 the hurried armistice begun and the French Army and all attached units had begun to disarm. Only a small rump of the original force was soon left. These were men like Kubiš and Gabčík and the other future special force parachutists, men who had left the protectorate and it would even endanger their families to be captured.

Overall the Czechs suffered over 400 casualties in this second titanic which was brutal but swift.

France was now to endure its most painful five years in its existence. One of the inflictors of this trauma would later become the assassination target.

Only a limited number of soldiers, and especially pilots, later moved to Britain. 

“Only volunteers (mostly original refugees from the Protectorate) remained in the units, the vast majority of those who demobilized the family in France and left the units.”

The raw statistics 

In June 1940, the division had 11,405 members (3236 volunteers, 8,169 mobilized, 45% Czechs, 44% Slovaks, the rest of the other nationality, 90% Czechs in the command corps). The core of the division consisted of 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiment with a full complement of men; the 3rd Infantry Regiment was compiled only in a table. In the state of the division was still artillery regiment (unfortunately practically without equipment, so it could not be properly trained),

Gabčík’s 1st Infantry Regiment whose Commander was Col. Kratochvíl, the regiment was subordinated to the 23rd French Infantry Division commanded by Gen. Jeannela. It was raised in Limoges and at capitulation had its HQ the other side of the forest at Jumilhac-le-Grand which is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in south western France.

This village lies on the road followed by Richard the Lionheart and on one of the many branches of the Camino de Santiago pilgrim route.

Gabčík’s pilgrimage has been much longer but unlike Richard, he cannot allow himself to be captured. He is not worth a King’s ransom and will have to pay dearly.

Both Czech regiments met up in Nontron. 

It turns out that Nontron is the origin of France’s original folding knife – the forerunner to the Swiss Army knife. It has a cutlery making tradition dating all the way back to the mid sixteenth century.

The Czechoslovak authorities then awarded 132 Czechoslovak War Crosses in 1939.

 [HP21] 2 October 1939 Osuský signed an Agreement on the Reestablishment of the Czechoslovak Army in France with French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier.

In March 1942 Beneš removed him from all functions and Osuský retired from the active scene.

On 15 January 1940the first Czechoslovak division was formed in France,

====================

460 communist soldiers who have formed the core of opposition toCzechoslovak Provisional Government.

Six ship transports movedfrom 22 May 1939 to 21 August 1939, together 1200 soldiers from Poland to France. 41Soldiers of the Legion of the Aliens entered a rank lower than their current ranktheir base became fort Fort St. Jean, where every soldier at the entrance gatehe read: "Legionnaires, you are men to die. And I am sending you where to die.

 After the defeat of France, he was evacuated to the United Kingdom on July 12, 1940.

Initially he showed interest in joining the air force.. three Czech squadrons were later to be formed and fought with great verve.. 

From February 2 to February 22, 1941, he attended a Staff Sergeant class and was promoted.. Shortly after finishing this,, based on the recommendation of Lieutenant Colonel. Barovsky he was enrolled in training for special purpose assignments and became one of the first eight graduates of the SOE course in Scotland, and probably already as a member of a special operations unit that was primarily to carry out espionage and sabotage in hostile territory.

The banal fact must be made that he has begun his course significantly before Heydrich was even appointed can be evidence enough that he has been chosen due to his specific background as a saboteur, He is to be given further training under the aegis of the SOE..

His background as a saboteur makes him the perfect fit, he is Slovakian and that means his loyalty would be less of a question to any German investigation into his background..

After this special training at various facilities along with the Silver A and Silver B members (who had various roles) he would on the night of 28 to 29 December 1941 with a Royal Air Force Handley Page of Halifax 138th flight at 22:00 dropped 10 km from Prague on the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. 

Now at this point the storytelling tradition interpolates with the subtlety of a sword slash and we are told that an operation with the unlikely code name of ANTHROPOID is underway. His task is supposedly to perform - the assassination of Reichhard Heydrich.

Finalthe SOE was created from Section D, SIS, MIR, and SO2

Messages were converted usingthe so-called cryptographic keys most often composed by Major František Fryč from the intelligencegroup A or main cipher Lieutenant Václav Knotek. 89 Initially he was at the forefrontthe major cryptographic group Karel Paleček, after his transfer on July 2, 1942 to Special group D,

The Czechoslovak paratroopers were most closely associated with STS 2in Bellasis at Dorking, the second phase of the training was STS 46 in Chicheley Hall andin the final stages of STS 1 training in Brockham, Northampton

Candidates came to the commander's office one by onewhere he told them that they had been selected to perform special tasks in their homeland

In May 1941, the training was registered already 471 Czechoslovak soldiers, this is the average of every fifth soldier.

Other volunteers did not meet their age of 30

The ideal candidate became a Czechoslovak soldier, free and unbound, whohad to manifest his bravery, to be mentally balanced should have a common look tohe did not care about himself, at the age of thirty or so, in absolutely great health and well – being physical state with a high dose of intelligence.

The so-called " Two Silent Killing" methods were devisedShanghai City Police, Eric Anthony Sykes and Wiliam Ewart Fairbairn, theirshelper in training was the Czechoslovak paratrooper Jaromír Pikka, which year In 1942, he broke the Individual Attack and Defense brochure

From 13 to 14 August 1942,carried out a 30-kilometer-long march through challenging terrain along the shores of Lake Morar,who was killed by Lieutenant Joseph Strankmüller (nephew Emil Strankmüller)

Jan Kubiš could in his testimony to read his name, age, nationality, brief description of his appearance and character, was missing nor the introduction of former civilian employment and military activities until the time of their arrivala special course. Rotny Kubis was considered a man of very good health, a bitslow, but reliable, solid and popular in college, he was in physical educationrated as very good, the same rating got in close combat and reading maps,with 95% of the topography.

A being the highest awarded rating ait was given to those whom the commander of the course had recommended as a future operational 

31groups. The B rating was for the future great organizers, C and D were forfuture officers well serving group leaders, E and F rated menrated as technically gifted, G was intended for the recommendation of future couriers,rating H was intended for men evaluated as suitable radiotelegraphists andJ ultimately received ratings for men whom the course commander assessed was not suitable foroperation in a group, but rather as an individual. 147 These Classification Directives have been written onheadquarters of STS major Wilson on May 30, 1941

an Kubiš was classified in category D at the end of the review with a note that he wouldhe could also work in group B, his friend, registrar Jozef Gabčík was evaluated astechnically gifted, and so the course commander assigned him the classification F. 149As

The first training commenced on August 10, 1941 at STS 51

Including one night jump.

waiting stations, for the first wave of landingthe center for Czechoslovak paratroopers became STS 2 in a villa in Bellasis near the cityDorking,

The participants on the STS 46 were divided into two groups, to a group of traineesintended for special tasks and to the group of radiotelegraphists in charge of the commanderconnecting training npor. Rudolf Süsser

master Morse 's alphabet to make 40 characters behindminute, advanced but also managed 80 characters per minute.

============================

. 

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15In France, Ambassador Štefan Osucký, with the French Government, was workingnegotiated the formation of the Czechoslovak army. He was a big rival for EdvardBenes. Both of them stood as the central figure of the Czechoslovak resistance, whileOsusky tried to create his foundations and the Czechoslovak exile government in Paris,Beneš, on the contrary, demanded that London become the center of resistance and government. Ambassador Osuskýhe also did not share Beneš's view that Czechoslovakia should be restored after the warin the form of the First Republic, was inclined to the independence of Slovakia. On 15 January 1940the first Czechoslovak division was formed in France, for which the camp in Agde was establishednear the port of Marseille, which previously served as a shelter for refugees fromSpanish civil war. 44 Stephan Osusky reached the formation of the French governmentThe Czechoslovak National Committee, which was officially founded in Paris on 17 October 1939,in whose statement it was claimed that the committee takes control in all Czechoslovakian cases untiluntil the end of the war. 45 After the fall of France and the signing of the French surrender on June 22, 1940in a railway car in Compiène, the Czechoslovak exile completely moved to the GreatBritain and the Czechoslovak National Committee ceased to exist. 46 The soldiers were at Edvard's requestBenes moved to the evacuation boats to the UK and a camp for Czechoslovak soldiersin Agde he concluded on August 20, 1940. 47 The Czechoslovak soldiers, after arriving from France, were concentrated in the campin the chateau park in Cholmondeley near Chester. 48 There was a big concentration camp in the campa number of soldiers with different political opinions, among others, were hereInterbrigadists from the Spanish Civil War. The situation in the camp has resulted in provokedrebellions headed by communist soldiers who have formed the core of opposition toCzechoslovak Provisional Government. The rebels were interned from the camp and moved tocamp at Yours, where they have signed a commitment to become part of the Britishmilitary working sections, the so-called. Military Pionner Auxiliary Corps , whereincluded 460 Czechoslovak soldiers. 49Of the other soldiers at Cholmondeley camp,loyal to the Czechoslovak exile government, formed on August 12, 1940 FirstCzechoslovak Mixed Brigade (in July 1941 renamed the First 44 HANÁK, Vítězslav, Men and radio stations of the secret war , Dvůr Králové nad Labem 2002, p.45 OTÁHALOVÁ, Libuše, ČERVINKOVÁ, Milada (ed.), Documents from the History of Czechoslovak Politics 1939-1943. Volume I. Relations of International Diplomacy to the Politics of Czechoslovak Emigration in the West ,Prague 1966, p. 47. 46 SOUČEK, p. 50.47 BRIGHT, František, Through the mountains and waters . In: DUBEN, Vojtech N. (ed.), On all fronts. Czechoslovaks in II. world war, Prague 2001, p. 39. 48 HANÁK, Men and Radio , p. 17.49 BROD, ČEJKA, p. 178.

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16a Czechoslovak independent brigade), which in its beginnings included a total of 3276men, their commander was Division General Bedrich Neumann. 50 Czechoslovak soldiersin Great Britain they also distinguished themselves as pilots; on July 12, 1940, the first was established Czechoslovak air force unit in the United Kingdom, the 310th Fighter Squadron, herthe commander became Major Alexander Hess. 51 In the following periods, the creation was still in progress312th Czechoslovak Fighter Squadron, 311th Czechoslovak Bomber Squadron a313rd Czechoslovak fighter wings. After the fall of France and the arrival of Winston Churchill into the head of the British government, Beneš's position in exile improved, and since April 1940 he has demanded Czechoslovak recognition government on the territory of the United Kingdom, was admitted to him on July 21, 1940, when he formed Czechoslovak Provisional Government. 52 The President of the Provisional Government became msgre. JohnŠrámek, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Masaryk, Minister of National Defense General SergejIngr. 53 On the same day, the Council of State was established as an advisory body and an auxiliary control body serving President Benes. This success also led to the fact that the Czechoslovak troops were flocked to other volunteers, as of December 31, 1940, he read ground the state of the units in Leamington camp, where soldiers moved from the camp in the autumn of 1940Choldondeley, 3301 people. 54 The Czechoslovak exile was another success October 25, 1940, when an agreement between the British Government and Czechoslovakia was concluded by the Provisional Government on the Legal and Organizational Basis of the Czechoslovak Armed Forces in the UK. 55 The agreement stipulated that the ground units would create a separate one a unified unit headed by Czechoslovak officers and will fall under the authority the newly formed Ministry of National Defence in London, will remain operational still subordinate to the British Headquarters. 56 Part of the agreement was also the incorporation of our airmen to the Royal Air Force (RAF).1.3 Origin of SOE and Special Group D The Special Operations Executive was created in July 1940in the Lower House at the instigation of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his project "Burn Europe" . Czechoslovakia was supposed to become one of the matches for its own 50 BROD, ČEJKA, p. 180; HANÁK, Men and Radio , p. 17.51 BROD, ČEJKA, p. 186.52 MATÚŠŮ, p. 48.53 OTÁHALOVÁ, ČERVINKOVÁ, p. 121.54 BROD, ČEJKA, p. 273.55 Ibid., P. 222.56 HANÁK, Men and Radio , p. 17.

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17industrial potential and transport network. The organization was supposed to disrupt enemy plans and the background in the form of unrest, causing damage, disrupting production and transport; it should damage the enemy's rear with its intelligence, sabotage, and diversionary activities, including controlled bombing, incitement of strikes or rebellion. In the final phase of the war counted on becoming the main organization to help guerrilla wars in the occupied countries. The document establishing a new organization has been developed former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on July 19, 1940, was acting about his last political act, a few days later Chamberlain for his own he completely withdrew from the state of active politics and died 9 November 1940. 57Neville Chamberlain, in the founding charter, named the newly-formed institution as Special Operations Executive (SOE) and defined it as a coordination organization of all actions directed against the enemy abroad. 58Cabinet of War founding the document and future name of the organization was approved on July 22, 1940. 59 The Headquarters of the special operation has become a building on Baker Street 64 right in the center of London, atthe gradual expansion of the organization was leased to other buildings near Baker Street, decryption and interconnection department had its own premises in the Michael House building, which was leased to them by Mark & Spencer. 60To move into the Baker Street building64 was held on 31 October 1940. 61 The newly formed organization fell under the leadership of the Minister for Economic Affairs Hugh Dalton's economic warfare, which commissioned SOE leaders Sir Frank Nelson. 62 Nelson was succeeded by Sir Charles Hambro and General Colin McVean Gubbins. 63 The last named command was honored, it was great a respected man whom they appreciated for their original thinking and courage, outside another spoke fluent French and German and was the author of two manuals translated intoSixteen Languages The Art of Mankind War and a Guide to Leaders whose copyrights owned by the state and during the war it was distributed free of charge throughout Europe and Southeast Asia. 64 In February 1942, Minister Hugh Dalton left his current post to become Minister for Commerce, in his capacity as Minister for Economic Warning and in 57 FOOT, Michael, Richard, Daniell, SOE Special Operations Corps. Brief History of the Department Special Operations 1940-1946 , Brno 1997, p. 32. 58 Ibid., P. 33.59 KOPEČNÝ, Petr, Attention, paratroopers! The origin, development and use of air strikes during World War II , Praha 1993, p. 82. 60 WILKINSON, Peter, Foreign Fields. The Story of an SOE Operative , London 2002, p. 106.61 FOOT, p. 35.62 MATÚŠŮ, p. 32.63 FOOT, p. 48.64 MATÚŠŮ, p. 57.

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 (1940-1945) Ludmila Habichová Supervisor: PhDr. Lukáš Novotný, Ph.D.Department of Historical Sciences Faculty of Philosophy, University of West Bohemia in PilsenPilsen 2016

18the management of the SOE was replaced by Roundell C. Palmer, known as Lord Selborne, whoseHis grandfather was Lord Salisbury. 65The SOE was built on the basis of several British organizations. In 1939the Electra House (EH), headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairsstood Campbell Stuart. 66 Focused on propaganda as a new weapon against enemy, EH has created the foundation for so-called black propaganda. In May 1938established General Staff Research , designated as GS / R, later known asMilitary Intelligence Research (MIR), whose major figure was Major CollinMcVean Gubbins. 67 Another inspirer for the newly established organization has become British Secret Service Secret Intelligence Servise (SIS), sometimes also known as MilitaryIntelligence (MI6), which originated in 1909 and was under control since 1921Foreign Ministries. 68In 1938 SIS chief Admiral Hugh Sinclair decided to establisha new department, the so-called Section D headed by Major Lawrence S. Grand, who was supposed toto deal with the mapping of suitable territories for sabotage in Germany by evokingriots and other possibilities to help the enemy weaken, includingspy activity. 69 On August 16, 1940, Lord Halifax delivered the wholesection D into the SOE message. 70 SOE is in its infancy already organized into three departments, SO 1 dealing with propaganda (EH was incorporated into this unit), SO 2 caregivermanagement and security of scheduled operations and SO 3 that planned the operation.In August 1941, SO1 was removed from the SOE and formed from itOrganizations Political Warfare Executive (Committee on Political warfare) aimed atdiversified propaganda against the German army, and the SO 3 department completely disappeared. 71 Finalthe SOE was created from Section D, SIS, MIR, and SO2.For cooperation of SOE with foreign resistance, individual sections were createdlocations where diversion and sabotage actions will be carried out by mutual agreement.The Central European, Balkan, Mediterranean, West European andFar East. 72Within these sections, other subgroups were called 65 FOOT, p. 47.66 MATÚŠŮ, p. 26.67 SCHOOL, Burn Czechoslovakia! Operation , p. 21.68 FOOT, p. 17.69 Ibid.70 MATÚŠŮ, p. 32.71 FOOT, p. 39.72 ŠOLC, Jiří, There were few men . Czechoslovak paratroopers on the Western Front during the Second World War , Praha 1990, p. 36.

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19national section specialized in one particular country. SOE has established contacts with the exilethe governments of Norway, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg,it did not miss the organization of Free France led by General Charles deGaullem. 73 Every commander various national sections have a thorough knowledge of the country and he should speak fluently with the language of the country, he should have known history and traditions and should have in the countryyour contacts. In most cases, each section could only rely on one such expert,if any. The staff of the sections consisted mainly of emigration.Czechoslovakia did not have its own national section, it fell into the Central European group.CSR was in charge of the SOE organization. Peter Wilkinson familiar with the Czech language. 74In 1943 Wilkinson was transferred to the Middle East and the Czechoslovak section after himtook over Alfghar Hesketh-Prichard. 75SOE has decided to establish contacts with the Czechoslovak intelligence servicein London to join the so-called "irregular wars" program, ie disruptionenemy territory to cause damage and disturb production and transport. Specificallyhas established a connection with the newly established II. by the Ministry of National Defense (MNO)led by František Moravec. Enthusiastic supporter of Czechoslovak foreignResistance and Deputy Foreign Office Robert Bruce Lockhart in a letter toH. Dalton wrote that "Czech resistance is the most impressive marauding movement we haveavailable in Europe today " . 76 Initially worked Czechoslovak cooperation intelligence services and UK leadership on the basis of an exchange of information. ColonelMoravec was not financially dependent on the British, the newsgroup with himbrought 200,000 German and 100,000 Dutch guilders and had them togetherin the amount of CZK 22 million of Czechoslovak crowns deposited in banks inStockholm, The Hague, Bern and Paris. 77 Thanks to their financial independence was intelligencethe gateway group as a separate component of the resistance that had as one of the few organizationsthroughout the wartime privilege to use their own codes and ciphers in conjunctionwith home. 78 Initially, eleven Moravec called a special military after the official creation of the Czechoslovak government in July 1940 73 SLÁDEK, Oldřich, They Come From Heaven , Prague 1993, p. 11.74 WILKINSON, p. 104.75 Ibid., P. 125.76 MACDONALD, Callum, Edge of London , Prague 1997, p. 97.77 PACNER, p. 71; KORDINA, Zdenek, Starts in France , In: APRIL, Vojtech N. (ed.), On All fronts. Czechoslovaks in II. World War, Prague 2001, p. 26. 78 MATÚŠŮ, p. 45.

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20The Ministry of National Defense (MNO) headed by General Sergey Ingre. 79 MNO wasdivided into four departments: I. political-legal department, II. intelligence, III. departmentaviation and IV. the material department, besides which, since January 15, 1943, the Staff worked separatelyfor the construction of the Armed Forces (ŠVBM) headed by brig. gene. Bedrich Neumann, whowas in charge of the preparation of a rebellion on Czechoslovak territory. 80 Until June 16, 1941,the reporting group referred to as Special Group plk. Moravec and part of itI. Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the summer of 1941 an independent II. department(reporting) headed by František Moravec, who is the seat of II. the MNO departmentchose the first floor of the building at the Porchester Gate at Bayswater Road in London where you arefor himself, he set up a small apartment as a place to sleep over a working week. 81 Moravcovathe family together with the families of Oldrich Tichy and Emil Strankmüller lived in the castleAddington House in Buckinghamshire, where Moravec was only commuting for his familyweekends. 82Newly established II. the department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade had the task of providing contact with the home,encrypt and decrypt received or sent messages that they should subsequently makeanalyze, record, and categorize by importance, and report them to the newsreports. 83He joined the 1st Department of Offensive Intelligence and the 2nd Departmentdefensive intelligence, the Military Radio Center was a separate component(VRU), which was established on September 1, 1939 and is based in West Dulwich on Rosendale Road. 84Offensive news throughout the war led Emil Strankmüller. 85 Departmentoffensive reporting has been split into other sections. It was NewsGroup A, Study Group B, Encryption Group C, and Special Group D. 86The newsgroup A was led by Major František Fryč, who together with hishis colleagues engaged in intelligence against Germany, gathered on himall available information that was registered, classified and passed to the Study Group 79 KOUTEK, p. 33.80 ŠOLC, Jiří, Podpalte Czechoslovakia! Chapters from the history of Czechoslovak foreign and domestic resistance (1939-1945) , Prague 2005, p. 293. 81 Ibid.82 ŠOLC, By Side , p. 173.83 Proceedings of Confidential Income and Order of the Ministry of National Defense of 7 June 1941, Military historical archive (hereafter VHA), signature (hereinafter only sign.) 20 - 20 - 1 / 27-278. 84 HANÁK, Vojenská , p. 100.85 ŠOLC, Jiří, No one will stop us , Prague 1992, p. 21.86 ŠOLC, Jiří, And we sang Tipperary. Training of Czechoslovak paratroopers in Great Britain , Prague 1993, p. 29.

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21B, which has evaluated and grouped them in news reports, analyzes, or studies. 87 Leading Major Alfred Ressel and Major Vladimir Cigna. 88 Encryption Group C mediate the connection of the intelligence departments with the agency network abroad andensure encryption of encrypted messages received from home, including encryption itselfmessages intended for mission to occupied Czechoslovakia. Messages were converted usingthe so-called cryptographic keys most often composed by Major František Fryč from the intelligencegroup A or main cipher Lieutenant Václav Knotek. 89 Initially he was at the forefrontthe major cryptographic group Karel Paleček, after his transfer on July 2, 1942 to Specialgroup D, Major Alois Frank and Major Matěj gradually formed the group leaderSolanski. 90The most interesting group of the first offensive intelligence unit was the SpecialGroup D, based on a decision to be in the occupied countriesto send trained soldiers for special operations. The group split into Command,training and backpacks. 91 Command section was assigned to the recruitment of volunteers, their choicetraining, ensuring their training, and overseeing ongoing collaboration with organizationsSOE and SIS. The boring part of their work covered the necessary administrationprovided a serial number from the headquarters section of the Porchester Gate on Bayswater Road11/1 in London, where she was directly subordinate to the Head of the Intelligence Unit II.MNO Department František Moravcov. 92 The commander's section is linked to the name of Major. KarelPaleček a škpt. gšt. Jaroslav Šustr, their assistants are already trained in the futureparachutists por. Gustav Loquens a npor. Rudolf Krzák. 93 The training section was responsiblefor independent training and for compliance with the training program in the trainingresorts Special Training School (STS) established SOE mostly leased orpurchased mansions, farms and settlements in remote parts of England and Scotlandcountryside. 94 The Czechoslovak paratroopers were most closely associated with STS 2in Bellasis at Dorking, the second phase of the training was STS 46 in Chicheley Hall andin the final stages of STS 1 training in Brockham, Northampton. 95 Officers who training, they had to take part in the training. The most important instructors 87 MATÚŠŮ, p. 49.88 Ibid.89 ŠOLC, By Side , p. 167.90 MATÚŠŮ, p. 49; ŠOLC, General , p. 159.91 SOLC, And We Sang, p. 29.92 Organization and division of duties in the offensive department II. Department, VHA, sign. 20 - 20 - 1/92.93 ŠOLC, Red Berets , Prague 1998, p. 34.94 ŠOLC, There were few men , p. 36.95 SOLC, And We Sang, p. 31.

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22in the Command section they were off. Rudolf Hrubec, np. Rudolf Pernický, npor. Josef Süsser,npor. Oldřich Talášek and npor. Zdeněk Gold. 96 The task of the section was to provide trainingin technical and material terms, he has taken care of the necessary material and equipment forparatroopers, cared for their equipment, equipment, but also their catering and accommodation.Among other things, she kept the stuff of paratroopers after their departure into action. In the direction of materialand technical equipment, Special Group D was completely dependent on UK suppliesSOE. Until 1943, the corner section did not have its own building, it movedtogether with a group of paratroopers on the STS premises, it became its permanent residencea building on Stanhope Terrace 8 in London. 97 The sergeant Vladimir was in the rear sectionMadera, who took care of paratroopers' suits and took pictures of paratroopers just beforedeparting for a brick wall operation in the yard of the Porchester Gate building. 98 Special Group D throughout the war trained and trained selected individualswith special missions to the occupied countries. She was in charge of their training, theirsequipment and equipment, should not forget to maintain their high morals. Your taskswas filled until the trained paratroopers entered the aircraft, then took overReporting Group A at the first offensive reporting department that controlled themactivity in the occupied territory. 99 Special Group D was disposed of beforeby the end of the war on 27 March 1945. 100 96 ŠOLC, Red Beres, p. 34.97 Šolc, and we sang , p. 34.98 ČANČČARA, Jaroslav, The Assassination Action , Praha 1991, p. 61.99 ŠOLC, By Side , p. 168.100 MATÚŠŮ, p. 55.

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23 2 Training of Czechoslovak paratroopers 2.1 Training program and recruitment of first volunteersAs part of the Czechoslovak army, an attempt to organize training took place in 1938Airborne infantry, June 17, 1938, a project from III. department (air)The Czechoslovak army's main staff for the training of one parachutist platoon. 101 Recruitment volunteers began on November 19, 1938, when the headquarters issued a decree on the organizationtraining of airline infantry, 20 volunteers, among whomJaroslav Šustr, Gustav Locquens and others who played a significant role in the future in the futureparatroopers from the west. 102 The first attempt to build an air force faileddue to Munich, and the parachutist training was abolished on February 23, 1939. 103 Newthe attempt came after World War II with the training of paratroopers under the patronage of the Specialgroup D in cooperation with SOE and SIS.Recruitment of volunteers was assigned to the special section of the Special Group D, whenthe beginning of the training program was Karel Paleček, from April 1941 toIn 1942 he was replaced by Jaroslav Šustr, then returned to the head of the command section. 104The Command section was not only about selecting suitable people into the program, but alsoproviding training and creating training curricula according to the task.The necessity and the more boring part was the provision of training after the administrativepage. The specified program was handed over to the training section where it was importantstatus Rudolf Hrubec, who originally reported to the Air Force but because of poor visionwas not accepted, instead, for his skill in parachute jump SpecialGroup D got into the training section as an instructor in a parachute jump. 105 After hisDeputy Lieutenant Rudolf Pernický was the head of the section. The training program is linked to the cooperation of the Special Group D aSOE. The content of the program was based on two brochures of The Art of Wrecked War and Handbook forCommander written by SOE Commander Colin Gubbins. 106 Assistant in the theoretical parttraining has also become work on how to work with high-performance explosives that he wrote 101 MAREK, Henry, The Fifth Card takes death. Czechoslovak paratroopers in British battledres 1941- 1945 , Cheb 2000, p. 5. 102 MAREK, Henry, Men of Ringway I. Czechoslovak paratroopers in Great Britain 1941-1945 , Cheb 2014, p. 17. 103 SOLC, And We Sang, p. 7.104 MATÚŠŮ, p. 52.105 BLÜMLOVÁ, Dagmar (ed.), War record of Rudolf Hrubec 15. 3. 1939-21. 3. 1941 , Bernatice 2001, p. 12. 106 MATUŠU, p. 57.

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24expert on explosives Milles Jefferis. 107 The first training school for agents in the SOE was establishedin Brickendonbury Hall, but it was not a successful project, the first25 students did not complete their training, the second and the most successful attempt was to createTraining Centers called Special Training School (STS), out of extinctionschool in Brickendonbury Hall was created by STS 17 aimed at destructive training. 108SOEhad its STS centers outside of the British Isles, Canada in Toronto established STS 103,in India in Singapore STS 101, other schools were among others in Palestine and Australia. 109 For planning a joint training program, the Special Group D was set up CzechSection (also known as MY) based in Norgeby House on Baker Street, headed byMY was Peter Wilkinson, who before the war worked in Prague as a news expert onMinistry of War. 110 Later for cooperation of SOE with Czechoslovak, Polish and Czechoslovakiaa common Central European section was formed by the Hungarian exile. At the meeting of FrantišekMoravce, with representatives of the SOE and the SIS, decided on December 12, 1940, to choose the first ones12 volunteers for upcoming training, including British assistancecollaborators on material and air transport issues. 111Of course, to choicevolunteers did not strictly confuse SOEs. In the framework of mutual co-operation he has compiledSpecial Working Committee ( Working Committee) composed of representatives from Moravcovýchthe Intelligence Unit and the representatives of the SOE and the SIS. 112 They met several times a month anddiscussed the provision and preparation of operations; for example, the main task of the SIS was to manufacturefalse legitimations for paratroopers.Special group D in the training program did not include women, even though they didtheir co-workers actively participated in the resistance. Within SOEwas a very prestigious First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) associationwomen became drivers, auxiliary forces in training schools, radio operators,in the second organization Womens Transport Corps women served as couriers sent toterritory of the occupied countries. 113 SOE has chosen women for their courier workinconsistency, while the Czechoslovak Group D commanders assessed that in foreignresistance was not enough women of appropriate age, physical disposition, and mentalproperties for such a mission, among others, played a role and a vision of what would follow 107 FOOT, p. 25.108 MATÚŠŮ, p. 58.109 Ibid., P. 69.110 Ibid., P. 77.111 Official record of the meeting on 12 December 1940, VHA, sign. 37 - 294 - 2.112 MATÚŠŮ, p. 93.113 Ibid., P. 60.

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25after the Gestapo arrest. It was decided that only future training will be selectedmen of Czech and Slovak nationality, so, besides women, no civilians, Germans andJews. 114The German Special Group D did not consider it a completely safe choicethe reasoning behind the decision was that they lacked a national sentiment that is for special tasksvery important. Jews were not excluded from training because of the signs of anti-Semitism, buton the grounds that they would get into a much larger area after they were put into the Protectoratedangers than soldiers of Czech and Slovak nationality. Czechoslovak pilots became morea group that was not counted in the training. Even so, there was no need for volunteers,a large number of Czechoslovak soldiers who suffered in the camp claimed to be trainedfeeling that they are not of any help, so they grab the opportunity. At the end of 1940, Karel Paleček was commissioned to assemble a skeletontraining program and choose men for training. He went to the camp at Leamingtonand together with the commander of the Czechoslovak Brigade by General Bedřich Neumannthey began to select suitable candidates. 115From 27 November to 7 December 1940 KarelPaleček found his first volunteers, the rt was selected. František Pospisil, rt. ArnoštMikš, rt. Jan Kubiš, rt. Leopold Musil, rt. Otmar Riedl, chat. Josef Gemrot, rt. JozefGabčík, čet. Václav Málek, šterm. Vladimír Hrabec a ppor. Vladislav Martínek. 116The list of named was sent by Paleček to London at the MNO. Battalion commanderthe Czechoslovak Brigade had an obligation to exhibit relocations for each of themdocuments and sent them to London at the MNO, the transfer papers included a soldierwar item, birth certificate, extract from the holiday record, extract from the recordabout the punishments and records of his medical examinations. 117 Charles decided during Thumb of your stay in camp choose two more groups of ten people based onrecommendations of the Brigade Commander. Candidates came to the commander's office one by onewhere he told them that they had been selected to perform special tasks in their homeland.The main criterion for selection was voluntary enrollment in courses and an emphasis onconfidentiality. In July 1942 they resigned from their training on the basis of their own decision.Karel Vaněk a ppor. Polykarp Cross, both had to swear they would be silent abouta special course on STS 17, its nature and purpose, statements of confidentiality written andsigned with Maj. Thumbnail and patch. The cracker at the Porchester Gate in London, then 114 SOLC, And We Sang, p. 13.115 BROD, ČEJKA, p. 180.116 Solo, And We Sang, p. 13; HANÁK, Men and Radio , p. 19.117 Special purpose military - relocation, VHA, sign. 37 - 288 - 5.

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26could return to the camp at Leamington. 118In May 1941, the training was enteredalready 471 Czechoslovak soldiers, this is the average of every fifth soldier. 119Even in the Leamington camp, volunteers had to go through the basic physical testfitness and have to undergo a medical examination. If the soldier walked through these twotests, he could just wait for the day the MNO sent to London at the brigade headquartersthe calling sheet in special courses with his name. However, a medical examinationit was not easy to pass, Captain František Procházka was found unfitfor the training of paratroopers due to the recurrence in the knee, which operated in 1932 inchoir hospital in Josefov. 120MNO in London always at the Czechoslovak Headquartersthe Brigade sent a letter with the names of the selected soldiers along with the names of the possible onesalternates in case the selected individuals did not undergo a medical examination or were notrecommended by the battalion commander for other reasons. In the case of Kpt. It was a walka substitute on the list of Cpt. Josef Knop. 121 Ministries of the MNO precededvolunteer soldiers' applications, stating the reasons why they should beselected. The battalion commander of the Czechoslovak Brigade sent a list of volunteersat the MNO in London, where each soldier had a note on whether he or she recommended itnot recommended for training. U npor. Miroslav Vápeník said that the headquartersThe Czechoslovak Brigade of this soldier does not recommend training as it iscommander of the platoon with a specific French and British course and is for the brigadeindispensable. 122 Other volunteers did not meet their age of 30 or theirstoo short-sightedness, and so in their name they had a note that they were trainingdoes not recommend. The frequent failure of the medical examination was flat legs orscoliosis of the spine. At the age, an exception could have been made if the person concerned was largephysical capabilities, but the age limit should still be within 35 years.The ideal candidate became a Czechoslovak soldier, free and unbound, whohad to manifest his bravery, to be mentally balanced should have a common look tohe did not care about himself, at the age of thirty or so, in absolutely great health and well - beingphysical state with a high dose of intelligence. 123 118 Return to department - npor. Vaněk a ppor. Cross, VHA, sign. 37 - 288 - 5.119 MAREK, Men , p. 21.120 Procházka František - inability to train parachutists, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 1.121 Ibid.122 List of registered paratroopers, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 1.123 SOLC, And We Sang, p. 14.

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27The training program has been divided into several phases, the initial phase has taken placein the camp of the Czechoslovak Brigade, it was an entry course ( Preliminary Course) wherethe physicist of the individual volunteers should be shown as well as the medical fitness of the individuals.The second phase of training was divided into the Assault Course and the parachutecourse ( Para Course ). The first was the training of the offensive fight, which took place in severalturnuses in a maximum of twenty volunteers, with STS beinglocated in remote rural settlements. Upon successful completion of the course, the trainees leftfor parachuting training. After completing the Assault Course and the Para Course, he ranFinishing Course ( Finishing Course ), which is adapted according to the task afterplanting in the Protectorate. 2.2 Assault CourseThe course of attacking struggle lasted for four weeks. This was a special training underpatronizing the SOEs in training centers established in the remote rural area of Scotland, and thatin STS 25 and STS 26 on the west coast of Scotland at Lake Loch Morar onformer Camusdarrach and Garramor farms. 124Frequents moved from the campLeamington to London, where they were photographed and vaccinated against smallpox, thenthey went to King's Cross Station, where they traveled by train through Edinburgh, Glasgow andFort William to the final train station in Morar, where transport was waiting for themtransfer to a training center. 125The MNO in London sent to the headquartersThe Czechoslovak Brigade list of equipment that every soldier should have sent tospecial courses with you, a steel helmet, full mask, cloak, bluesack, winter gloves, braces, spinky, two pieces of battle dresses, two pair of lace boots,gym shoes, cap, badge on hat, two pieces of summer bottom, two pieces of winterbottom, two woolen t-shirts, sewing kit, sweater, three shirts, four pairs of socks,two towels, a gym t-shirt, gym pants. 126 Command received notice thatnone of the equipment mentioned can not be purchased at the course, just at the training centerfinds a canteen where soldiers can buy lemonade, sometimes beer, candy orchocolate.The first training session took place from July 17 to August 8, 1941, in whichwere trained npor. Lopaur, rtm. Gabčík, rtm. He had to, chat. Malk, platoon. Gemrot, des. 124 SLADEK, p. 12.125 Program of special course departure, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 28.126 Equipment list - description, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 3.

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28Lukaštík, svob. asp. He engrossed and freed. asp. Pavelka, with the group leader becomingthe oldest officer. Lopaur, who led the diary into which he recorded the findingsfrom the training. 127 In Scotland, a group of soldiers was also accompanied by a captain of the British ArmyFrancis Eduard Keary as a member of the Central European section of the SOE who was able to speakfluent Czech language. 128 The master training center in Scotland was majorRoyal Jet Young Royal Infantry. 129Major Millar, Captain Nicholson, captainCrosby and Captain Hamilton-Smith represented his chief staff. 130 Standingan instructor in Scotland was a nasty. Antonín Petrák. 131 Course commanders were equippeddisciplinary and criminal powers, were in charge of the health and material status they had to reporta letter to the MNO to London on the start of the course as soon as the group arrivestraining center and sent regular weekly reports on the course of trainingand other extraordinary events during training. 132 The commander of the course also had tothe care of accommodation and the catering of trainees, his duty was to keep a diary wherehe had to write briefly and clearly his personal training records daily. 133 Messages sentto Porchester Gate 11, Bayswater, London, at the hands of Jaroslav Šustr. 134 DuringChristmas in 1942, when the 12th turn Assault took place from 5 December 1942 to 2 January 1943Coursu , she was asked by the commander of the Petrak Group at Porchester Gate to see if it wasit is possible to send some small pieces to the traveler, arriving at the farm on Christmas Eve25 packages with delights for pleasure. 135The accommodation facility was located in the training center, thenclassrooms, kitchens and a large dining room, the last object here was the so-called Traigh House , wherehoused STS 25 Headquarters, including Younger Commander. The training took place daily from 9:00hours until 19:30 with lunch breaks and tea for fifth. The day you go into trainingincluding nighttime walks, exercises took place until the next day. 136 The curriculum wascomposed of the objects of destruction and sabotage that the instructors devoted to 80 hours practicaland theoretical lessons on the handling of explosives, grenades and other flammable substances. 127 Training Morar - knowledge, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 10.128 MAREK, Fifth Card , p. 8.129 HAMŠÍK, PRAŽÍK, p. 110.130 Diary of Rudolf Hrubce from STS 25, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 10.131 Npor. Petrák - report, VHA, sign. 37 - 288 - 10.132 Arrival at the course - report, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 28.133 Diary of course commander Rudolf Hrubec, who graduated from Assault Course from September 20, 1941 to October 10 1941, has been preserved and deposited in the Military Historical Archives under the signatures 37 - 289 - 10. 134 Arrival at the course - report, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 28.135 Letter np. Petrak of 9 December 1942, VHA, sign. 37 - 289-24.136 ŠOLC, and we sang , p. 49.

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29During the training there were also practical exercises when the soldiers had the task of destroying a certain oneobject, perform a survey of the given object, empower the object and then execute itdestruction. One of many practical exercises was described in his diary on September 22, 1941Rudolf Hrubec: "The individuals were tasked to enter Garramor, see whatis in the yard, and returns back. The courtyard was guarded on the outside on each side of the mainthe entrances of two guards standing on their habitats, then bypassing the house and exchanging seats.None of the pupils could be seen by the guards. " 137 basis Assault Course was hard physical training, which was spent the most time after destruction. Every morning they were runningdemanding and intense half-hour warm-ups, followed by runs at different distances,jumps, blades, climbing ropes and trees, part of physical training was alsoswimming in the sea. The group has strengthened their relationships in the form of social games, for examplefootball. They also teach judo, karate and methods of silent killing and close combat, wheretaught how to place mortal wounds with only hands, legs, back of hand, learnedto fight and defend themselves with the knife, they learned how to knock down the enemy and were instructed aboutways of choking hands, clothing, or loop. Fight close up at firstrehearsed in the training staff, and after acquiring basic skills the soldiers foughtin uniform and with a mask on his head. The so-called " Two Silent Killing" methods were devisedShanghai City Police, Eric Anthony Sykes and Wiliam Ewart Fairbairn, theirshelper in training was the Czechoslovak paratrooper Jaromír Pikka, which yearIn 1942, he broke the Individual Attack and Defense brochure . 138 Furthermore, there were taught combat tacticstraining in 60 hours of training, which included the art of creeping, the art of camouflage,field observations, field shifts, object survey, liquidation of guards givenobject and overflow of object. Usually, several kilometers were also requiredmarches, their length gradually increasing. From 13 to 14 August 1942,carried out a 30-kilometer-long march through challenging terrain along the shores of Lake Morar,who was killed by Lieutenant Joseph Strankmüller (nephew Emil Strankmüller). 139In the coursehe also suffered less serious injuries, for example, npor. Betka was injured during the courseright knee and had to be taken to the hospital on October 4, 1942. 140 137 Diary of Rudolf Hrubec from STS 25, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 10.138 MAREK, Men , p. 84.139 MAREK, Fifth Card , p. 17.140 Npor. Betka - injury, VHA, sign. 37 - 288 - 11.

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30The shooting was devoted to 10 hours of practical training, among others they were also taughtthrowing grenades and learning about types of weapons. 141 Shooting was practiced in all kindspistols lying down, running, moving car, practicing instinctive, flyingshooting without aiming. Shot in the rooms and in the wild, the last week was determinedindividuals are allowed to shoot for live targets, rabbits. 142 Basic radio connections20 lessons were taught, they learned to use Morse's alphabet andQ code. 143 In the theoretical part, they learned the basics of topography and then practiced itin the field, learned to read from the map, use the buzzer, taught topographic signs,Measuring actual map distances using scale. Because of how challengingit was training, the practitioners appreciated the free sunday, which was usually filled with footballmatches between Czechoslovak trainees and English staff. The very first game onSTS 25 took place on 21 September 1941 and Czechoslovak players lost 0: 4. 144At the end of the course, exams were held, both practical and theoretical. Practical part withhas always put together a conspiracy plan to liberate the occupied object and its successordestruction. In theoretical tests, test-based instructors examined whohe listened in the center's classrooms. The graduate graduated with an assessment in the individualsubjects, assessed: physical education, close combat, combat exercises, work with weapons,explosives and destruction, joining, reading maps. Rotary Jan Kubiš could in his testimonyto read his name, age, nationality, brief description of his appearance and character, was missingnor the introduction of former civilian employment and military activities until the time of their arrivala special course. Rotny Kubis was considered a man of very good health, a bitslow, but reliable, solid and popular in college, he was in physical educationrated as very good, the same rating got in close combat and reading maps,with 95% of the topography. 145He was good at field practice,the handling of weapons and explosives, the good instructors awarded himin demolition (90% of the test), in news and in connection training. 146 At the endIn brief, the course leader wrote the character of the rated and the sameranked in individual categories of AJ, with A being the highest awarded rating ait was given to those whom the commander of the course had recommended as a future operational commander 141 Šolc, and We Sang, pp. 51-52.142 Npor. Lopaur - training, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 10.143 SOLC, And We Sang, p. 51.144 Diary of Rudolf Hrubec from STS 25, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 10.145 KUBIŠ, Jan - certificate, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 2.146 Ibid.

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31groups. The B rating was for the future great organizers, C and D were forfuture officers well serving group leaders, E and F rated menrated as technically gifted, G was intended for the recommendation of future couriers,rating H was intended for men evaluated as suitable radiotelegraphists andJ ultimately received ratings for men whom the course commander assessed was not suitable foroperation in a group, but rather as an individual. 147 These Classification Directives have been written onheadquarters of STS major Wilson on May 30, 1941 and sent them to individual STS. 148 RotnyJan Kubiš was classified in category D at the end of the review with a note that he wouldhe could also work in group B, his friend, registrar Jozef Gabčík was evaluated astechnically gifted, and so the course commander assigned him the classification F. 149Assault Course atof both farms took place until April 16, 1943, and there were fifteen of themtraining tours that trained 252 volunteers. 1502.3 Para CourseIn June 1940, Winston Churchill decided that the first training session would be set upparachuting center of Central Landing School (later known as ParachuteTraining School ) at Manchester's Ringway Airport, with the first commanderresorts became Captain Maurice Newnham. 151The first training took place on 9 July1940, and on 21 November 1940, the first British parachute unit came out of the centerwith 38 men flagged as Special Air Banner. 152 From space at the airportanother training center was formed at Ringway, ManchesterSTS 51, where the Czechoslovak soldiers who successfully passed the previous one movedAssault Course . The master of STS 51 was Major Edwards. 153 At the airport in Ringway also found a large number of women 's auxiliary air forces , women herethey were like parachute packs, like drivers, couplings, or crocodiles. 154 Official Timetraining was set for ten days, but three days included arrival to the trainingcenter, free Sunday and leaving the course, so the training itself lasted for seven days60 hours of training. 155The first training commenced on August 10, 1941 with eightCzechoslovak soldiers, npor. František Lopaur, des. Vojtech Lukastik, 147 Classification - designation, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 20.148 Ibid.149 KUBIS, Jan - Training History Sheet; GABČÍK, Josef - Training History Sheet, VHA, 37 - 308 - 2.150 MAREK, Fifth Card , p. 7.151 KOPEČNÝ, p. 74.152 MAREK, Men , p. 18; KOPEČNÝ, p. 75.153 Šolc, and we sang , p. 55.154 MAREK, Men, p. 27.155 Šolc, and we sang , p. 55.

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32rtm. Jozef Gabčík, rtm. Leopold Musil, platoon. Josef Gemrot, čet.Josef Malík, svob. asp. Libor Zapletal and Svob. asp. František Pavelka. 156Upon entering the training center, the first scholars could read the parachute password:"Knees together, shoulders round, head bent down and watch the ground!" 157The first days of training were based on ground training and future trainingparatroopers practiced steam bends forward, back despite obstacles, practiced jumps ilanding, handling of straps. The ground parachute simulators were created at the airportstraps, parachutists jump from the plane rehearsed from an old aircraft located in the garage,where a hole for simulated jumps was cut. The exercisers daily performed jumpfrom the hole in the matting plane mat. If it does not jump right through the center of the hole,a freakventant would face his face on the front wall or, on the contrary, catch a parachute on the backthe wall of the hole, when jumping had to hold the body straight and firm and have legs and hands on the body. 158If the parachutist jumped with a relaxed body and the limbs would not have it, he would get itinto a helical motion, which would cause the carrier parachute to move. Even on impactthe ground had to adhere to certain rules, the face always had to be directed in the directionwind or downhill, legs and knees had to be close together, never to bejust one leg, the knees had to be slightly dashed in the impact and the bodyrelaxed. 159 Part of the training was also to teach the course graduates to perfectly pack parachutes,the art of manipulating the parachute soon after impact. Frequentants have been given lessons on constructionparachute, about his activities, learned to take care of him properly and maintain it. The instructors hadthoroughly describe the design of the parachute, describe the material and explain all the principlessafety, the trainees had the task of packing the parachutes daily until it was completeperfection, the purpose of the exercise was to gain complete confidence in the packagingparachute. 160To find out how trainers handle the flight, they have been attending trainshalf an hour of flying to familiarize yourself with the aircraft and its environment and formaking a sense of flying, during the flight, behavior was carefully observedindividual learners to determine their response to height, speed, or view onground. 161 156 MAREK, Men , p. 22.157 Ibid., P. 25.158 Parachute Units Training Instructions, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 11.159 Ibid.160 Ibid.161 Ibid.

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33In classrooms, trainees learned the theory of jump at which instructors showed themdemonstrations of jumps, both of those correctly executed, and then those of the bad jumps thatdid not go well, and paratroopers could see what could happen if they failedrules during jump. The jumps themselves were performed above Tatton Park. 162Paratrooper Oldřich Pelc wrote in his memoirs that the instructors tried to practicebefore calming down the first jump in the form of spitting, and so to ease the situationamong other things, they say that it happens sometimes that instead of parachutes staff pack the blankets. 163 Every paratrooper trapped a parachute with a certain number given to the instructorremarked to know who parachute packed if the parachute jumpsdid not expand. Every paratrooper on the course made four to five jumps, one beingof them took place at night, jumping separately even after groups. Part of the parachutethe course was also a night exercise to mark the diving platform with light signals,digging pits for sheltering containers with destructive and other operating material. Aftereach parachutist has been awarded with another output ratingthe number of jumps and its style. By the end of the first year of existence of STS 51, ie by the end of 1941, at the airportRingway trained 112 Czechoslovak paratroopers in Ringway. 164 The greatest enthusiast a the most skillful in jumps was the instructor Rudolf Hrubec, who had the mostparachute jumps in the territory of Great Britain from all Czechoslovak soldiers. 165Trained paratroopers wore their uniforms on the sleeve under the inscription tapeCzechoslovakian designation of a silk white parachute clogged with blue wings, afterthe war remained the same name for those paratroopers who had completed both courses, those whowere deployed in special operations and survived the war, they were given the right to wear a paddle signon her breasts over her decorations. 166 Czechoslovak paratroopers had at the airportin Ringway very good reputation, considered the best jumps, almost 80%graduates left the course with a "Excellent" rating. 167 Their popularity has been declaredeven the jokes about Czechoslovak parachutists that appeared on the information board,which should serve for the normal instructions and the daily schedule in STS 51. One day,on the board he discovered a joke: "A group of Czechoslovak soldiers, trained and dressed, sits 162 WILKINSON, p. 110.163 PELC, Oldrich, Paratroopers in action. Memories and Reflections , Munich 1987, p. 20.164 MAREK, Men , p. 29.165 BLÜMLOVÁ, p. 23.166 PELC, pp. 12-13.167 Mark, Men , p. 31

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34in a flying plane. The first jump is awaiting. An English instructor asks the first to jump."After you" is the answer. He will turn to the next one, but he will do the same. The instructor isdesperate, but suddenly something comes to his mind. He shows off the plane and shouts:"Pub" All the paratroopers quickly roll up the plane. " 168During parachuting training, which took place at the airport in 1941-1945,Czechoslovak soldiers passed on 3000 jumps, only one of which resulted in death,On July 15, 1942, he died at the jump Kpt. Karel Šeda, who was on landwith strong wind torn hard on his back and his head crashed to the stone and the consequences of bleeding intothe brain died. 169 After completing a parachute course, most of the men went back toCzechoslovak Brigades, others were sent for additional training.2.4 Supplementary trainingBasic training, Assault Course and Para Course , were all required to attendselected volunteers from the Czechoslovak Brigade. They could then be sent back totheir units to Leamington, or they could be moved to other complementary onescourses around England to STS training centers of varying focus. On supplementaryThe trainings were frequented by trainees from the waiting stations, for the first wave of landingthe center for Czechoslovak paratroopers became STS 2 in a villa in Bellasis near the cityDorking, where the commander of the maintenance station Rudolf Hrubec has consistently maintained his fitnessuntil his departure to the Protectorate. 170 Every day the participants underwent a morningwarm up, then they went to learn shooting, throwing hand grenades and making their own production.There were also marching exercises in the field or marches at night with the help of a bus.They have perfected in close combat, boxing, reading maps, driving cars,in destroying objects. The STS 2 center took place on July 1, 1942 during the drilling practicegrenade to the deadly injury of the npor. Jaromir Riegel and another fourRiegel's funeral took place at the Pinner Cemetery on July 4, 1942. 171 The second wave of landings in 1942-1943 is already connected with the new traininga center for Czechoslovaks, with the STS 46 in Chicheley Hall, which was foundedOn July 31, 1942, the training center commander became the major British ArmyHonoré R. Anson, to whom he was subject. Rudolf Hrubec as his deputy and commander 168 Ibid.169 Ibid., P. 34.170 ŠOLC, Podvratte Czechoslovakia! Chapters , p. 180.171 Official Record - Investigation of Lethal Accident. Riegela on 1 July 1942 on training center in Bellasis, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 3.

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35Czechoslovak groups. 172Hrubca's company was made by his four-legged friend, whitethe Dandy wolf, whom he acquired after his fallen friend. 173 Before he was commanderHrubec himself put into action, wrote on October 3, 1943, the power of Karel Paleček,to freely dispose of his contribution to the savings bank and to pay the expenses associated with the careabout Wolfgang, she enclosed a letter to the full power, where Paleček describes the nature of the dog, what she likes, whaton the contrary, he does not like and knows what he can do. 174 At the center both internal instructors worked i external. Standing internal instructors included the npor. Rudolf Pernický, npor. Zdeněk Gold,rtm. Josef Modřanský, rtm. Rudolf Tušner or Čet. asp. Čestmír Šikola, as externalthe instructors can be named Emil Strankmüller, František Fryč or VáclavCignu. 175 He also traveled to the STS 46 as an external chemist with the rt chemist. Ing. StanislavMalachta, an expert in the field of inorganic chemistry, who tried to use his knowledgeon sabotage techniques. 176 In London he was established a Czechoslovak Laboratorychemists, from where he commenced to recite parachutists about the production of classical explosives andinflammable substances. Npor. Rudolf Pernický graduated from a professional placement in chemistrya laboratory in London, in a laboratory trial with potassium chlorate and paraffinan explosion occurred and Pernicky had to be taken to a hospital in Hammersmith,as a result of the explosion, his fingernail was pinched on his thumb and index finger of his right hand, he was mildinjury to the back of his right hand, and small splinters had to be removed from his left eye. 177The MNO in London instructed that as of July 1, 1943, they would be instructors and assistantsstaff in training centers use cover names, both in contact with authorities, soalso in contact with each other and between British instructors, npor. Hrubec has since performedunder the name František Hajný, npor. Pernicky under the name of Rudolf Pazder, np. Süsserbecame Josef Sládk, npor. Krzák Adolf Kukala and Maj. Paleček KarelKalab. 178The participants on the STS 46 were divided into two groups, to a group of traineesintended for special tasks and to the group of radiotelegraphists in charge of the commanderconnecting training npor. Rudolf Süsser. 179 Under his leadership, attended a course on 172 ŠOLC, Preparation of the Second Wave of Special Operations in Great Britain to Czechoslovakia in 1942. In: History and Military 40, 1991, 4, p. 53. 173 BLÜMLOVÁ, p. 23.174 Power of Attorney. Hrubce, VHA, sign. 37 - 288 - 11.175 ŠOLC, Preparation of the Second Wave , p. 53.176 ŠOLC, Podpalte Československo! Action Benjamin , Prague 1991, p. 41.177 Injuries Pernicky, VHA, sign. 37 - 288 - 10.178 Cover names of instructors and auxiliaries, VHA, sign. 37 - 288 - 11.174 HANÁK, Vítězslav, Organization of Radio Communication with Paragraphes of the Intelligence Section London MNO in 1941-1945. In: History and Military 45, 1996, 4, p. 135.

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36radiotelegraphists fifteen future radio operators, they learned Morse's alphabet, Q-code,broadcasting and receiving of messages on instruments, practical manipulation at broadcasting stations,they also learned how to radiotech, how the transmitter was designed to break it, and eventuallyrepair faults and faults. Also included was a cipher training where the doctrine of secret was taughtCorrespondence using encrypted messages, secret inks and micrographs. By thisEvery paratrooper, not just future radio, has trained as a base. Selected individuals to datethe problem was taught by SIS instructors, where the lieutenant was taughtVáclav Knotek, or they were sent for a professional internship at the Military Radio Controller.Each operating group had its own encryption key assigned to themcomposed only by major František Fryc, then by Václav Knotek. 180 British experts they assumed that a radio telescope was trained for eleven months of trainingsoldiers on the STS 46 radio station became within one month of reading 235 hours of training,while at the end of the training they had to master Morse 's alphabet to make 40 characters behindminute, advanced but also managed 80 characters per minute. 181 Special Task Force withfurther divided into group A as beginners who did not undergo basic training, orattended only one of them, and then group B, as advanced, whopassed Assault Course and Para Course , Beginners Command Npor. Gingerbreads,the advanced was in charge of the npor. Mucker. 182Together, Chicheley Hall taught about 27 subjects including destruction,Morse Alphabets, Ink Teaching, German Language Teaching,German police and other German institutions. 183 Parachutists also improvedin destruction, in shooting, throwing hand grenades, in packing material, base again formedhard physical training including improvement in close combat. Lectures onGermany, and its army, about its security forces, should be able to recognizeGerman uniforms, their ranks. They learned to recognize German weapons, Germanmilitary technology and German language learning. The parachutist also taught life herein illegality, he was instructed about relations in the protectorate, he had to be police and administrativethe regulations in force in the Protectorate and had to be confessed in the given currency and in the foodstuffsof tickets. 180 ŠOLC, and we sang , p. 73.181 HANÁK, Organization , pp. 133-134.182 ŠOLC, Preparation of the Second Wave , p. 54.183 MATÚŠŮ, p. 156.

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37The irreplaceable part of the training was also the psychological preparation of paratroopers, whichin a given training program was not determined by any schedule or numberhours. The main role played here by Charles Paleček, who became very much among paratrooperspopular, they called him "Daddy Thumb". 184 Palecek gained their trust for his righteous negotiations, for their ability to listen to anyone who needed them at that momenttestify. He did not distinguish people by rank and position, he was willing to listenanyone. During psychological training, emphasis was placed on volunteering, on patriotism and onmorality, while the instructors tried to curb the signs of an egocentric understanding of the missionto the homeland and dampen the signs of vanity. There was also a certain effort to focus on the groupin the center so that there is complete mutual trust, solidarity and excitement among the trainees a friendly bond formed between them. For a sense of self-confidence and a sense of paratroopersare best prepared for their tasks, how they can go to the training centervisits to strengthen self-confidence and morale. A frequent guest at STS 46 was FrantišekMoravec, President Benes Training Center visited August 6, 1942, the National Ministerdefense gen. Sergius Ingr spoke to the trainees on August 19, 1942. 185 Training at STS 46run until April 10, 1943, the third wave of landings is already associated with a new trainingCenter at STS 1 in Brockhall, Northhampton. 186Further refresher training took place at STS 17 in Luton, where they weresent for three weeks gradually by all the trainees from STS 46 to learn the basics of the industrialsabotage. 187STS 17 discussed the organization of production in industry, energy centers andcompany resources, teachings about destroying the business using flammables and explosives, destroying tanks,tank tanks, electrical substations, and taught in destruction skills at the same timeroad and rail transport.

After completion of the supplementary training, the intelligence groups were crystallized,courier, sabotage, and divers.

Paratroopers selected for events on the territory of the Protectorate were waiting in the center on STS 2in Bellasis, where the groups gained their operational name and continued intensivelykeep fit and prepare for their mission.

In case of my death, be aware of thisangl. family: Miss Edna Ellisan, Sunnyside Ightfield, Whitechurch-Salop. This familyhas my things and knows how to deal with them.

The provision of airplanes was in charge of the SOE, which is constantly in the first wave of landingstruggling with the lack of aircraft for operations and solving the problem in the British government.Later, 148th Squadron and 161th Special Squadron RAF were assigned for operations.

It was the first timetwelve groups with twenty-seven parachutists were sent. 200 was a group courierrepresented by Operation BENJAMIN, two reporting SILVER A and ZINC, linkingthe task was assigned to PERCENTAGE, SILVER B and STEEL, with sabotageTasks were carried out by the OUT DISTANCE, BIVOUAC, BIOSCOP, and INTRASITIVE groups, t two groups ANTHROPOID and TIN were assigned to perform a terrorist act on designated persons.

BENJAMIN for handing over messages to their homeland. Riedl was calledto his task on January 26, 1941, from the 1st Czechoslovak Mixed Brigade to London, wherehe stayed in the Czech-English club at Warvick Avanue in London. 202 On the second day, On January 27, 1941, he moved to the Piccadilly 134 office where he read his assignmentFrantišek Moravec: "

23 January 1941 to 23 April 1941a total of 56 messages were exchanged between the ITU and SPART I.

PERCENTAGE operation was also single-memberrepresentation in the form of freedoms. asp. František Pavelky, which was planted at nightfrom 3rd to 4th October

On his burdens he was guilty of burning Lidice when he allegedly hadquestioning the names of Silver and Horakas living in Lidice. In the directives forPERCENTAGE operation, however, did not contain these capture addresses, its only oneFrantišek Bursa's specific contact address was given

The chief architects of the plans for the execution of the terrorist operation were President Beneš aFrantišek Moravec, who dealt with three names, Reinhard Heydrich, KarlHermann Frank and Emanuel Moravec.

The first assassination meeting occurredOctober 3, 1941 with the participation of Col. Moravce, pl. Bartík, mjr. Palečka, čr. Krček and already twoselected paratroopers rtm. Jozef Gabčík and rt. Karel Svoboda. 230 At a meetingset the date of the landing on October 10, 1941, with the assassination being carried out on the stateOctober 28, 1941. 231 Both paratroopers were, after approval, assigned a mission totraining. The date of the jump was not respected due to the injury of Freedom on October 5, 1941 ata test jump with a balloon that hit the head.

On November 8, 1941, their training was completed and Gabčík togetherwith Kubis transferred to the Bellasis Waiting Station.

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38do if they themselves are being watched. 190 The conversion course was enriched by the courseconspiratorial struggle, where it was an exercise in unknown terrain with different ideassituations that may have occurred after their withdrawal. They were taught spies and counter-spies as they didto destroy all their traces of how to contact people to get each othercooperation, learning masking and disguise, food provision, building illegalorganizing and setting up contacts with passwords, they briefly introduced principlespropaganda. Special training was designed for propaganda itself. The propaganda coursewhich took place in Bletchey from October 25, 1942, four Czechoslovakian rapporteurs were sentnpor. Oldřich Talášek, npor. Bohumír Kvíčala, por. Miroslav Tiller a ppor. JUDr.Jaroslav Odstrčil. 191 Only Jaroslav Odstrčil was sent to the Protectorate, Gentlemen Tiller andThe whims started to work for the Czechoslovak Broadcasting at the BBCthe Czechoslovak section first broadcast on 8 September 1939. 192 Part of the supplementary trainingthere was also a craft teaching that determined the paratrooper in its false identity. After completion of the supplementary training, the intelligence groups were crystallized,courier, sabotage, and divers. Courier groups were usually compiled from individuals whosethe mission was to ensure the delivery of messages and instructions for domestic resistance,it was mostly the message of President Benes (so-called messages to his homeland) or tacticalinstructions and directives of the Minister of National Defense Sergei Ingra. At other times, it was just wordsthe encouragement of the impending end of the war, the success of Western allies on the war frontor the invocation of domestic resistance to keep its activities against German occupation.The sabotage and diversion groups were set up to carry out specific sabotage and fortransport of sabotage material. Newsgroups should establish linkswith London and to obtain military, political or military reports for foreign resistanceeconomic nature. Other groups have become linking groups,supply, acceptance or terrorist, and in the final phase of war there were groupsorganizational for the preparation of a nation-wide armed rebellion. 190 Ibid., P. 167.191 List of promotional course participants, VHA, sign. 37 - 289 - 27.192 ŠOLC, Podpalte Czechoslovakia! Chapters , p. 195; BERÁNEK, Jaroslav, Calling London. Broadcasting Czechoslovak Foreign Service Section of the BBC about the assassination of Heydrich . In: History and Military 61,2012, 2, p. 87.

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39 3 The first wave of landings in 1941-1942 3.1 Situation before putting into operationParatroopers selected for events on the territory of the Protectorate were waiting in the center on STS 2in Bellasis, where the groups gained their operational name and continued intensivelykeep fit and prepare for their mission. The band already lived at the stationtogether to establish mutual trust for future cooperation. The final phasetraining was usually held by Emil Strankmüller, who thoroughly scrutinized the parachutistsjump and contact addresses, together with Josef Süsser, who led the finalradios at a distance of 380 km between London and Durham. 193 Part of the finalthe phase at the waiting stations was to write the personal wishes of individual paratroopers andevidence of their property that they could keep in the London families or entrust itinto the administration of the special section of the special section D. Each parachutist wrote the address,where he wishes to send property in the event of his death, and where his property is located.Jan Kubiš on December 28, 1941 wrote: "1.) If I do not know yoursreturn home, please take care of my parents. František Kubis, Dol.Vilémovice nr. 71, pp. Lipník u Hrotovice. 2.) In case of my death, be aware of thisangl. family: Miss Edna Ellisan, Sunnyside Ightfield, Whitechurch-Salop. This familyhas my things and knows how to deal with them. " 194Task assignment was read to each individual and had to be signed,it was a form of written order that was read by František Moravec or EmilStrankmüller in the presence of Karel Paleček. 195 Issued false papers usuallyonly the false surname of the paratroopers, the first name for their experiencein use, mostly did not change, the same was true with the date of birth that changedonly year, day no. After the order of departure, the paratroopers moved to the airport where you werethey had put on their overalls and a protective helmet with their own civilian suit, they only had itthe most important equipment they will need right after the jump. It was foodin the form of chocolate, canned food, vitamins and meat concentrates, a metal bottlewith alcohol, they also had a short personal weapon with two cartridge cartridges, a knife,lantern, saw and paddle for bridging the overalls, parachute and kits soon after the jump. 196Each group had with them a certain amount of money for personal needs and for needs for 193 MATÚŠŮ, s. 188-189.194 Jan Kubiš - my wish, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 2.195 ŠOLC, There were few men , p. 48.196 Ibid., 50-51.

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40accomplishment of the task. The commander of the operational group also had a 1: 100,000 scale mapprinted for better storage and protection against damage to silk. 197 The last thing,the parachutist who had been guarded after each jump and carefully guarded it was a ampoulewith poison, it was a cyanic poison to use in the case of capture by the Gestapo tohe did not listen to cruel methods of interrogation and did not reveal anything.In the first phase of operational flights, the British 138th Squadron operated the RAF, whichfor the purpose of carrying out landings in occupied countries in Europe, was created on August 25, 1941,whose member was also the Czechoslovak crew of Captain Le Anderle who used itobsolete Whitley bomber aircraft, has been deployed since December 1941four-cylinder Halifax, for more convenient, convenient and spacious transport. 198The provision of airplanes was in charge of the SOE, which is constantly in the first wave of landingstruggling with the lack of aircraft for operations and solving the problem in the British government.Later, 148th Squadron and 161th Special Squadron RAF were assigned for operations. 199 Everyonethe group was accompanied by a dispatcher who functioned as liaison between the airplane and the airplane commanderdropped out of the group, and he had to master the English language very well and had toparachute training. His task was also detailed observation of paratroopersduring the flight and writing a flight report and about the times and places of departure of the groupor groups. He then handed the surgical record to Special Group D. He helpedwith parachute control, boarding, equipment and equipment, mostlydetermined the order of the jump. The first wave was most often accompanied as a parachutist dispatcherJaroslav Šustr.Operational flights could not be carried out all year round;autumn to the spring of the following year for long nights. It was the first timetwelve groups with twenty-seven parachutists were sent. 200 was a group courierrepresented by Operation BENJAMIN, two reporting SILVER A and ZINC, linkingthe task was assigned to PERCENTAGE, SILVER B and STEEL, with sabotageTasks were carried out by the OUT DISTANCE, BIVOUAC, BIOSCOP, and INTRASITIVE groups, 197 Ibid., P. 50.198 MAREK, Fifth Card , pp. 81-84.199 ŠOLC, There were few men , p. 54.200 ŠOLC, Jiří, The Trojan Horse Sign. The Life Story of Major Jaromír Nechanský, Prague 2008, p. 58.

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41the last two groups ANTHROPOID and TIN were assigned to perform a terrorist act ondesignated persons. 2013.2 Operation BENJAMIN and PERCENTAGEThe courier between London and Prague has been operating since 1939 via the Balkans,but it was a very long journey, moreover, there was a growing threat from Germanan attack in the southeast direction, which threatened the ground courier routes and beganmore offer air route. The first parachutist became for his unobtrusive outlookOtmar Riedl, he was chosen by Karel Paleček in December 1940. It was a kind of rehearsal,as the landings will work, it has become essentially an experimental rabbit. It was abouta courier operation named BENJAMIN for handing over messages to their homeland. Riedl was calledto his task on January 26, 1941, from the 1st Czechoslovak Mixed Brigade to London, wherehe stayed in the Czech-English club at Warvick Avanue in London. 202 On the second day, On January 27, 1941, he moved to the Piccadilly 134 office where he read his assignmentFrantišek Moravec: " You were chosen for a special mission. It's about joining ushome. Keep your messages with you. Republic, min. national defense and othersprominent persons. You will be transported by plane and parachute. Everything will bearranged, after a jump, they will find you. From home, then, we are going back to our bordersto us, this time not by plane. " 203 After agreeing task Riedl left for training, as the only parachutist did not pass the Assault Course , only passed the jump practiceparachute, on STS 51 to Ringway left on January 28, 1941, where he found himself under directMajor Wilkinson Supervision from the SOE. 204 Riedl was on STS 51 until February 1, 1941,has passed two parachute jumping tests, none of which are for bad weatherdid not do it at night. 205 Then Special Group D trained in London in a hotel room, or in Paleck's office at the Porchester Gate, where the delegates charged himMorse's alphabet and his mission in his homeland. Riedl was accepted by President Benes himselfOn February 14, 1941, when he dictated his message to the home resistance, Riedl himselfthe message was to be remembered, even though the message was transferred to the microtower togetherMessages General Ingra and Colonel Moravec. 206 201 ŠOLC, There were few men , p. 59.202 ŠOLC, Podpalte Czechoslovakia! Chapters , p. 142.203 Operation Benjamin, VHA, sign. 37 - 313 - 1.204 WILKINSON, p. 108.205 MAREK, Man i, p. 21.206 SCHOOL, Burn Czechoslovakia! Action , p. 52.

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42On his quitting, Special Group D was busy negotiating over a radio linkwith home resistance in the Protectorate, from 23 January 1941 to 23 April 1941a total of 56 messages were exchanged between the ITU and SPART I. 207 London commissioned homeOrganization of the National Defense (ON), to determine the place of withdrawal and to set up a Repeatarea. It was decided to send a parachutist near Křečho near Kolín and alsohas set up contacting passwords and the date of the withdrawal. 208 Otmar Riedl was homesend the organization, including messages into the home, as well as spare crystals for the radio link.If he did not find the reunion after the jump, he should go to Vinohradythe savings bank in Prague, where he had to settle with the magazine Světozor and wait for addressing. 209In the original jump directive, the date for the action was set atFebruary 17, 1941, however, the operation took place until April 16, 1941 because of the technicalproblems and unfavorable weather, Riedl was given the jump command at 23:46, togetherthe leaflets with the inscription Pravda won with him. 210 The duration of the operational offsets is linked to one unfavorable phenomenon, and it is badnavigation that caused inaccurate planting. The first operation of BENJAMIN was notan exception, or even an exemplary indication of how great the inaccuracies were. OtmarRiedl was, for his own great surprise, planted in the Austrian Alps near the cityLandeck located at the Italian border. 211 A group of resistance fighters at the designated areaKrečhoře waited until 03:15 hours, after a long wait to send a message to London, thatno rebellion occurred, London Resistance invited to stay at a designated placefor the next three days, as the landing occurred. 212Riedl remained hanging after the jumpa parachute in the tree, after a futile attempt to take him out of the tree, hid it as best he could andHe went to explore the terrain. He came across German gendarmes who arrested him and led him topolice station. The message to his homeland had previously been swallowed and replaced by crystals forto hide the radio station. Riedl showed his cleverness when he interrogateda mixture of truths, half-truths and lies. Rothen Riedl was sent after demobilization in July 1939Bata to Yugoslavia, becoming one of the few people who have crossed the borderoccupied territory legally. 213 The war caught him in Yugoslavia, from where he went toFrance to join the Czechoslovak army. The captured paratrooper told him he had him a year 207 SCHOOL, Burn Czechoslovakia! Chapters , p. 147.208 SLADEK, p. 15.209 Operation Benjamin, VHA, sign. 37 - 313 - 1.210 Activity of the Benjamin paraglider, VHA, sign. 37 - 313 - 2.211 SLADEK, p. 15.212 ŠOLC, Podvratte Czechoslovakia! Action , p. 60.213 ŠOLC, Podpalte Czechoslovakia !, Chapters , p. 143.

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43In 1939 Bata sent to Yugoslavia, where he decided to return to his homeland through Austrianthe border with the help of a man he met on the train. That gentleman, howeverbetrayed and stole all his belongings, luggage and papers in his sleep. Gestapo Riedlamoved to Innsbruck, where he had gone through another round of interrogations, his testimony seemed to becredible and at the same time confirmed from Yugoslavia that Riedl really worked here. After twomonths spent in jail for unauthorized border crossing Riedl returned to Zlín andhe found a job at Baťa, and he was appointed head of a shop in Trhové Sviny whereuntil the end of the war. 214 Before trying to establish a connection with his contactaddress in Vinohradská spořitelna in Prague, but in vain, since its termination has already expiredfor three months and no one expected him. The first operation ended in a complete fiasco andshe did not fulfill her mission. After the war on May 19, 1945 he reported to Colonel Karel Paleček,willing to tell his whole story after a jump from Whitley on April 16th1941. 215 The second posting of the PERCENTAGE operation was also single-memberrepresentation in the form of freedoms. asp. František Pavelky, which was planted at nightfrom 3rd to 4th October 1941. 216 Pavelek's task was dictated on September 30, 1941 by František Moravec,Karel Paleček and Jaroslav Šustr. 217His task was to hand over the message from the generalIngra home organization, hand over new crystals for radio stations and a new cryptographic key,after being handed over, it was to be made available to the domestic resistance and to fulfill his wishes.The Minister of National Defense said, "On behalf of the entire foreign army, I thank everyonehomeworkers for their dedicated, constant and effective work for oursthe matter was held under the most difficult conditions ... [...] The main and vital condition of our tightcooperation is to maintain a connection without which there could be a mental alienation between us,irrespective of the political, military, and intelligence significance of the permanentcontact. " 218 As a point of attachment, the radio station with a domestic strike was arranged The hillside at Nasavark, if it was not to be found after the jump, was to be transported toChrudimské spořitelny and contact František Bursa with the slogan: "I'm a Skokpopole."and present him a ticket with the number 54321. 219 Pavelka was guilty of poor navigation deposed by 35 214 Operation Benjamin - Declaration of my activities, VHA, sign. 37 - 313 - 1.215 Ibid.216 ČVANČARA, p. 61.217 HANÁK, Vítězslav, Operation Percentage. In: History and Military 49, 2000, 4, p. 831.218 Paragliding activity Percentage - message, VHA, sign. 37 - 337 - 2.219 František Pavelka, VHA, sign. 37 - 337 - 1.

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44km from Koudelov near Čáslav on the local farm. 220 Local coaches took him andthey allowed him to write a letter to František Burš who, together with hiscollaborated with Rudolf Michálek from the farm to Chrudim and then toPrague, where Pavelka on October 6, 1941 transliterated the message of General Ingra JUDr. KarelBondy and handed him the encryption key. 221In the first half of October 1941, large arrests took place within the GestapoThe Petitions Committee remains faithful (PVVZ), was arrested Col. Josef Churavy, Ing. JosefFriedl i JUDr. Karel Bondy, who did not escape the arrest even first aidparatroopers František Burša and Rudolf Michálek. 222 Based on the interrogation of the Gestapoalso caught František Pavelka, whom he was arrested in the early hours of October 25, 1941 andhe was imprisoned in Pankrác. 223For many historians František Pavelka became the first traitorand the Gestapo. On his burdens he was guilty of burning Lidice when he allegedly hadquestioning the names of Silver and Horakas living in Lidice. In the directives forPERCENTAGE operation, however, did not contain these capture addresses, its only oneFrantišek Bursa's specific contact address was given. 224Gestapo PavelkuOn August 5, 1942, he transferred from Pankrác to Berlin prison in Plötzense,was sentenced on 19 August 1942 and executed on January 11, 1943. 225 3.3 Operation ANTHROPOID, SILVER A, SILVER BOn Saturday, September 27, 1941, at 19:00, the radio was declared to be the Reich ProtectorKonstantin von Neurath leaves for a health vacation and will be represented by a representativeReich Protector, Chief of the Imperial Security Office, Gestapo and BossSS-Obergruppenführer security services Reinhard Heydrich. 226Followingday, on the feast of St. Wenceslas, declared martial law. 227 Among other things, there was also arrestPrime Minister Alois Elias for his relations with foreign resistance andOn October 1, 1941, he was sentenced to death, executed on June 19, 1941. 228 220 KOUTEK, And the nation defended itself. The History of the Czech Non-Communist Resistance in 1939-1945 , Prague 1987, p. 122. 221 HANÁK, Operation Percentage , p. 833.222 Ibid., P. 835.223 František Pavelka, VHA, sign. 37 - 337-1.224 Paragliding Activity Percentage, VHA, sign. 37 - 337 - 2.225 JELÍNEK, Zdeněk, Operation SILVER A , Prague 2010, p. 29.226 OTÁHALOVÁ, Libuše, ČERVINKOVÁ, Milada (ed.), Documents from the History of Czechoslovak Politics 1939-1943. Volume II. Co-operation of Czechoslovak emigration in the West with domestic resistance, its relationshipto the so-called Protectorate Government and Germans' Occupation Policy , Prague 1966, p. 625. 227 IVANOV, Miroslav, Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich , Prague 1979, p. 32.228 ŠOLC, No one stops us , p. 37.

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45The protectorate began another, bloody stage of repression that struck all organizationsdomestic resistance. In the circle of the Czechoslovak exile in London, he decided towill take some terrorist action that will encourage domestic resistance and also impress onWestern allies so that people on the territory of the Protectorate are not reconciled with the Nazioccupation. The chief architects of the plans for the execution of the terrorist operation were President Beneš aFrantišek Moravec, who dealt with three names, Reinhard Heydrich, KarlHermann Frank and Emanuel Moravec. 229 Assassination of one of these persons should be a powerful manifestation of resistance against the occupation that will incite the domestic populationto other mass manifestations of resistance. The first assassination meeting occurredOctober 3, 1941 with the participation of Col. Moravce, pl. Bartík, mjr. Palečka, čr. Krček and already twoselected paratroopers rtm. Jozef Gabčík and rt. Karel Svoboda. 230 At a meetingset the date of the landing on October 10, 1941, with the assassination being carried out on the stateOctober 28, 1941. 231 Both paratroopers were, after approval, assigned a mission totraining. The date of the jump was not respected due to the injury of Freedom on October 5, 1941 ata test jump with a balloon that hit the head. His place was close to himfriend Gabčík, Jan Kubiš, with whom Gabčík left to graduate from October 14, 1941 toOctober 18, 1941, further training in Scotland at STS 25, where they improved in shooting andthrowing bombs. 232On November 8, 1941, their training was completed and Gabčík togetherwith Kubis transferred to the Bellasis Waiting Station. 233 Both before flying have signed the statement of their task, in the wording: "My task lies essentially in thattogether with another member of the Czechoslovak army I will be sent to my homeland toin time, on site and in a situation that is based on our findings on the spot and givencircumstances would appear to be the most advantageous, did some sabotage or terrorist action,so effective to have the right response both at home and beyond the borders of CzechoslovakiaRepublic. I will, to my best of my knowledge and conscience, do all that,which I have voluntarily signed up to, has successfully completed. " 234 There was no assignmentthe assassination and the person to be committed, there is no mention here, yet 229 APRIL, Vojtech N., Heydrich's shadow ... British share in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrciha. In: APRIL, Vojtěch N. (ed.), On all fronts. Czechoslovaks in II. World War, Prague 2001, p. 244. 230 Operation Anthropoid - official record, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 3.231 ŠOLC, Jiří, Anthropoid. 60 years since the heroic act of MS. paratroopers . In: MINKEWITZ, Daga (ed.), Paradesant units of the "sword army tip". History and Present of Airborne Troops, Prague 2002, p. 6. 232 GABČÍK, Jozef - training, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 1.233 ŠOLC, Jiří, Operation Anthropoid. The confusion surrounding the assassination of Reinherr Heydrich . In: History and Military 41, 1992, 2, p. 30. 234 GABČÍK, Jozef - my task, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 1.

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46the operation group called ANTHROPOID flew, knowing that they were aiming to eliminateReinhard Heydrich.Gabčík and Kubiš had a flight from December 28 to December 29, 1941, whenthe company made two more groups of SILVER A and SILVER B, togetherin Halifax, sixteen people including the F / Lt crew. Rona C. Hockeyand the dispatcher Jaroslav Šustra. 235Once again, the two paratroopers have been inaccurately abandonedwith the help of contact addresses they got to Prague, where they took over and became their principalhelper Jan Zelenka-Hájský, teacher and member of the Sokol organization. 236Both youngsters toothey established a connection with Jindra, named Ladislav Vaněk, who was Commander of the MunicipalitySokol in Resistance (OSVO), later known as JINDRA. 237 Their preparation forthe assassination took quite a while, within six months of working in the protectoratethey have found a lot of helpers, the most important we can name the Moravc family andthe family of Fafka. After long preparations for the assassination occurred on May 27, 1942. 238 Gabčík, who jumped in front of a passing car with a representative Reich protector,the machine gun failed and did not shoot, but his companion Kubiš, who senton the passing car bomb that caused Heydrich's injury to which he succumbedat the Bulovec hospital on June 4, 1942. 239 After the assassination, the second army was declared law and started another bloody wave of repression. From May 27, 1942 to July 3, 1942, it wasexecuted on 1412 people not counting the extermination of the villages of Lidice on June 10, 1942, and LežákyJune 24, 1942. 240A reward of 10 million crowns was paid for the offendersand the things that the perpetrators left at the scene of the act, were exhibited from May 28, 1942,09:00 on Wenceslas Square in Baťa's shop window. 241 All paratroopers, located in the second martial law period in Prague, were gradually brought intoa shelter in the crypt of the St. Cyril and Methodius (for the German occupationrenamed the Karel Boromejský Cathedral) in Resslova Street. Together they are therehiding seven in composition Jozef Gabčík, Jan Kubiš, Josef Valčík, Jaroslav Švarc, JosefBublík, Jaroslav Švarc and Jan Hrubý. Another parachutist who was at that timein Prague, was Karel Čurda, set aside under the operation OUT DISTANCE. After the assassination 235 KUBIŠ, Jan - official flight record, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 2.236 ČVANČARA, p. 73.237 ŠOLC, Anthropoid, p. 8.238 ŠOLC, There were few men , p. 71.239 ČVANČARA, p. 101.240 ANDREJS, Jaroslav, The Death of the Death God. Legends and facts surrounding the assassination at Heydrich , Prague 1997, p. 6. 241 IVANOV, p. 213.

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47he went to southern Bohemia to his family, where he had read, every day hiding with his sister on the grounda protectorate press that published lists of executed. Already on June 13, 1942 he wrotean anonymous letter at the Benesov police station, where he gave the names of the two assailants,stationers, however, ignored this letter as many others have given them dailyhave passed. 242 On the following day, Čurda read the decree issued on June 14, 1942, KHFrank, in which he promised that to someone who reports some information until June 18, 1942 to20:00 hours, a pardon including his family will be granted. 243 decided to make a confessionhe went to the Gestapo building in the Petschk Palace where he arrived on June 16, 1942. 244 Čurda he did not know where the paratroopers were hiding, but he could mention the addresses of co-workers, familiesMoravec, Fafka and others

Kubiš died attransfer to hospital for bloody out of numerous wounds on the splinters, Bublík, after the interventionwith a grenade that pulled both his legs, he decided to shoot his head. But death did not comeimmediately and died also when transporting to the hospital. Opal was consistent, and aftergot hit by a grenade and became incapable of fighting, decided to take a ampoule of poison andshoot with a blow to the head.

Gabčík with a Kubis during his time in Prague secured 311 helpers for the assassination. 247Together, 252 people were sentenced to death on September 29, 1942by a court in Prague for the death penalty, on the basis of allegations of assisting and assassinationthe execution of paratroopers, executions took place on 24 October 1942 in a concentration campin Mauthausen.

One of the consequences of the repression after Heydrich's accession to the office was an interruptionradio link between Prague and London maintained from April 6, 1940 toOctober 3, 1941, when the Gestapo destroyed the SPARTA I radio station. 250 Outside SPARTU I.,which was run by the domestic organization Political Headquarters (PÚ), was broadcast on the territory of the Protectoratesince March 28, 1941 still the SPARTA II radio, which they built for themselves. JosefBalabán, kpt. Václav Morávek and Lt. Josef Masin of ON, known as the Three Kings. 251The band SILVER A was sent to the Protectorate to establish a radio link,

After the assassination of Heydrich,Pardubice, on the basis of testimonies was revealed the center of paratroopers in the apartment uKrupka in Pardubice in Pernerova Street 1607. 258The Gestapo waited for the apartmentthe commander of the Bartoš  group, who, when trying to escape and assessing that there is no escape,he shot himself on June 21, 1942. 259 The last surviving group, radio radar Jiří Potůček, livedall the time near the quarry in Miřetice in the building of the quarry engineer Karel Svoboda. 260 Afterrepression was necessary to move the LIBUŠ station, from 10 June 1942 to 17 June 1942was located in the village of Ležáky in the local Švanda mill, for which she was a few days awaylater it was burned. 26

Thereafter, Gestapo agents found a radio transmitter in Ležáky which belonged to Operation Silver A.[6] Alfréd Bartoš, the leader of resistance group Silver A, committed suicide shortly thereafter. On 24 June, approximately 500 SS troops and policemen surrounded Ležáky, removed all inhabitants, and the village was destroyed. All 33 adults (both men and women) were shot.[6] Thirteen children were spared. A 26 June press release announced the outcome. In mid-December 1943, the Ležáky ruins were removed by 65 men from Nazi work camps

Unlike Lidice, Ležáky was not rebuilt after the war, and only memorials remain today.

In the Kamenárska village (specifically in the mill) and near Hluboká lome, a radio station with the cover name Libuše, which was used by the Silver A group for the broadcasting of news reports to London , was hidden from mid-January 1941 . Silver A turned in need of Henry Vasko , who was a former officer of the Czechoslovak army and, among other things, the administrator of the quarry at Dachova. Dachov was close to Ležáky. The administrator of the quarry was František Vaška . He agreed with the Purse to hide the radio in the chamber. Since January, the transmitter has begun to send a military, economic and intelligence trap to the quarry. Later paratroopers relocated the radio to the lager mill.

Large cemetery was built in the years 1912 up to 1914 in the Cubist style by the architect Vlastislav Hofman .

Devil’s cemetery

The SILVER B group can be evaluated as unsuccessful since its inception, disappointed contact addresses and paratroopers did not meet with representatives of the home resistance, so they did not pass him a station, which soon after landing damaged so much that its repair was no longer possible

My task is basically the fact that togetherwith two other members of the Czechoslovak army I will be sent to my homeland to be there:1.) conveyed special material and helped in its handling, 2.) prepared and carried out sabotage 268 Ibid., Pp. 141-143.269 ŠOLC, There were few men , p. 74.270 Ibid., P. 75.271 Ibid., P. 76.272 Activity of the paraglider OUT DISTANCE - official record, VHA, sign. 37 - 335 - 4.273 ANDREJS, p. 102.

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51an act at Michel Gas Station, completely independent of the first part of my task. Material for thisthe matter will be delivered to me later. I will do everything to my best of consciousness and conscience,I have successfully fulfilled this task, which I have volunteered to implement. "

Compare this to:

Both paratroopers were, after approval, assigned a mission totraining. The date of the jump was not respected due to the injury of Freedom on October 5, 1941 ata test jump with a balloon that hit the head. His place was close to himfriend Gabčík, Jan Kubiš, with whom Gabčík left to graduate from October 14, 1941 toOctober 18, 1941, further training in Scotland at STS 25, where they improved in shooting andthrowing bombs. 232On November 8, 1941, their training was completed and Gabčík togetherwith Kubis transferred to the Bellasis Waiting Station. 233 Both before flying have signed the statement of their task, in the wording: "My task lies essentially in thattogether with another member of the Czechoslovak army I will be sent to my homeland toin time, on site and in a situation that is based on our findings on the spot and givencircumstances would appear to be the most advantageous, did some sabotage or terrorist action,so effective to have the right response both at home and beyond the borders of CzechoslovakiaRepublic. I will, to my best of my knowledge and conscience, do all that,which I have voluntarily signed up to, has successfully completed. " 234 There was no assignmentthe assassination and the person to be committed, there is no mention here, yet 229 APRIL, Vojtech N., Heydrich's shadow ... British share in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrciha. In: APRIL, Vojtěch N. (ed.), On all fronts. Czechoslovaks in II. World War, Prague 2001, p. 244. 230 Operation Anthropoid - official record, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 3.231 ŠOLC, Jiří, Anthropoid. 60 years since the heroic act of MS. paratroopers . In: MINKEWITZ, Daga (ed.), Paradesant units of the "sword army tip". History and Present of Airborne Troops, Prague 2002, p. 6. 232 GABČÍK, Jozef - training, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 1.233 ŠOLC, Jiří, Operation Anthropoid. The confusion surrounding the assassination of Reinherr Heydrich . In: History and Military 41, 1992, 2, p. 30. 234 GABČÍK, Jozef - my task, VHA, sign. 37 - 308 - 1.

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46the operation group called ANTHROPOID flew, knowing that they were aiming to eliminate Reinhard Heydrich

Kolaříkbased on his lost legitimacy found in a field where he also had a photoyour girlfriend. Kolařík is desperate to prevent his capture, April 1, 1942poisoned. 276 Opalka and Čurda got to Prague, where he established contacts with the groupSILVER AND ANTHROPOID and made available to them. Adolf Opalka was one of thoseparatroopers who died in the crypt of the temple of St. Cyril and Methodius on June 18, 1942, and thatthanks to the betrayal of the last member of the group, Karel Čurdy

The ZINC group consisted of commander Oldrich Pechal, Arnošt Mikš and Viliam Gerik, whothey should set up their own intelligence network in Moravia, with the task already in Bohemiaheld by SILVER A

ViliamGerik did not know at all like the Slovakian at the contact addresses, he was rejecteddecided on April 4, 1942 to voluntarily give the Prague Gestapo

peration STEEL consisted only offrom one paratrooper, Oldřich Dvořák.

Later Oldrich Dvorak had a connecting taskand supply, when his task was to pass substitute crystals for LIBUŠ asupplies of capsules for SILVER A shutters and to strengthen the junction with thewith a new radio station that he had to serve as a trained radio operator.Dvorak buried the briefcase with the station immediately after landing, but it was soon afterday found and handed over to the Gestapo in Kladno. Dvořák searched for Alfred Bartoš, handed him overpoison capsules and crystals for LIBUS Station. The only member of the STEEL operation was shot deadJuly 10, 1942, when he tried to escape to Slovakia

the SOE stated that a 40% loss onthe lives of paratroopers will be bearable. The reality was different. During the first wave of landings completelyonly Otmar Riedl from operation BENJAMIN and Jan Zemek survived illegality until the end of the warfrom SILVER B. Others were dead or arrested. Others have become volunteer confidantsGestapo

But in the protectorate the assassination meantcomplete destruction of domestic illegal organizations, great loss of life, and alsomeant the final extermination of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky

František Moravec decided to continue the SILVER program by a decree of September 16, 1942 andsent further intelligence groups to the Protectorate. 300 Program SILVER counted with the sending of other newsgroups, beyond this program Moravec intendedalso to undertake the IRON program, which involved sabotage activities. In the secondthe operation waves counted on sending twenty groups, ten of which would beintelligence, nine sabotage, and one terrorist

The Minister of National Defense, Sergius Ingr, has approved the operating period with his decreeJuly 21, 1942. 302 The second wave of landings began with intelligence, courier and courier the ANTIMONY group deployed in the composition of the commander. Františka Závorky, deputychat. Stanislav Srazil and Radio Liberals. Lubomíra Jasínka. 303Their tasks restedin establishing contacts with doc. Vladimir Krajina (with the name BUK), with the organizationJINDRA is The Defense of the Nation, for which paratroopers conveyed the message from the PresidentBenes and Minister of National Defense Ingra. Another task was to find a group commanderSILVER A kpt. Alfred Bartoš and give him the financial amount together with the technicalequipment, they should also establish a connection with the ITUs via their BARBORA and BARBORA stationsto build its own intelligence network for collecting information

he land, reporting to London through the stationBARBORA on December 1, 1942, which, of course, could not be communist because of treacherythe organization could not pass a message to its homeland, nor did it have a radio station when it already had itonly one station, as the Communists refused to release the two stations, the message,the financial amount provided. 308 Establishing contacts with the Associate Professor was not soas London expected, he became a refugee hiding from the Gestapo andas the commander of the decimated INTRODUCTION had no power. Station BARBORAwas broadcast from 1 December 1942 to 15 January 1943, most often from Rovenska pod Troskamifrom the house to the local swimming pool, 281 reports were sent to the CAI (57 political,225 military and 1 administrative) and adopted 129 troops (2 political, 126 military and1 administrative). 309 Paratroopers began to be persecuted by the Gestapo since January 1943due to arrests in the ranks of the Communist illegal organization, in which two were capturedradio stations and messages, and the Confident Karel Čurda was also involved in the search.

Action Sokol 

After alarming reports of an overall increase in protectorate resistance, sabotage and strikes, Adolf Hitler set up Neurath's RSHA Chief , SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich . The "Sokol Action" was launched on the night of 7th-8th October 1941 and involved arrests of high Sokol officials, county physical and district officials. A total of 1,500 falcons were arrested, most of them traveling straight to the Small Fortress in Terezin and then to the concentration camp in Auschwitz . [80] Even that same evening Heydrich signed the official dissolution of the "Czech Sokol City" Association, based in Prague. He has commissioned the administration of all the failed Sokol propertyNationalsozialistische Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (NSRL).

SILVER A

The landing was rather difficult, the team members had to split up, but in early January the group managed to get together. The first attempts to establish a message were made on January 7 and 8. The connection was lucky to establish on January 15, when the first radio depot was sent, both sides received the information. This was a huge success for Czechoslovak intelligence, since communication with Czechoslovakia was lost during 1941. Silver A members were completely dependent on the local resistance movement, it was difficult for them to navigate the current situation in the Protectorate. The occupation of Czechoslovakia at that time lasted about three years, and in a quarter of a year that Heydrich spent in Prague, he launched a real terror against the participants in the movement. However, many people, without hesitation, helped the parachutists, although this meant certain death.

“The first improvised transmitter installation site was in Glubok’s quarry near Dakhov, near the village of Lezhaki. For a short time, the station was moved to the resort of Bogdanech, however, when the Gestapo appeared in this area, the radio station was again moved to the quarry in Gluboka. It should be noted here that the German service Funkabwehr - counterintelligence service, which also fought with transmitters, was very well equipped at that time. Within 15 minutes they were able to detect the approximate location of the transmitter. The problem of the Czechoslovak broadcasting was that, not having sufficient pre-war experience, the broadcasts were too long, for example, for several hours. Therefore, the Gestapo never managed to find it during Libush broadcasting, but its staff always gathered in this area. ”

It's all about the documents

The crypt of the church of St. Cyril and Methodius, Photo: Jan Shustova

The crypt of the church of St. Cyril and Methodius, Photo: Jan Shustova

It was assumed that after the landing the troops would join the usual life of the Protectorate. All members of the group were provided with fake IDs, which, as it turned out, were not performed perfectly flawlessly. In the end, this is exactly what played its fatal role. Already in early March 1942, Josef Valčík was forced to go underground because one of the documents that every citizen of the Protectorate had to have was a police registration. His registration was checked by the Gestapo and it turned out that the one Valchik impersonates is not a real person. Then the Gestapo went to his job - to the Pardubice Hotel Veselka, where he was employed as a waiter by another member of the resistance movement, Arnoš Kosteul, who owned the hotel. He managed to warn Valchik in time, and he managed to flee to Prague, where he subsequently assisted the Anthropoid group in the preparation of an operation on Heydrich. After that, he hid with six other paratroopers in the crypt of the church of St. Cyril and Methodius, where after a heroic battle with many times superior enemy forces, he committed suicide.

Semtex was invented in the late 1950s by the Czech chemist Stanislav Breberoi , named after the Semtin suburb ( czech Semtín ) of the city of Pardubice , where it has been produced since 1964 [1] .

 “Alfred Bartoš z became an insurance agent, and he had the same problems as Valčík. The Gestapo found out that the man for whom he claims to be himself died six years ago. Bartoš h decided the matter radically. He came to the gendarmerie of the city from where the man was born, in whose name were his documents, "agreed" with the gendarmes, threatening them with a pistol, and completely destroyed the case. In reports to London, he did not recommend issuing false documents to the following groups, since life with them in the Protectorate was extremely difficult. He recommended that such conspiracy be ensured to further airborne troops so that they could avoid contacts with administrative authorities, ”continues Miloš Borovička.

[HP 19] Еще жива последняя непосредственная свидетельница событий тех дней Ярослава Мокра-Смржова. В 1942 году ей было 11 лет. Родители посылали девочку относить молоко родственникам – семье Кодловых. В их доме прятались непосредственные исполнители покушения Ян Кубиш и Йозеф Габчик. На велосипеде Ярослава Смржа, отца пани Мокре-Смржове, Ян Кубиш отправился к месту, где ненавистный фашистский протектор Богемии и Моравии был смертельно ранен.

After the assassination of Heydrich in mid-June 1942, arrests began in the Pardubice region. The Gestapo managed to get the addresses of safe houses, which Alfred Bartoš  used. In one of them, the Nazis discovered his archive, followed by a wave of arrests and executions of a number of Resistance officers. Returning to one of the apartments, Bartoš h realized that he could not escape from the Gestapo, then he shot himself. He was transported to a hospital, but the injury was fatal, and the next day Alfred Bartoš died. As for the radio operator of the group, Jiří Poteček, he was not registered with the police, but he managed to “legalize” by taking a job as a watchman in a quarry from which the Libouche transmitter was broadcast. He did not need to travel as much as the other two members of the group. Poteček managed to broadcast until June 26, and on June 30, the Gestapo organized a raid on him. The radio operator managed to escape, he tried to find shelter at several addresses, but he was refused everywhere. Tired, he fell asleep in the bushes near the village of Rosice nad Labem, and asleep, was shot by a Czech gendarme.

Photo: Robin Clifford Bennett, Archive of the Czechoslovak Community of Legionnaires and the Nazdar Company

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“Silver A is rated as one of the most successful reconnaissance groups sent to the Protectorate. They managed to supply London with messages for almost half a year; in both directions, thus, more than 1000 dispatches passed. Unfortunately, all members of the landing party were killed. The implications of the employee disclosure network created by Silver A were very tragic. A number of members were executed at the castle in Pardubice, part - at Mauthausen. The direct revenge for the broadcasting, carried out with the help of Libuse, was the destruction of the Ležáky village, ”concludes Milos Borovička.

Bartoš  was able to establish contact with the resistance ( doc.Krajina from the INTRODUCTION , Mr. Morávka, and representatives of the Sokol opposition organization JINDRA ). In Pardubice , the group started to build an extensive network of co-workers, which had more than 140 members at the time of their greatest activity. With the help of its members, several illegal apartments and an official job for Alfred Bartoš and Josef Valčík were managed. Josef Valčík worked as a waiter at the hotel Na Veselce .

Raduotelegrafista Potůček established a connection with London on January 15, 1942, from Hluboká near Miřetice . As the radio was threatened, it was gradually transferred to the fishing research station on the sheds near Lázně Bohdaneč (from the soil at the address Sádka 148) [1] [p 1] , the mill in Ležáky and the school in Bohdzin near Červený Kostelec .

Establishing a connection with Thümmel via the Stuttgart. Morávka succeeded. In the village of Lázně Bělohrad, the group arranged a cave for the other paratroopers with the bookkeeper Vojtíšek . This place was later intercepted by parachutists. In March 1942, the group began to threaten. Josef Valčík was ordered to go to Prague to help guide the bombers to Pilsen Škodovka. He then joined the Anthropoid Operations group and assisted with preparations for the assassination of Heydrich .

On May 27, 1942 at 10:30, Heydrich was on his way from his country seat at Panenske Brezany to Hradcany castle, the traditional residence of the Bohemian  leader for many centuries. Gabčík and Kubiš were waiting at Kirchmayerova Street (today Zenklova)  at the tram stop about 250 meters from Bulovka Hospital (Prague 8-Libeň) towards the Thomayer.  Supposedly another parachutist Valčík stood about 100 meters north, warning them when the car approached using a mirror. The presence of Valčík appears unusual and unnecessary. His name has some fascination – meaning Waltz and it makes eminent sense to have a watcher. 

If he participated why didn’t other members of the parachute contingent join the attack?

Such an important assassination if under Czech orders would naturally have involved a larger force. The fact that it was just Kubiš  and Gabčík and they received a special message in code tells us a lot.

However we still need to explore Valčík’s his background to see how he became interwoven. The best way is continuously return to the beginning to shed more and more light. One initial comment is the similarity between the names. Let’s say someone is being interrogated and he says about Kubiš  and Gabčík.

The interrogator may brusquely intimidate him by saying: Do you mean Gabčík or Valčík!? Don’t lie! He was there too!

He jumped from the same airplane!

The easiest “soft” answer would be to say something like “Yes, but he didn’t shoot he was just a watcher.

[HP 23] “The Defenestration of Prague in 1618 saw three Catholic officials thrown from a top-floor window of Prague (Hradčany) Castle by an angry mob of Bohemian Protestant activists. The imperial emissaries escaped uninjured, but the defenestration on 23 May 1618 proved to be the catalyst for the bloodiest war in European history,”

“Two of the deputies satisfied their accusers of their innocence and were allowed to leave the church. That left behind Count Villem Slavata and Count Jaroslav Martinitz quaking before the impassioned mob that stood between them and the door”

================

In order not to damage the briefcase of Heydrich, which probably contained important documents, Gabčík initiated the  assassination attempt  with his Sten-gun, a very basic mass produced – and flawed - British weapon.. Heydrich's Mercedes-Benz 320 slowed down and Gabčík stood in his way, but his machine gun had an immediate stoppage which was later, confirmed by the police report from the investigation. 

Here is another sticking point – the failure of this poorly made British weapon to fire.

First, it was speculated that Gabčík, who assembled him under the cloak directly on the street before the assassination, could have made a mistake while completing his assassination, despite having carefully checked him beforehand. According to the current German weapons expert Ulrich Wegener , this weapon was inappropriate to deploy special units for such a purpose. "If the magazine was not fully loaded, it was often stuck." The jam occurred when the magazine filled with a full number of charges, which Gabčík could not even know, and now it was confirmed that it was a technical error. 

[HP 22] "It is an extremely important piece of stone in the mosaic of searching for facts about the assassination, and it is good that such a document has been found, even though it is seventy years after this major rebellious event," says Stehlik.

"Where there are no clear facts, there are various - and often unusual - hypotheses, what could happen and why Josef Gabčík did not shoot," explains Vojtěch Šustek. Especially because historians have so often refuted speculation about the personal failure of paratrooper Gabčík or poorly prepared action

Earlier, other paratroopers, Josef Otisk (Wolfram Group) and Cestmír Šikola (Clay), have said they have failed their weapons much more often than they are allowed in historical records.

To the cry of Johannes Klein: "Beware, the assailants!" the final report of the SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Pannwitz, head of the commission of inquiry, drawn up immediately after the assassination (most likely for Adolf Hitler). Heydrich, according to this document, had to say to Klein: "Stop, stop immediately!"

According to the researcher of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Jaroslav Čvančar, the paratroopers had to agree that Kubiš would throw a mercedes bomb, regardless of the result of Gabčík's shooting. This is proven by the Kubiš lightning reaction - the bomb had to be triggered in advance.

What followed the day after the assassination, Professor Josef Ogoun described after the war: "On the morning of the next day (28 May 1942), Mrs. Fafkova ran for candy, that is, for the charges that Zdeněk had (Gabčík - note red. ) in the pockets of the overcoat hanging in our wardrobe She said Zdeněk was angry that he did not get a shot from a machine gun that he was charging only by the touch of a briefcase ... Wrongly said the flap arrived so that the wound did not come ... After lunch, Kubiš - note red): 'I set off a bomb and went to the car so that I did not miss, because it was a quick exploding puma, I knew I was going to blister with them, but nothing, from a distance of about four steps I pumped a bomb somewhere on the footsteps and quickly backed away, Puma exploded and the burning pain burned my eye, "he recalled what he had heard after the Ogoun war.

The problem was, however, that professor's testimonies were considered by the experts to be controversial over time. According to historians, she was not always trusted.

Unreliable Sten Gun?

Gabčík's Sten Gun was developed in 1940, less than two years before the assassination. And it's too soon for "newborn illnesses" of new weapons to be built up reliably.

Parachutist Rudolf Pernický (Tungsten Group) remembered, for example, that the Sten Gunu shooters had learned to fill the magazine with only 25 rounds instead of 30 times. When the magazine was full, too much pressure was exerted on its spring, so the bullet in the chamber chamber often jammed.

"But who can know today how many bullets Gabčík had in the magazine?" asks Jaroslav Čvančar.

================================================

Heydrich crucially now ordered his chauffeur (Oberscharführer Johannes Klein) to stop the car. This particular moment has also been frozen and analysed. Failure to drive through the ambush led to the fatality. Klein was thinking more as a driver than a bodyguard.

The Mercedes with both Heydrich & Klein preparing to fight back effectively stopped directly in front of the waiting second assassin.

When Heydrich stood up and wanted to fire back at Gabčík with his personal weapon, Jan Kubiš had enough time to methodically throw  his own anti-tank grenade from a range at approximately 4 yards, The 73 MK1, exploded at the right rear wheel of the car with enough force to create a blast hole and partially dislodge the right side door.. Despite the fact that the grenade had not exploded within the car, splinters of the car body and crucially horse hair from the car’s seat lining entered the side of his body. However, Kubiš was also hit in the face by minor splinters which required later medical treatment..

In the heat of the moment, Heydrich stepped out of the car and began to pursue Gabčík. However, after a few steps, due to his significant internal injuries, he collapsed and fell to the ground and no doubt over-whelmed now with a feeling of shock that counteracted the initial adrenalin rush of the attack. 

Heydrich was a combative man and as a pilot he purposely flew combat missions into Poland and even over the Baltic during the Battle of Britain in order to gain the medals and recognition. He found time for ticket-punching but his combat skills were obviously not honed to a level of professional readiness. The bureaucratic ruthlessness of his mind must have contributed to a sense of invincibility.

Having failed to pursue Kubiš h, he ordered Klein to go after Gabčík. There then followed a firefight which could have cost either men their life however Gabčík was a veteran of battle and this gave him the advantage. He instinctively ran into a shop for cover but it was a pro-German butcher who seemingly brought this to Klein’s attention. However, it seems Klein acting without caution was shot through the legs by the escaping Gabčík who had inadvertently cornered himself. Both the attackers made their escape under the disappointing belief that the assassination was unsuccessful.

Heydrich was operated at the Bulovke hospital by German doctors. The surgery lasted for an hour and went without any complications. The patient died at the hospital from infection seven days later. As mass punishment for this assassination, Hitler considered the killing of 10,000 Czechs and to seek the parachutists a payment of a reward of a million Imperial marks. The paratrooper managed to hide thanks to two family members. In total, 13,000 people were imprisoned in connection with the assassination. In a spurious investigation, people from Lidice and Ležáky were charged and later killed.

. The first day after the assassination, May 28, 1942, he found asylum here. Jaroslav Švarc, whose hitherto hiding in his apartment in Luzicki č. 1792/34 Albín Svatoň. In the next two days followed by: rtm. Kubiš, he came from Petr Fafko's apartment, the. Waltz, the last night he was in Zizkovin Bishop's No. 1745/7 by František and Marie Špinkov. Josef Bublík and the Jan Hrubý housed František and Eliška Sahán-kovi. Npor. Adolf Opálka came from the dejvicky hiding place in Velvara no. 1630/75 from BoženyKropáčková. The last one was rtm. Gabčík by Anna Malinová from Pankrác, Linecká 52

Gabčík with six other paratroopers eventually went to hide in the crypt of the St. Cyril and Methodius (Resslova 9a, Prague 2). Their hiding place was found by the Gestapo, after Karel Čurda - one of the paratroopers - denounced the names of those who helped parachutists. (Čurda was rewarded with 500,000 Reich marks, but in 1947 he was executed for treason). He brazenly said to Moravec “You were responsible for far more deaths than me!”

The list of those members of the Kubiš h extended family that were killed is truly horrific.

Около 250 on 24^th october1942virtually the entire family of Valčík and Kubiš were liquidated.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the 3-4 month delay was a nominal obedience to international law where there must be a minimum 90 day period between sentence and execution. At the very least the Germans could maintain some false standard on the international stage.

František Kubiš (1887), father of Jan.

Rudolf Kubiš (1912), brother of Jan.

Maria Kubišova (1912), Stepmother of Jan.

Frantishka Pravcova (Kubišova (1915), Sister of Jan.

Rudolf Pravec (1912), Husband of Frantishka.

jaroslav Kubiš (1916), brother of Jan.

Maria Kubišova (1920), Step-sister of Jan.

Vlasta Kubišova (1924), Step-sister of Jan.

Itka Kubišova (1925), Step-sister of Jan.

By fortune several were saved, including František Kubiš the younger, 14 years old.

Valčík who almost certainly was not involved had his family decimated as well. 13 out of 14 immediate family members were executed. The remaining member was pregnant and after she had given birth she was executed as well. The child was adopted out to be “germanized’. This may have something to do with the Valčík family being declared Germanic and although the anti-German adults were annihilated their seed could be indoctrinated. Valčík comes from the German word – Waltz which is also a surname.

On June 18, 1942 at 4:15, the Gestapo surrounded the church. Eventually the entire SS Guard battalion of Seven hundred men cornered off the entire district, even guarding sewers that led out to the river just in case. Four of the fighters were able to defend themselves in the Crypt until out of ammunition and with no possible escape each ended their own lives by suicide. So ended the lives of Josef Gabčík together with Jaroslav Švarc, Jan Hrubý and Josef Valčík committed a suicide in the crypt of the Temple of Suicide to avoid capture.. The entire siege battle lasted for seven hours. 

After a direct struggle in which both Adolf Opálka and Josef Bublík fell, Jan Kubiš was injured in unconsciousness at the church corridor (died in the ambulance during the transfer). The German soldiers penetrated in and pushed the other paratroopers into the crypt. After several unsuccessful attempts to occupy it, with the help of Prague firefighters, they began to inject water and suffocating gases into the crypt.  The fighters inside managed to push out the hoses.

The scars of the fighting can be most dramatically seen in this particular area. 

KUBIŠ 

Jan Kubiš was born in 1913 in (June 24, 1913, Lower Vilémovice, Austria-Hungary, Moravia also within the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Czech Republic). Jan was known to have been a Boy Scout, the great outdoors movement founded by the British officer Baden-Powell who obviously had some to think about man vs terrain during his time in Africa and then the Siege of Ladysmith during the Boer War.

Having  previously been an active member of Orel, started his military career as a Czechoslovak army conscript on 1 November 1935 joining the 31st Infantry Regiment "Arco" in Jihlava. After passing an NCO course and promotion to corporal, Kubiš served some time in Znojmo before being transferred to the 34th infantry regiment "Marksman Jan Čapek" in Opava, where he served at guard battalion stationed in Jakartovice. Here, Kubiš soon reached promotion to platoon sergeant.

During the Czechoslovak mobilization of 1938, Kubiš served as deputy commander of a platoon in Czechoslovak border fortifications in the Opava area. Following the Munich Agreement and mass demobilization, Kubiš was discharged from army on 19 October 1938 and returned to his civilian life, working at a brick factory in Vilémovice,.

The Elbe is another key European watercourse, it rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven,

On 15 March 1939, German troops marched into Czechoslovakia. They took over Bohemia, and established a protectorate over Slovakia.

On the eve of World War II, on 16 June 1939, Kubiš fled Czechoslovakia and joined the the Czechoslovak unit which had been formed in Kraków, Poland on April 30, 1939, 

Organised with the participation of the Czechoslovak Consulate The foreign military group of Czechoslovakia, which moved to June of that year to Small Bronowice

The French had put aside 4000 places for Czechs within the foreign legion and with many others he too was transferred to Algiers, where he formally entered the French Foreign Legion. 

[62: Oct 9th 1939] “... the French have given all Czechs in France the alternative of joining the Legion or an internment camp.”

As mentioned earlier they both moved through Poland, then onto France where they actually went to Sidi Bel Abbes to commence training with the French foreign Legion in Algeria. 

The emigration of the Czechoslovak population heading mainly to England and France started after the signing of the Munich Agreement at the end of September 1938. After the formation The Bohemian and Moravian Protectorate, emigration has increased even more. Behind the border, she resorted intelligence, political figures and, above all, demobilized soldiers. The most common way at the crossing were the border with Poland, where the Czechoslovak army began to form. In Krakow, on April 30, 1939, he formed with the participation of the Czechoslovak Consulate.The foreign military group of Czechoslovakia, which moved to June of that year Small Bronowice. 40 But only a small part of the Czechoslovak soldiers remained in Poland until the outbreak of World War II, most of them decided to accept a five-year commitment to enter the Foreign Legion in France. Six ship transports moved from 22 May 1939 to 21 August 1939, together 1200 soldiers from Poland to France. 41Soldiers of the Legion of the Aliens entered a rank lower than their current rank their base became fort Fort St. Jean, where every soldier at the entrance gate he read: "Legionnaires, you are men to die. And I am sending you where to die. "The rest of the soldiers in Poland were formed into the Czech and Slovak legions created by the decreePolish President Ignatius Mościcky of 3 September 1939, stood at the head of the Legionpplk. Ludvík Svoboda. 

15In France, Ambassador Štefan Osucký, with the French Government, was working negotiated the formation of the Czechoslovak army. He was a big rival for Edvard Benes and was inclined to the independence of Slovakia.

After the Czech Legion was raised and they were hurried there, however it appears Gabčík was in the 1st regiment and Kubiš  in the 2nd Regiment. However, once they had fought – very well – in France they ended up in the same unit in England.

His course followed that of Gabčík and later fought in France during the early stage of World War II and was one of those decorated with the Croix de Guerre there.

The disarmed troops left France on the 27^th June 1940 from the port of Sète aboard the Egyptian ship Mohamed Ali al Kebir. The British may have suffered severe operational defeats during this war but they had a barely matched strategic grasp on large-scale conflict and had mobilised much shipping from their Allies, dominions and Colonies. Through Gibraltar, along the banks. The Czechoslovak troops were transported to Liverpool, where they landed on July 13^th 1940.

Czechoslovak ground troops were employed in the fights on the Grand Morin river and in rear-guard action on the Seine and Loire. After French capitulation, Czechoslovak soldiers made an organised retreat to the port of Sete, and on 26 June1940 they were evacuated from there by allied vessels via Gibraltar to Great Britain.The Czech and Slovak patriots who escaped from their occupied country by the southern route gathered in Syria and Lebanon, later in Palestine, where the 11th “Eastern” Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion was formed in December 1940. From May 1941, the Battalion fought in Syria, and by the end of the year it was deployed to reinforce the defences of Tobruk against German and Italian troops.

Several thousand Czechoslovak soldiers served in the Battle of France. 206 Czechoslovak Army volunteers were in Beirut, Lebanon, waiting to be posted to join the Czechoslovak 1st Infantry Division in France when France capitulated to Nazi Germany. Vichy France could have interned the men and surrendered them to the German military authorities, had not the Czechoslovak Consul-General in Jerusalem secured visas for them to move to Mandatory Palestine.

In August 1941 the Czechoslovak government-in-exile asked for the 11th Battalion to be moved to Britain to be united with Czechoslovak forces there. The British military authorities refused,[1] and instead on 6 October 1941 transferred the battalion from the 23rd Infantry Brigade to the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade, which was besieged in Tobruk in Libya.[3] The battalion served at Tobruk for 158 days, including 51 in combat.

This ship had originally been for a Chilean company, ended up being sold to Egypt and then was used by the British as a troopship.

King Farouk and Queen Farida at their wedding in 1938, before their honeymoon aboard the Mohamed Ali El-Kebir.

This ship was sunk in the Irish se on its next voyage with the loss of 120 lives. It was sunk by U-38 on its sixth combat patrol. For sinking this ship and two others . Heinrich Liebe would receive the Knight’s cross.

Disaster would strike its sister ship in 1944:

“Of 1,511 people aboard Khedive Ismail, only 208 men and 6 women survived the sinking and subsequent battle. 1,220 men and 77 women were killed. The sinking was the third largest loss of life from Allied shipping in World War II[39] and the largest loss of servicewomen in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations.”

After the occupation of the rest of the estates and Moravia, he decided to continue fighting. He left illegitimate from his homeland to Poland, where he joined one of the  new emerging military.

units in Malé Bronowice. At the end of he left with his own species to France, where there is only one possibility - entry into the aliens legion. How many he stayed in the barracks of the North African Said.

After the outbreak of war between France and Niger, the legions could be hung to enter the army, forming in the south-eastern province of Agde. Kubiš sem

He arrived at the end of September 1939. After a brief training he was dealt with on a rotary basis.

He was struggling at Loi. His fortune was given only by the French steamer to him.

After the defeat of France, along with others, soldiers transferred to Great Britain and started with Kubiš  separate smuggled brigade. In March 1941 he too was promoted to Staff Sergeant.

Kubiš  along with his brigade did not participate in the fight against the enemy yet. Together with several dozen others? Soldier. 

On the night of December 28, 1941 at Nehvizdy, about 20 km east of Prague. Silver A was supposed to land at Vyzice about 12 km south west of Pardubice, 80 km south East of Prague but were dropped 50km east of Prague.

Gabčík and Kubiš jumped at the Nehvizdy cemetery near Prague , where the planned jump was 100 km away from Ejpovice near Pilsen

Parachutists were equipped with fake documents, Kubiš in the name of Otto Bunting. With the help of the Sokol opposition organization Jindra, para utisté got to Prague, where they have shelter in flats? this organization. Here are several months?

preparing for their task. The London order was not over the domestic warnings resistance groups were revoked and eventually also executed.

the prayers of the friends find a new shelter - a crypt under the orthodox temple of St. John the Baptist. Cyril and

The method is in Resslov? street. Here they were trapped by trapping their traitors.

Jan Kubi? deadly? wounded by a grenade explosion

. 10 June were exterminated by Lidice, the same? the city of Leucas.

The evaluation of the assassination and the events associated with it is therefore often contradictory.

From Czech

Kubiš  first worked as a sailor, After completing the military presence service in Jihlava 31st Infantry Regiment he remained as a serving non-commissioned officer in the Czechoslovak army. He served in the XIII Navy Guard in northern Moravia. In the summer of 1939, he left the Protectorate, and crossed Poland to France, where he and other Czechoslovaks who were planning to engage in anti-fascist exile resistance were impelled to enter the Foreign Legion. After the outbreak of war, the unit was in Agde. During the fights in France, he took part in the retreat battles in the 1st Czechoslovak Regiment, for the heroism proved to be awarded the French War Cross. After the establishment of the 1st Independent Czechoslovak Brigade in the United Kingdom, he served as Deputy Commander of the First Platoon of the 3rd Company in the First Infantry Battalion. Later, he enrolled to perform special tasks in the home army. After completing the courses, he became a member of Anthropoid, where he replaced the originally planned rookie Karel Svoboda, who was badly injured during the training. 

Escape from the country

On June 16, 1939, fleeing from Nazi persecution, Jan Kubiš illegally crossed the Polish border and, after meeting with local authorities in Krakow, enlisted in the Czechoslovak Legion. After a short-term service in the camp in Maly Bronovitsy in July 1939, he moved to Algeria, where on August 2 he was enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. Kubiš  began his service in the training of the 1st regiment in the garrisons of Kolom-Bechar and Sidi Bel Abbes. There he was caught by the beginning of the war: Jan was transferred to Agde and enlisted in the 2nd Infantry Regiment. In the ranks of this regiment, he fought on the Loire, for which he was awarded the French Military Cross. On December 22, 1939 he received the military rank of sergeant of the French army [2].

On July 13, 1940, after the capitulation of France, Kubiš was evacuated to England and joined the 1st Czechoslovak infantry battalion of a mixed brigade. After graduating from short military courses in February 1941, Kubiš h received the rank of sergeant for the third time in his career (this time the British army). 

Since December 1940 he first put his name forward as did many others to enrol in training courses for Special Forces. From August 15 to December 27, 1941 Kubiš took Special Forces courses, having learned self-defence techniques, driving a car and bomb technology. 

THE OPERATION

At approximately 10:30am on a Prague Wednesday morning as Heydrich passed by in his open car and the Driver Klein was forced to slow in order to navigate a hairpin bend, the two assassins had moved with nervous efficiency to carry out their plan. 

The prime assassin Gabcik intended to shoot and drew his Sten gun but it failed to fire. Luckily Kubis was able to throw one of the thermite bombs he had prepared and it landed directly near the side of the open-topped car. 

From a range estimated at about five metres the bomb exploded on the near side of the vehicle at the rear, causing at least two significantly sized splinters to enter Heydrich’s lower back  - crucially after passing through the seat which contained such impurities as horse hair. This would lead later to Septicaemia due to various reasons including the delay in initial care due to Heydrich’s obstinacy in not receiving first aid from Non-Germans and also failure to use sulfonamides etc.

Heydrich insisted upon a personal gunfight with his attackers rather than the standard tactic now whereby the driver speeds through the ambush.

Both attackers fled and rushed to make an effective escape. Heydrich had drawn a small hand weapon stored in the side door, jumped out to shoot but soon doubled up from pain. He was actually unable to fire as he had not loaded this weapon. Klein raced after Gabcik, but in the excitement his thumb must have partially dislodged the magazine of his Luger and he too was unable to fire. 

Both parachutists returned fire with their pistols, and each made a swift getaway.

In short, the fact they did actually manage to carry out this mission and only later died fighting against huge odds in a last ditch struggle in a Church in the centre of Prague has retrospectively made the chronology of secondary importance. 

They were eventually to be killed along with five other parachutists in a Russian Orthodox

church where they had taken refuge. One of them, never recovering consciousness, died of his wounds in a hospital under German guard and the other ended his life with a bullet to his head rather than surrender to the SS police battalion against whom they had been fighting. 

Not the least, the precise casualties suffered by this unit has possibly been inflated with official casualties only five wounded as opposed to 15 killed and 21 injured in other places.

[SB:55] “We took him to a military hospital at once but all medical means failed to save his life. Twenty minutes later he was dead and our first key witness was gone, a heavy loss for us.”

Pannwitz was the first to rue the lack of an accurate source of information of what had transpired - " a heavy loss".

[SB:60] “Our main problem was how to get the agents out. We wanted living witnesses, not corpses, and we needed the information they could give us.”

[SB:63] Among them was Gabcik. Half an hour later, a radio message came from HIMMLER who had been informed, which said in essence, "Promise the assassins anything but take them alive."

Himmler also demanded living perpetrators. A show trial proving their guilt and linking British intelligence services would be of incalculable benefit in the unceasing propaganda war. The war to influence one's own population but also neutrals like Spain, Turkey, Switzerland, South Americn countries etc.

=====

On the morning of May 27th, the assailant left the tram in Žižkov, where they picked up bicycles, from which they had arrived at Holešoviček before 9 o'clock in the morning. In Holešovičky they met Valčík, who went to take his place on the right side further up  the road Gabčík has assembled his submachine under his coat. 

Heydrich spent his time with his family after breakfast and at about ten o'clock in the morning he set out from his residence at the castle in Panenske Brezany to Prague Castle. In contradiction with the regulation, his Mercedes-Benz 320 was still open to the elements.

Gabčík and Kubiš were waiting at Kirchmayerova Street (today's Zenklova) at a tram stop about 250 meters from Bulovka Hospital (Prague 8-Libeň) towards Thomayerovy sady. Valčík supposedly stood about 100 meters north and warned them when the car approached with a pocket mirror. When the car at 10:35 appeared in a bend, Gabčík threw off his coat and pulled out the machine gun. 

. This error probably cost him a life. The car stopped in front of Kubiš, who threw a thermos flask shaped anti-tank grenade, 73 MK1, which exploded on contact with the right rear wheel of the car. The splinters from the explosion hit Kubiš in the face. Both Germans jumped out of a damaged car with pistols in hand. Chauffeur Klein walked behind the blood of the blind Kubiš and started firing him. Kubiš spurned himself after a while and shot in the air, flashed his way out of the crowd watching. He got on his bicycle and sped away.

Crucially Kubiš  was unable to use his bicycle.

Meanwhile, Heydrich went on to pursue Gabčík, shot a short shot with pistols, but after a while Heydrich collapsed on the ground and stooped back to the car where he fell on his hood. Klein ceased to persecute Kubiš, returned to the injured superiors, and pursued Gabčík for a while. In the meantime, Heydrich struggled with extensive internal injuries and, due to the explosion, he also had fractured rib, parts of the fracture had reached the spleen.

Gabčík fled to the hill where he wanted to hide in one store, but unfortunately the butcher's owner was a Nazi patron, so he went out and called Klein. Gabčík, who did not have the possibility of another escape, set off against Klein and shot him into the foot. While the Gabčík may have been forced to escape the butcher, he disappeared in the alleyways in the meantime.

The German reaction

The initial German reaction contained suspicion not least because the British seemed ready.

Of great interest is the short ‘Dorothy Dix’ question in the record of the House of Commons mentioned before trying to pin the assassination on German deserters..

Later, the fact the British press made early commentary made the Germans suspicious.

[50:11] “London reported on the attack early on.”

Due to the natural mistakes which the assassins made the Germans had a wealth of avenues to investigate. They even put items of interest in a major Czech department store inviting people to come forward and identify them.

1) Used a girl’s bicycle.

2) Didn’t use his back-up pistol.

3) One of the bombs not wired to detonator.

4 Developed personal relationships with lodgers.

5) Overlapping between different missions.

6) Inadequate aliases.

7) Underestimation of German control.

8) Over-estimation of local assistance.

========================

One woman from the sight of her knew the wounded protector of and began to seek a transfer to the hospital. After a moment of confusion, she finally found a van carrying a polish on her boots, and Heydrich by about eleven o'clock was at Na Bulovke Hospital. To treat the injured Heydrich received at first the German-Czech doctor Vladimír Šnajdr, who made the first treatment. German Professor Dick later examined Heydrich in detail.

The X-ray result showed a range of severe injuries. Heydrich had a broken rib, a broken diaphragm and a damaged spleen. He asked for a Berlin specialist, but agreed to an operation on the spot when they agreed to the presence of the German doctor Hollbaum. Heydrich's direct superior SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler sent to Prague his personal physician Karel Gebhardt, whose aircraft was delayed. The surgery lasted for an hour and went without any complications. 

The patient fell into a coma after seven days (June 3rd) and died on 4 June at 4:30 pm on blood poisoning (infection). It is now understood that this was because the horse's hair from the padding remained in the body, There is one completely absurd theory that the modified grenade contained botulinum toxin. Speculation that the grenade contained botulinum toxin [6] has not yet been confirmed. 

Heydrich had two funerals - in Prague on the 7^th  and Berlin on the 9th. Heydrich was the most prominent Nazi leader who was assassinated by members of the anti-Nazi resistance during the war.

REPRESSIONS

As a reward for the assassination, Hitler considered the killing of 10,000 Czechs. On the day of the assassination, he sent General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski to Prague to investigate and punish Czechs collectively, as evidenced by Himmler Frank's discussion on the following points: "2) Among the ordered 10,000 hostages, the entire Czech opposition intelligence must be arrested. 3) The hundred of the most important opponents of this Czech intelligence must be executed tonight. "[7]

In the first days after the assassination, the Germans took many innocent people as hostages. Paratroopers have redeemed the reward of one million Imperial marks. [8] As of May 27, the night-time ban came into force. 

Within 4 days (31 May), the Nazis had executed 157 people,

 yet they could not find the actual assassins, and so the Nazi terror became even more intense and the suffering so many innocent people. 

In the investigation, people from Lidice and Ležáky were charged with random and irrelevant evidence (Lidice, on the basis of the letter, suspected of cooperating with the British Army, and Ležáky which had been the location of the Silver A transmitter. Most of the people of both villages have been killed. In response to the Nazi assassination, supposedly by the end of the war more than fifteen thousand Czechs were murdered. 

At the same time, the assassination awakened such a response in the world that, on its basis, the British abrogated the Munich Agreement and promised the post-war revival of the Czech-Slovak Republic at its pre-Munich frontiers.

A cunning move was made when there was a promise to ameliorate the crackdown and a reward if the assailants could be found by June 17^th.

on June 18, 1942. They found them in the crypt of the Orthodox Church of Cyril and Method on Resslova Street in Prague, after Karel Čurda, also a paratrooper. He sent an anonymous appointment to the police station in Benesov on June 13, marking Jan Kubiša and JosefGabčík as the main actors in the assassination of the protector. On June 16, he came to personally denounce the Gestapo office in Prague and introduced himself as an English paratrooper. 

Čurda did not know where the assassin was hiding, but he knew their resistance clusters, which the Germans soon arrested. Resist Vlastimil "Ata" Moravec, did not withstand the harsh pressure of the investigators, and on June 17, 1942, revealed where the paratroopers were hiding. [9]

Čurda actually led the high life until war’s end. Perhaps he was considered to have been “Germanic”.

Čestmír Šikola , a member of the parachute group Clay , who as the intelligence officer of the 2nd Division of the CSA Headquarters in March 1947 interrogated Gerik and Čurda in Pankrác Prison, He concluded that the death penalty for Gerik (but not for Čurda) was disproportionate taking into account the circumstances in which Gerik was jump.