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Czech wartime heroes honoured by Everton
Village society marks Operation Anthropoid
Two Czech servicemen who lost their lives in the Second World War while on a secret mission to assassinate Nazi leader Reinhard Heidrich are to be honoured by Everton Village Society.
On June 18 the society is hoping to present a commemmorative plaque to a church in the Czech Republic at an annual remembrance service.
Michael Flack is currently organising the visit which came about following a talk to the society by Nigel Rees on Operation Anthropoid.
This was a wartime mission organised by the Special Operations Executive who worked out of Tempsford Airfield.
Everton Village Hall has an identical commemorative plaque on its wall which is one of three marking the operation, the other two being in churches in the Czech Republic.
However, when Nigel explained that one of the plaques had been stolen, Michael decided to have it replaced and the village society has paid for another to be made.
Reinhard Heydrich was chief of the Reich Main Security Office and a major advocator of the 'final solution' or genocide of the Jews.
He was nicknamed 'the Butcher of Prague' among other things and was even touted as a replacement to Hitler.
In 1941, the SOE charged two Czech warrant officers who had been trained in the UK, Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik with Heydrich's assassination.
Czechoslovakia had become a strategic stronghold for the Germans and it was felt that by using Czech agents, it would ignite resistance and support in the country.
It was originally intended that the pair fly out with their cohorts from Tempsford Airfield.
However, due to weather conditions, they ended up flying out of Tangmeer Airport on December 28, 1941, piloted by the station commander of Tempsford.
They remained in Czechoslovakia finalising details of the assassination for the next few months.
Heydrich habitually rode in an open-top Mercedes Benz.
As he drove on his daily commute in Prague at 10.30am on May 27, 1942, he was ambushed by Gabcik who opened fire on the car.
However, Gabcik's Sten gun jammed.
Heydrich stopped the car and stood up to shoot Gabcik at which point Kubis threw a modified anti-tank grenade into the vehicle which exploded sending shrapnel tearing through Heydrich's body.
Unaware he was seriously wounded, Heydrich got out of the car and returned fire while his assailants fled.
He collapsed and was taken to hospital in Prague where Himmler sent his own personal physician to oversee Heydrich's care.
However, despite a number of successful operations to remove the shrapnel, he died a week later seemingly from septacaemia.
There have since been suggestions the grenade contained botulinum toxin which led to his death but this was never confirmed by the SOE.
Hitler's reprisals against the Czech people were great and thousands of Czechoslovakians were arrested and/or executed, including Kubis's girlfriend Anna Malinova, leading many to argue that Heydrich's assassination did not save lives as intended.
Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik were discovered with their group on June 18, 1942 hiding in the Church of St Cyril and St Methodious on Resslova Street in Prague.
In a bloody battle with the SS that lasted for a total of six hours, Kubis was wounded and died shortly after arrival at hospital while Gabcik committed suicde along with the other parachutists to avoid capture.
Memory Lane is hoping to follow up this story in a later issue.
In the meantime, if you are interested in the Operation Anthropoid story, John Martin's book about it entitled 'The Mirror Caught the Sun' was published last year.
This story appeared in Memory Lane on April 30, 2010.
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