War and Military Atlas

How Battles Were Fought
Military Operations

Operation Anthropoid

Modern

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Operation Anthropoid was the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, acting Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, carried out by Czechoslovak soldiers Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis on 27 May 1942 in Prague. Trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive and dispatched by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, the two attacked Heydrich's car with a modified anti-tank grenade; Heydrich died of his wounds on 4 June 1942. In reprisal, Nazi forces executed roughly 5,000 people and destroyed the villages of Lidice and Lezaky.

Facts
Operation Type
Special-forces assassination 1
Start Date
1942-05-27 1
End Date
1942-06-04 1
Location
Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 1
Participants
Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, Czechoslovak Army soldiers trained by the British Special Operations Executive, dispatched by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1
Objective
Kill Reinhard Heydrich to confer legitimacy on the Czechoslovak government-in-exile and demonstrate that senior Nazi officials were vulnerable 1
Outcome
Heydrich died of his wounds on 4 June 1942; the assassins were killed in a firefight at a Prague cathedral; the Nazis executed approximately 5,000 people in reprisal, including the entire villages of Lidice and Lezaky 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Operation Anthropoid
WikipediaAftermath section
Quote, Aftermath section
Operation Anthropoid was the only successful government-organized assassination of a top-ranking Nazi official.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia: Operation Anthropoid
WikipediaIn Category: Military OperationsView the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.