The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2022
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He was nicknamed ‘the man with the iron heart’ by Hitler, and was tipped to be his successor. But on the 27th May 1942, Reinhard Heydrich was mortally injured in Prague by Czechoslovak resistance operatives Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš. They were part of Operation Anthropoid, and today George Bearfield is back with James to talk about the decision to target Heydrich, the plan and its execution, and the final stand and reprisals.
George provides the definitive story of Czechoslovakia's role in the Second World War through the eyes of his grandfather, who was a member of that country’s intelligence service, in Foursquare: The Last Parachutist
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 80 years ago this month on the 29th of May 1942 radio Prague announced at Reinhard Heydrich, the overall head of security in Nazi Germany, |
| 0:16.0 | and a leading architect of the Holocaust was dying. |
| 0:20.0 | Just a few days earlier, he had been mortally wounded in Prague as a result of Operation Anthropoid. |
| 0:27.0 | But what was Operation Anthropoid? |
| 0:29.0 | Who crafted the mission? Who shot the guns and through the grenades that killed him? |
| 0:33.0 | And what are the consequences of killing one of Hitler's most high-ranking officers? |
| 0:37.0 | Was it worth it? |
| 0:39.0 | I'm your host James Rogers. |
| 0:41.0 | This is the Warfare Podcast, and to find out I'm happy to welcome George |
| 0:45.0 | Bearfield back on the podcast. George is author of a new book, Four Square, The Last Parachutist, |
| 0:50.9 | which is about the final special operations by Czech-Slovac forces during the Second World War, |
| 0:56.4 | and it was George's family who took part in this hunt for Hydric. |
| 1:01.1 | Hi George, welcome to the History Hit Warfare Podcast. |
| 1:05.0 | How you doing today? |
| 1:06.0 | Yeah, I'm good, thanks James, how are you? |
| 1:08.0 | I am good. |
| 1:09.0 | It's great to have you back on again. |
| 1:10.0 | You're a regular now. |
| 1:12.0 | Yes, you are. And you're most certainly our resident expert on this particular topic and this particular period of history. |
| 1:22.0 | That is the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, |
| 1:25.3 | and of course the Czech resistance that took place during this time. |
| 1:28.9 | Now, we did a previous episode on this, |
... |
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