The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich by Callum MacDonald

Author:Callum MacDonald [CALLUM MACDONALD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2012-02-13T16:00:00+00:00

Moravec emphasised that once they were dropped from the aircraft over Bohemia–Moravia Gabčĺk and Svoboda would be completely on their own. ‘For evident reasons’ assistance from the home army was out of the question. Finally he stressed the ‘utmost historical importance’ of the assassination and asked the two men to think it over: ‘If you still have any doubts about what I have set out, you must say so.’ Although it was clear that their chances of surviving such a desperate operation were slim, Gabčĺk and Svoboda volunteered without hesitation. That afternoon they returned to Manchester to complete their parachute training. They were to be dropped over the Protectorate in the first suitable moon period, around 10 October, and the date of the assassination was fixed for Czech national day, 28 October. This was to prove an absurdly optimistic timetable.

The same day as he briefed his assassins, Moravec approached SOE for technical assistance. He mentioned ‘an assassination’ without specifying the target and gave no reason for the operation. According to an internal Czech Section minute dated 3 October 1941: ‘The Home Organisation in the Protectorate is not being informed of this operation. At Czech HQ only Colonel M. Moravec and Major Str. Strankmüller know about it. The purpose is for the two men to carry out an assassination. They know that they cannot come out of the attempt alive. It is essential to carry it out during this month.’ The team was to be dropped over Borek airfield near Plžen, which was ‘unused, unprotected and unwatched’. It was an ‘essential condition’ that Staff Captain Sustr, who commanded the Czech volunteers at STS2, ‘should accompany the flight as he knows the locality’. Sustr was to help the pilot identify the ridge which was a vital landmark on the final approach to the drop zone. Besides an aircraft, Moravec requested that SOE equip each of his agents with a revolver, three hand grenades, suicide tablets and one of’any other weapon’ which ‘we would consider particularly suitable for the job’. The Czech Section did not enquire too closely about the purpose of the operation. The Czech exiles recruited, briefed and targeted their own agents, a process into which SOE was permitted little insight. If they wanted to kill a prominent Nazi, that was up to them. To demand more details might jeopardise security and cause political difficulties with the Czechs, who were notoriously touchy about their operational independence. Assassination was in any case well within the founding charter of SOE and raised no moral objections in the midst of a total war. Dalton’s own memorandum to Churchill of 16 June 1940 which resulted in the creation of SOE mentioned fighting the Nazis by many different methods ‘including industrial and military sabotage . . . terrorist acts against traitors and German leaders, boycotts and riots’. Moreover with Hitler beginning his final drive on Moscow, anything which stirred up trouble behind the German lines was worth encouraging. If Moravec can be believed, SOE had been pressing the Czechs for months to step up their activities.

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