Heydrich is ambushed in Libeň

JAN 01 1942 · 12:00

Heydrich's Mercedes 320 Cabriolet B at the hairpin curve in Libeň, after the ambush of 27 May 1942. Place: The hairpin curve at Kirchmayer Boulevard (today V Holešovičkách), Libeň Figures: Jozef Gabčík, Slovak paratrooper · Jan Kubiš, Czech paratrooper · Josef Valčík, lookout · Heydrich, in an open Mercedes 320 Cabriolet B Gabčík and Kubiš parachuted into a snowy field outside Plzeň on the night of December 28, 1941. They have lived for five months in safe houses in Prague, fed by the families Moravec, Novák, and Khodl, briefed by the resistance, supplied with British weapons: a Sten Mk II submachine gun, two No. 73 anti-tank grenades, pistols. They have studied the route Heydrich's chauffeur Klein drives every morning from the villa at Panenské Břežany to the Castle: down the hill, around a sharp bend at Libeň, where the car must slow to nearly a walking pace. Heydrich is overconfident. He rides in an open-topped car with no escort. He has been recalled to Berlin to receive a new posting in France. May 27 is meant to be one of his last days in Prague.