Griff Murphey
08-14-2016, 07:55
Had to drive to Dallas to the Angelika to see this one. I could not find any theater in Cowtown that has it scheduled.
It's a great movie about the Free Czech operators who were dropped into Czechoslovakia in late 1941 with the mission to assassinate the Reichsprotektor, SS Obergruppenfuehrer, and General der Polizei. The film is well done and ratchets up the tension leading to the assassination attempt. The Sten one was using failed to fire and a modified antitank grenade did the job. Heydrich's wound was contaminated by the horse hair stuffing of his Mercedes' backseat and what killed him was the subsequent infection. He was lightly hit enough to be able to personally return fire in the ambush. Because the antitank grenade was modified some sources have speculated that it may have included a biological agent such as botulism.
When the operators initially arrived the Czech resistance had already been decimated and the leaders on the ground in Prague were not very happy about the Czech government in exile in London's idea to assassinate Heydrich. They correctly predicted the reprisals would be harsh and in fact 5,000 Czechs were executed and two villages saw every male 16 and over shot and the villages destroyed.
On the same drop other operators were also parachuted in with other missions.The Germans were conducting house to house searches but the teams were hidden in a Catholic Church by the pastor. The Germans offered a 10,000 Crown reward and gauranteed safety for whoever turned the men in. As an added inducement the Germans promised they would NOT kill the 5,000. Unfortunately one of the resistance men was gullible enough to believe the Germans and came forward. The luckier Czechs involved had a limited supply of L pills. The movie accurately shows the cruelty of German interrogation techniques. Husbands are strongly cautioned about this! As regards taking your wife to this movie.
Eventually the Germans closed in on the church. Seven Czechs held what looked to me like two companies of Waffen SS for six hours, using Stens and Colt 1903 pistols. I highly recommend this movie but I do caution you about taking your lady to it.
It's a great movie about the Free Czech operators who were dropped into Czechoslovakia in late 1941 with the mission to assassinate the Reichsprotektor, SS Obergruppenfuehrer, and General der Polizei. The film is well done and ratchets up the tension leading to the assassination attempt. The Sten one was using failed to fire and a modified antitank grenade did the job. Heydrich's wound was contaminated by the horse hair stuffing of his Mercedes' backseat and what killed him was the subsequent infection. He was lightly hit enough to be able to personally return fire in the ambush. Because the antitank grenade was modified some sources have speculated that it may have included a biological agent such as botulism.
When the operators initially arrived the Czech resistance had already been decimated and the leaders on the ground in Prague were not very happy about the Czech government in exile in London's idea to assassinate Heydrich. They correctly predicted the reprisals would be harsh and in fact 5,000 Czechs were executed and two villages saw every male 16 and over shot and the villages destroyed.
On the same drop other operators were also parachuted in with other missions.The Germans were conducting house to house searches but the teams were hidden in a Catholic Church by the pastor. The Germans offered a 10,000 Crown reward and gauranteed safety for whoever turned the men in. As an added inducement the Germans promised they would NOT kill the 5,000. Unfortunately one of the resistance men was gullible enough to believe the Germans and came forward. The luckier Czechs involved had a limited supply of L pills. The movie accurately shows the cruelty of German interrogation techniques. Husbands are strongly cautioned about this! As regards taking your wife to this movie.
Eventually the Germans closed in on the church. Seven Czechs held what looked to me like two companies of Waffen SS for six hours, using Stens and Colt 1903 pistols. I highly recommend this movie but I do caution you about taking your lady to it.