Other Forces

Death in Prague (6)

Removing the village of Lidice from the map (albeit, as it turned out, temporarily) did nothing to catch the assasins of Heydrich. They had their own problems. The "Anthropoid" plan does not seem to have paid much attention to possible escape plans. The parachutists could probably have left Prague simply by catching a train in the initial confusion following the attack, but did not. The fact that none of them knew the city of Prague (a deliberate security measure by Czech intelligence) may have contributed to this choice. Instead, they went to ground with a number of reliable contacts among the disorganised Czech underground. This meant staying in family apartments - a highly risky situation. As a result, the underground operatives decided to concentrate the parachutists in their care in a single place of (hoped for) safety - that turned out to be the crypt of the Eastern Orthodox Cathedral Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius (formerly a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St Charles Borromeo). Best regards, JR.