A number of the parachutists had taken to sleeping in the choir of the church - less stuffy than the crypt.  These included Kubis and Josef Valcik of "Anthropoid" - Valcik had acted as spotter/lookout for the Heydrich assasination - and Lieutenant Adolf Opalka, the traitor Curda's commander in "Out Distance".  Along with them was Bublik of "Operation Bioscope".  They were there on 18 June, 1942 when the church was entered by German police and Waffen-SS personnel.  The choir overlooked the whole nave of the church and provided a good firing position against anybody unwelcome intrusion in the lower part of the church.  The men in the gallery opened fire, and continued to resist repeated German efforts to occupy the nave.  They were eventually killed by an explosion - whether by suicide or by German grenades is not entirely clear.  JR.

Death in Prague (8)

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.

Death in Prague (6)

Lieutenant Adolf Opalka, commander of "Operation Out Distance", killed in the choir of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 18 June, 1942.  JR.