Jan Kubis (Operation Anthropoid)
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Jan Kubiš (June 24, 1913 - June 18, 1942) was one of a team of Czechoslovakian British-trained agents sent to assassinate SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, then in command of Prague and Bohemia, whose savagery and ruthlessness in suppressing the population earned him the nickname "The Butcher of Prague". Other members of the team were Adolf Opalka (their leader), Josef Valcik, and Jozef Gabcik.
Heydrich, in a show of arrogance, often rode around in open and unarmoured vehicles or walked unguarded through the streets.
On May 27, 1942, Heydrich's open and unarmoured car slowed to turn a sharp corner, where Kubis and the rest of the Czech team were waiting. Gabcik shot at Heydrich, but his gun failed him. Kubis then threw an anti-tank grenade at the car, which exploded and severely wounded Heydrich, sending the material in the car's seats through his spleen. Evidence suggests that had Heydrich remained seated he would have lived.
The team took refuge at the Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Resslova Street, Prague, but the Nazis extracted the necessary information from other resistance members. On June 18, 1942, the Germans attacked the church, and after a prolonged but futile resistance, Kubis and the rest committed suicide.
The Heydrich assassination was related in the 1976 movie Operation Daybreak.