Today’s movie is an action/adventure film with a scene that
happens on May 27. I hope you will enjoy this motion picture and watch it
tonight.
OPERATION DAYBREAK
Three Czech Sergeants serving in the British Army during
World War II, Jozef Gabčík, Karel
Čurda and Jan Kubiš, are recruited to return to their homeland and assassinate
Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi ruler of the occupied Czech
territories of Bohemia and Moravia. They parachute into the country. Curda goes
to visit his wife, but the three are successful in making contact with Czech
resistance members. They eventually develop a plan to kill Heydrich. However,
on May 27, 1942 [54:25 to 1:05:03] when Gabcik steps into the street to shoot
Heydrich in his car, his gun jams and won’t fire. He has to run as Heydrich’s
driver chases after him. However this allows Kubis to toss a grenade into the
car. Heydrich appears to be only slightly injured, but the grenade forces
shrapnel and bits of the horsehair seat covers into his blood system and he
dies eight days later. In revenge the
Nazis destroy the Czech village of Lidice and kill thousands of others. Curda
betrays the others to the Nazis for the reward. They are trapped in the basement
of a church and after a gun battle with the Germans, the survivors kill
themselves to prevent capture. After the war, Curda was executed for treason.
An interesting film. Notable for being shot on location in
Prague at the height of the Cold War. The film implies that Curda turned
traitor to protect his family, but history seems to indicate he did it for the
reward. By the way there is a museum
dedicated to the team in the church where they died.
The Killing of SS Obergruppenfuher Reinhard Heydrich
by Collum MacDonald (The Free Press, New York, 1989) at page 169 gives the date
of the attack
Producer - Carter DeHaven
Director - Lewis Gilbert
Screenplay - Ronald Harwood
Released - February
29, 1976
Runtime - 1 hour 58
minutes
Starring –
Timothy Bottoms as Jan Kubiš
Martin Shaw as Karel Čurda
Joss Ackland as Janák
Nicola Pagett as Anna Malinová
Anthony Andrews as Jozef Gabčík
Anton Diffring as Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich
Carl Duering as Karl Frank, acting Reichsprotektor
Cyril Shaps as Father Petrek
Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.
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