Operation Daybreak

Czechoslovak paratroopers trained by the British are sent to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, succeeding in a daring ambush in Prague. As the Gestapo launches a massive manhunt, the surviving agents take refuge in a church crypt, holding out against overwhelming German forces. The film culminates in their final, doomed stand.

Operation Anthropoid saw the mortal wounding of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in May 1942; the agents responsible were later cornered in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, where they died after a lengthy siege, while Nazi reprisals devastated the village of Lidice.

An earlier, largely faithful dramatization of the same events later depicted in Anthropoid (2016), based on Alan Burgess's historical account.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Martin Shaw, Joss Ackland, Anthony Andrews

Positioned at May 27 – June 18, 1942 within the World War II phase of the war, as part of the Operation Anthropoid. This is entry 67 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Operation Anthropoid
• Heydrich assassination
• Prague
• Czechoslovak resistance
• church siege

• 

  Anthropoid

  May 27 – June 18, 1942

• 

  The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

  1942–October 1944

• 

  Twelve O'Clock High

  1942–1943

• 

  Army of Shadows

  October 1942 – February 1943

• 

  The Big Red One

  1942–1945

• 

  Atonement

  1935–1940