On May 27, 1942, two resistance fighters ambushed Reinhard Heydrich’s open-topped Mercedes on a Prague hairpin curve. A jammed Sten gun and a misthrown grenade made it look like a botched operation, yet it became the only successful government-sponsored assassination of a top-ranking Nazi official in all of World War II. This episode examines Operation Anthropoid as a story of bravery, a bizarre medical mystery, and the terrifying calculus of war.

We explore who Heydrich was as architect of the Holocaust and “Butcher of Prague,” the agonizing political reasoning of the Czechoslovak government in exile, the cascading failures of the mission’s planning, and the grim irony that horsehair stuffing from Heydrich’s own luxury car seats caused the fatal infection. We then confront the catastrophic reprisals, including the destruction of Lidice and Lezaky, and the final siege at the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

• Heydrich’s dual strategy of terror and economic incentives in occupied Bohemia
• Why Benes forced the mission through despite desperate pleas to cancel
• The modified anti-tank grenade and the hubris that stopped Heydrich’s car
• The botulism rumor versus the sepsis caused by upholstery debris
• The reprisals, the betrayal, and the seven paratroopers’ last stand