The Blonde Beast Lives: A Heydrich TL

[jasper the spectator]

May 28, 1941, Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš waited at the tram stop at the junction between 2 roads. They were the pair chosen by the Czechoslovak government in exile, to execute Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of the current acting Protector of Bohemia, and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich, who is also the chief of the RHSA (Reich Main Security Office) and head of the Interpol.

It had been over 5 months since they were parachuted by the British into Prague, and since then they had been working with several families and Czechoslovak resistance organizations to prepare for the assassination. The plan was that Gabčík would attempt to shoot Heydrich from the front using a Sten submachine gun, while Kubiš would throw an anti-tank grenade from a briefcase into the car, which would in theory be enough to incinerate the car and Heydrich and his driver along with it.

By this point, the pair were waiting for the car to arrive, and the area was chosen because the tight curve there would force the car to slow down and allow an easier chance for the assassination to succeed. Meanwhile, another Czechoslovak partisan, Josef Valčík, was positioned about 100 meters north of them to look out for the approaching car.

2 minutes later

As the car entered sight, Gabčík walked into the street before dropping his raincoat and started firing his Sten submachine gun, at least that was the plan. However, the Sten jammed. Heydrich, initially confused, then realized what would happen, and ordered his driver, Johannes Klein, to accelerate the car to hopefully run over Gabčík while the pair clocked their guns.

Now realizing that the gun was jammed, Kubiš threw his briefcase bomb. However, it was too late, by the time it exploded, Gabčík had already been mortally wounded by getting run over by the car, while Klein drove the car as fast as possible, which meant that it had passed. The bomb was near enough to Gabčík that it effectively killed him, alongside several civilians, while Kubiš ran away as fast as he could using a bike, certain that the assassination had failed.

Meanwhile, Heydrich was unmoved as he and Klein took a detour to Prague Castle, and after the assassination attempt, he was hell-bent on finding and killing the assassins. His first act when he arrived was to order the Gestapo to investigate the area of the assassination and attempt to find the people responsible for the attack. After that, he started writing a letter to the Fuhrer himself, telling him the story of the assassination attempt and his intent to stay in Bohemia and Moravia until "the vermin who attempted to assassinate me earlier is off the face of the earth". Only after then would he accept his request. He then continued to sign and write orders for the rest of the day.

The Man With The Iron Heart had lived to see another day, and soon enough, while it would be put on the back burner for now, as he planned to exact revenge, another nation would soon be subject to his reign of terror.

Hello! This has been a timeline idea I've been wondering about for a while now, and i haven't seen a timeline centered around this (though there probably is one out there, and there's a decent number, mostly Nazi Victory TLs, that have Heydrich surviving be one of the PODs) so I decided to go do it myself. I intend this timeline to be similar to @BiteNibbleChomp's Operation FS timeline, in that the course of the war changes, but the outcome doesn't. The Hangman is gonna be focused on exacting revenge on the Czechs for now, but if the rumors were to be believed, he's gonna go to France soon.

 

[Marc Anthony]

Whatched

 

[Lalli]

Heydrich alive and well... Not good for many. But since it seems that nazis are going to lost, Heydrich has dates with hangman.

 

[jasper the spectator]

Heydrich alive and well... Not good for many. But since it seems that nazis are going to lost, Heydrich has dates with hangman.

I have little delusion that Heydrich surviving means the Nazis will win, this is mostly an experiment on my thoughts as to how his survival changes the course of the war, but not the outcome. Still debating whether he survives long enough to get Nuremberg’d though.

Whatched

Thank you!

 

[jasper the spectator]

Heydrich knew that simply defying the Fuhrer was signing his own death warrant, so he worded his letter to the best of his ability so that he can convince Hitler to keep him in Bohemia and Moravia until he felt he was done. It would be a tough job for sure, and he was preparing for the possibility Hitler fires him due to his defiance, but he hoped it could work. He also began writing a letter to Himmler, telling the story of the assassination and asking if there are any free SS divisions he can use so he could execute the crackdowns he had planned.

After the letters to Hitler and Himmler were finished, he started thinking about how many people he wanted to be killed and arrested in the reprisals. Though in his rage he told Klein he wanted to commit genocide against the Czechs, he knew that doing so would be counterproductive, to say the least. He was brought to Bohemia and Moravia so that he could monitor the Czech industry and be able to use them for the war effort, which meant genocide was off the table. He still wasn’t willing to let the Czechs go unpunished, and while his previous policies would remain, as he thought removing them would just make more Czechs want to resist, reprisals were still needed.

The first reprisal order was for the Gestapo to empty their prisons and murder everyone inside of them. The task was executed with brutal efficiency, and by it's end, between 4,000 and 5,000 people were killed. He then ordered another 3,000 people throughout the protectorate to be hanged as a warning and to arrest everyone believed to be associated with the plotters, both of which were fulfilled, with the 12,000 people arrested being sent mostly to the concentration camps. He also ordered the closing of the few avenues where Czechs could still express their culture, alongside the further suppression of said culture. He resolved to deal with the Czech partisans and resistance organizations at a later date after the requested SS divisions from Himmler arrive.

He also wanted to up his security. He wrote an order that he and Klein were to be driven with a convoy of 8 cars filled with a platoon’s worth of SS guards from here on out. And while Heydrich would not stop riding on an open-topped car, mainly as a show of force, he wanted as many SS guard-filled cars as possible between him and the streets, to prevent a future assassination from ever coming as close to succeeding again.

Meanwhile, the investigation began. The Gestapo had arrived in the assassination area even before Heydrich had arrived at Prague Castle and ordered an investigation, and after getting the many Czech civilians that were injured to hospitals, the investigation began. After not being able to find anything investigating the dead body of one of the assassins, a civilian came up and said that he saw one of the assassins ran away using a bike after throwing a briefcase at Heydrich’s car. After following an arbitrarily made trail, the Gestapo wasn’t able to find the assassin.

By this point, Kubiš was hiding with a family somewhere in Prague, and the family could sense that the failure of the assassination and the death of Gabčík had hurt him deeply. He met with Valčík later that day, and the pair wondered how long it would be until the Czech government in exile in London would say something, and what this would mean for it’s relationship with the British government. By it’s end, the 2 agreed to start attempts to communicate with the other 4 members of Silver A still in Prague and called for a meeting with them to discuss future plans.

 

[jasper the spectator]

Hitler and Himmler were both in Berlin when the letters Heydrich had written to them arrived on May 29 via plane, the day after the assassination. Hitler was impressed with how Heydrich dealt with the assassins but was reluctant to agree with his proposal that he stay in Bohemia and Moravia “until the vermin who attempted to assassinate me earlier is off the face of the earth", fearing that it would delay his plan to have him sent and deal with a region that was being considerably more unruly than Bohemia at the moment. But ultimately, after about an hour, the fact that an assassination attempt on Heydrich was even attempted was enough for Hitler to acquiesce, fearing that Bohemia was not as pacified as previously thought and that removing Heydrich might make the situation worse, and he wrote a reply letter that approved of his plans.

Himmler showed considerably more caution when he got the letter. Granted, he was still impressed with Heydrich and how his main subordinate dealt with the assassin. But he was worried about the prospect of redeploying SS Divisions, fearing he might have to redeploy some from the front with Case Blue not that far from starting. But when Hitler called him for a meeting the next day, he accepted.

The two met at around 3:00 PM Berlin time the next day at the Maybach complex. Himmler notified Hitler about the state of the several SS divisions and where they were: the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, his personal division, and the Wiking were preparing for Case Blue, the Das Reich was getting refitted into a Panzergrenadier division, the Totenkoph was still licking it’s wounds from Demyansk, the Polizei was in Leningrad, the Nord was in Northern Finland, the Prinz Eugen was in German-occupied Yugoslavia, and the Florian Geyer was with Army Group Center. He also noticed two other people who were also with Hitler when he walked into the room: the Chief of the OKW, the German high command, and the Chief of the OKW’s Operations Staff, Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl, respectively.

Keitel and Jodl were there because Hitler also considered the possibility that infantry divisions were to be deployed to help Heydrich, and he recalled the pair from the Wolf’s Lair the day before and told them to map out where infantry divisions were, and which ones were close enough to Bohemia and Moravia so that they could be redeployed to the area while not delaying Case Blue, with Hitler also saying that no panzer divisions or divisions that will be participating in Case Blue should be redeployed. When Himmler attempted to persuade Hitler to keep the Heer from participating, Hitler responded with “we’re gonna need as much force as possible to grind those vermin to dust and keep them from ever rising again”. To that Himmler relented, and he hoped Heydrich would be happy with the fact he will have to make do with both Heer and Waffen-SS divisions, and a lot more troops than he likely wanted.

Ultimately, the 4 decided after a couple of hours of planning that the following units would be sent to the borders of Bohemia and Moravia:
-the 7th SS-Volunteer Division Prinz Eugen
-the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
-Einsatzgruppen E
-the 7th and 187th Infantry Divisions
The operation was called “Operation Vermin”, named after what Heydrich often called the Czechs. It involved the infantry and Waffen-SS units surrounding Bohemia and Moravia and then marching into the protectorate from different directions, destroying key resistance strongpoints and villages located by the RHSA suspected of harboring partisans using artillery and using the Einsatzgruppen and police units to kill captured or left behind Czech partisans, and mop up the towns in the army’s wake. The units already in Bohemia and Moravia would attempt to coordinate with the attack force and attack the partisans from behind.

Hitler also ordered Himmler to create another Einsautzgruppen group consisting of reserve and Gestapo units to help Einsatzgruppen E and the attack force, named Einsatzgruppen G, alongside ordering Himmler to consolidate Ordnungspolizei, or the Order Police, into SS Police regiments, to which 8 of them (the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 12th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st) would take part, and authorizing another Aufstellungswelle (deployment wave), with the 3 divisions to be raised (the 38th, 39th, and 65th) taking part. All in all, over 122,000 men were going to participate in the operation, with the units being organized into the Army of Bohemia. The attack date was originally decided to be on June 15 but was pushed back to June 29, to coincide with Case Blue, and allow the newly built units the time to train and get to the front.

The plan wasn’t perfect. Keitel, Jodl, and Himmler repeatedly argued as to who between the Heer and the Waffen-SS would take center stage on the attack, with Hitler mediating and siding with the first 2 due to the higher numbers of Heer troops, even if the Waffen-SS were chosen to be the elite troops of the force and the police regiments involved were placed under SS control to keep Himmler satisfied. Hitler also wanted the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord to be added to the force, which Keitel, Jodl, and Himmler all rejected, with the former 2 rejecting because they didn't want the SS to take more of the glory, while the latter rejected because the SS division would have taken a couple of weeks at the least to get to Bohemia. The 2nd SS Das Reich division was also proposed to be added to the force by Himmler, but the proposal was shot down by Keitel, Jodl, and Hitler due to the division still being refitted. Nonetheless, the four prepared a telegram to be sent to Prague to notify Heydrich of the decided plan and order of battle.

 

[jasper the spectator]

When he got the telegram, Heydrich was surprised to know that Keitel and Jodl were involved, and that Himmler and Hitler went as far as to plan a whole operation and allocate more forces than he wanted to crush the Czech partisans. But even with the Heer involved, he didn't complain. The more troops the better, and crushing the Czech resistance thoroughly enough once to the point where it would never come back was better than crushing it once and it popping back up at a later date.

After he read the telegram, he ordered all police units under the RHSA’s departments (the SD and the Sicherheitspolizei, the latter consisting of the Gestapo and the Kriminalpolizei) in Slovakia and nearby Weltkreig to be moved to the border, to help the Einsatzgruppen and Ordnungspolizei units identify and kill partisans. He also ordered the SD to locate Czech villages suspected to harbor partisans or contacts with the assassins and to start listing down names. These villages and people were to be burned and killed, respectively, as the troops swept through the protectorate.

Meanwhile, the investigation to find the assassins were still ongoing. Heydrich was getting increasingly infuriated that the "vermin who attempted to assassinate him" had still not been found. The Gestapo though had found word from a defector that someone who looked suspiciously like one of the assassins was going to meet some other people on June 3. Heydrich was still skeptical that that was actually the assassin that survived (the British and Czechoslovak government-in-exile knew that this person was Jan Kubiš), but nonetheless ordered the Gestapo and Police units in Prague into heightened readiness for the next few days. He hoped June 3 was gonna be the date when he could finally kill the assassins and avenge himself.

As for Kubiš himself, he and Valčík had still been hiding with the family for the past couple of days while they tried to communicate with the other 4 Czech commandos in Prague (Adolf Opálka, Josef Bublík, Jaroslav Švarc, and Jan Hrubý). The 2 were able to establish contact, and they called for a secret meeting on June 3. The duo had noticed the heightened security that engulfed Prague in the wake of the failed assassination attempt, and the pair wanted to make the meeting as secret as possible to keep the Gestapo from arresting all 6 of them. Ultimately, they hoped they wouldn't get caught and dragged into the German dungeons, and were ready to blow their brains out if the Gestapo did find them..

 

[jasper the spectator]

The Czechoslovak government-in-exile was stunned when they received the news that Operation Anthropoid had failed. Mostly because they knew they planned the assassination to prove to the British that Czechoslovakia was taking its part in the Allied war effort, as there had been little resistance in the country since 1938, and Heydrich didn't help matters. The exiled government felt that it needed to do something that would inspire the Czechoslovaks to take up armed resistance against the Nazis, which was why they planned for Heydrich to be assassinated in the first place.

There was also a legal question involved as to whether the Beneš government was a continuation of the First Republic or a successor without solid constitutional underpinnings. Beneš hoped Operation Anthropoid would cause Britain to repudiate the Munich Agreement, thus conferring legitimacy on the Beneš government as the continuation of the First Republic. With the operation over and a failure, the government decided to lick its wounds, and immediately named Jozef Gabčík a martyr and a Czechoslovak national hero, and they sent an order to Kubiš, Valčík, and the other commandos in Prague to coordinate and try another attempt to assassinate Heydrich.

The British themselves were also surprised that the operation failed, and that cast doubts onto the legitimacy of the Beneš committee/government. And while the legality of the government in exile was still preserved, as Churchill and the government decided to keep their recognition, while the United States and USSR didn't really care but didn't rescind their recognition, the Committee felt increasingly insecure as meetings between them and the British grew increasingly rare. They also decided to not repudiate the Munich Agreement, a decision that the committee still cried wolf about, and would later come under scrutiny once Operation Vermin began.

Kubiš and Valčík and the other commandos themselves didn’t get the order, mostly due to a lack of ways they and the government-in-exile could communicate. But in general, both of them didn’t want to re-do Operation Anthropoid. They both knew that Heydrich would almost certainly try to boost his security unless he didn't learn a thing from the assassination attempt, and they knew he did once they saw Heydrich driving with an 8-car convoy filled to the brim with SS guards.

They also felt that Operation Anthropoid was the best chance they had to kill him. And even if there were 6 commandos participating in this operation instead of just 2, the chances they break through the guard convoy and are able to kill Heydrich were doubtful, to say the least. Nonetheless, they hoped they could resolve this question through a vote during the meeting in a couple of days. Kubiš also didn’t want to relive the moment that killed his friend, fearing he would be killed the next time they would try, even if he wanted to avenge said friend.

 

[Pat the Baker]

Nice start.

 

[jasper the spectator]

Nice start.

Thank you! Even if we're already 5 chapters in.

 

[jasper the spectator]

Jan Kubiš and Josef Valčík sit in a pair of chairs in the center of the table, with Adolf Opálka and Josef Bublík flanking them from the left, and Jaroslav Švarc and Jan Hrubý from the right. The 6 were in a basement under the home of the family Kubiš and Valčík had been hiding with since Operation Anthropoid failed. They had not known that the government-in-exile had ordered that they should attempt another coordinated effort to assassinate Heydrich due to a lack of communication. Instead, the group decided to hold a vote as to whether they would go along with the request.

“So?”, Kubiš opened up. “I think most of you already know why we are all here.”

“Yes.”, Bublík said. “It was because you and the late martyr and hero Gabčík failed to assassinate Heydrich.”

“Correct.”, Valčík responded. “And while there are other reasons me and Kubiš have called this meeting, like the increasing presence of the Gestapo on the streets, that is the main reason why.”

“So, what are we gonna do?” Hrubý asked.

“We are gonna hold a vote as to whether we should try to do Operation Anthropoid again, or whether we shouldn’t,” Kubiš said. “The government-in-exile in London would probably want us to re-do Operation Anthropoid, end of story. But we can't really communicate with them right now, so we're gonna do our own way to decide whether we should re-do it. It’s simple, raise your hand when I say “all in favor” if you want us to try again, and raise your hand when I say “all in opposition to trying again if you don’t want us to try again. Understood?”

Nods followed that statement, ensuring to Kubiš that they understood the course of action,

“Ok. All in favor.” Opálka, Bublík, Švarc, and Hrubý all raised their hands. “All in opposition.” Kubiš and Valčík then raised their hands. The 2 quickly realized they were outnumbered and that the majority of the commandos favored redoing Operation Anthropoid. They sighed after they realized, but decided not to contest the results.

“So it’s settled. Kubiš said. “We’re gonna be re-doing Operation Anthropoid. Now, let’s get ready to plan out how we're gonna assassinate Heydrich again-

Suddenly, the 6 heard a knock on the door. Opálka volunteered to open it, and he saw a crying woman, who Kubiš said was the mother.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“The Gestapo and SS, they’re here! They have taken my husband and children before they could run! And now they’re coming down here!” She exclaimed.

Soon realizing what that meant, Opálka quickly pulled her in the room and locked the door. He then yelled what she said, and the group quickly prepared their pistols for whenever the SS and Gestapo would inevitably enter the room. The door then croaked a bit, before a Gestapo officer entered the room.

“Fire!”, Opálka said. And within seconds the Gestapo officer laid dead. The group quickly looted his corpse for guns and bullets, as they heard the stomps of SS men going down the stairs.

Opálka then ran forward, and tried to barricade the door best he could using the table and some pipes already in the room, before a machine gun ripped the makeshift barricade and door to pieces, killing him with it. Pistol shots then killed another 2 SS soldiers as the Germans tried to get in.

Realizing frontal assaults wouldn’t work, the commander of the SS squad then ordered the use of grenades. 3 grenades were then thrown into the room, incinerating the center and killing the woman, Bublík, Švarc, and Hrubý, while heavily injuring Kubiš and Valčík. The 2 then mustered their last remaining strength and shot themselves before the SS and Gestapo could take them.

 

[jasper the spectator]

Aides noted that Heydrich jumped with a surprising bout of joy once the news that 6 Czech commandos, hoping at least one of them was the one that survived the attempt on his life, had been founded and killed by the Gestapo and SS. And once that was confirmed after the family that had harbored the commandos was tortured and gave up the info, the joy increased, going to the point where he even quoted one of his father’s operas. After the bout was over, he returned to the ruthless and tempered man he was known for and ordered the aides to leave as he still hadn’t finished something.

That something was the lists of the villages to be burned and the people to be arrested. He had specifically exempted leading figures in the Czech resistance movement, and the Czech partisans themselves during the initial reprisals. One of the reasons was that most of them had already been arrested, especially ones from the main Czech resistance organization, the Central Leadership of Home Resistance or the ÚVOD, which had been reduced to small cells that were more often than not disorganized and isolated. By this point, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), had become the main resistance movement, mostly because they weren’t as utterly decapitated as the ÚVOD.

The other reason was Operation Vermin. He had initially conceived of the second wave of reprisals using one or 2 Waffen-SS divisions that would target the resistance organizations and wipe the remnants of the ÚVOD out of existence while severely weakening the Communists, but the conception of Operation Vermin threw that out the window. The second wave would have to wait, but that gave him more time to consolidate the arrest lists.

By this point, the SD and Gestapo had put together a list of 5,000 individuals, large numbers of which were prominent figures of the resistance and Czech artists, authors, painters, performers, and singers, that were already out of a job due to the closing of the ways they could perform or express their talents, that will be arrested and executed in Operation Vermin. The “villages that will be burned” list at this point had around 20 villages on it, and the SD was still finding more that were suspected of harboring partisans, but Heydrich had stated that the number of villages should not surpass 3 dozen. By this point, he expected the village list to be maxed out by next week at the least.

He also learned of an order from the OKW that ordered that 2 divisions from the occupation force in Norway, the 69th and 702nd, 2 divisions from France, the 106th and 335th, and a division from Serbia, the 717th, were to be redeployed to the Army of Bohemia, swelling its numbers to nearly 190,000. He was satisfied with the extra force, as to him, the more force the better, and he wanted the Czech resistance as dead as possible.

He also pondered whether to write a letter to Hitler offering his resignation and agreeing to what Hitler had planned the day the assassination attempt happen, now that the assassin that survived the attempt on his life had been killed, and his personal pride had been redeemed. But he ultimately decided against it, hoping he could do that once Operation Vermin was done.

 

[Angmar]

interesting to See. I dont believe that IT will have some effect in the war but in the Europa after the war

 

[jasper the spectator]

interesting to See. I dont believe that IT will have some effect in the war but in the Europa after the war

Interesting to hear. Granted i plan to stop this timeline once WW2 is over. Or if Heydrich isn't killed off by then when the Nuremberg trials happen. Mostly because:
A. I can't really tell how Heydrich surviving would affect post-war Europe.
B. Outlined in the OP, but i intend this timeline to be one of those that changes how the war goes, but not the final outcome.
C. Time constraints. I still want to attempt that Cultural Revolution SI idea i've been pondering for god knows how long by know. And there's also school because ofc.
But what do you think are the effects a surviving Heydrich has on post-war Europe?

 

[Angmar]

I think that the Czech-Slovak government is in a worse position. Also, the Munich Agreement would not be revoked so far.
So theoretically the Sudentenland and maybe Austria would belong to a post-war Germany.

But it can still happen a lot.
Am in any case curious and look forward to reading more.

 

[jasper the spectator]

Also, the Munich Agreement would not be revoked so far.
So theoretically the Sudentenland and maybe Austria would belong to a post-war Germany.

I'll say this, given I've already teased it in Chapter 5: But Operation Vermin is gonna complicate matters about whether to dissolve the Munich Agreement.

Am in any case curious and look forward to reading more.

Thank you!

 

[jasper the spectator]

Edvard Beneš sits on his office, waiting and pondering. The failure of Operation Anthropoid had stung pretty hard. And he didn’t know whether the commandos still in Prague would attempt it again, though he hoped they would. The chilly silence in his office was broken after František Moravec, the chief of the Czechoslovak Military Intelligence Service entered the room.

“Ah. Moravec, welcome.”

“Pleasure to meet again, Beneš.” Moravec responded

“What do you have to report to me today?”

“Well, remember when you said to me to look out for whether the commandos would attempt Operation Anthropoid again?”

“Yes?”

“Well, the British have just told me that, Kubiš and Valčík, alongside the other 4 commandos are dead.”

Beneš immediately turned pale at the response, slumping into his chair and thinking about the ramifications that another attempt on Heydrich’s life now being impossible unless the entire process would have to be done all over again. After a few minutes, he regained his posture.

“Where did the British find the evidence?”

“From reports through British codebreakers. Propaganda has also been made where the 6 commandos’ names were displayed as a warning to resistant Czechs.”

Beneš sighed “Well, i guess that means we can’t do Operation Anthropoid again unless we do the 8 months of planning again?”

“Probably, though we will never know whether Kubiš, Valčík, and the other commandos had decided whether they would re-do Operation Anthropoid or stay hiding.”

“Ugh. Anyways, Moravec, did you get any news from the British codebreaking department?

“Yes. British codebreakers had intercepted the codes for a plan called Operation Vermin, allegedly about a German re-invasion of Czechoslovakia, just without Slovakia.”

“Well, i guess the Germans went berzerk after the failed attempt to kill Heydrich and decided on revenge against the Czechs?”

“Yes sir. The codebreakers have said it’s mostly focused on crushing the Czech resistance. 10 infantry divisions and 2 Waffen-SS divisions are allocated, alongside large numbers of police units, a concentration of forces that bemused and confused the codebreakers.”

“More problems for the Czech resistance that we now have no contact with, lovely! Are there any ways where we can intervene in Operation Vermin?”

“I don’t know for sure whether we can help sir?”

“How about the British? Can we ask them whether they can bomb some of the German forces or parachute the 2,000 troops we have in Britain to Czechia?”

“Maybe sir”

“Moravec you’re dismissed for now. Go ask the British whether they’d be willing to do any of those. I need some time to think. Come back when you get results.”

“Will do, sir”

Moravec quickly left the room as Beneš slumped back to his chair and sipped some of his tea. The news of the commandos and Operation Vermin had hurt, as he now didn’t have anyone in Prague that he hoped could attempt to assassinate Heydrich again, and the contacts between the government-in-exile and the resistance groups had been severed months ago, which meant the resistance groups would likely be unprepared for the onslaught. At this point, he could only pray they hold, even if that would need nothing short of a miracle. And he could only pray the British would agree to either bomb a German division or parachute the Czech troops in their country to Czechia. Or better yet, both.

Several hours later

“Hello again, sir Beneš.”

“Welcome back Moravec. So, have the British agreed to do any of the 2 plans I suggested?"

“Not really. The British decided it’d be best if the both of us meet with the highest commanders in the RAF to decide which of the 2 plans is more feasible and can be done.”

“Well, okay then. Moravec, you’re dismissed for the day.”

 

[r1ncewind]

Dropping 2000 paratroopers with no hope of relief deep behind German lines with several divisions about to swarm the area?

 

[jasper the spectator]

Dropping 2000 paratroopers with no hope of relief deep behind German lines with several divisions about to swarm the area?

It's basically an idea to do a one-way attack to drop the paratroopers to both bolster the Czech resistance and stiffen and prepare them for Operation Vermin. Beneš and Moravec know that repulsing the Germans is impossible, what they want is a propaganda victory to showcase the valiance of the Czech resistors, similar to what Operation Anthropoid did in OTL, and to bloody and distract the Germans as much as possible.

 

[Angmar]

Sounds more like suicide.

And let's assume that they succeed and give the German troops a bloody nose, even that we see something like the Warsaw Uprising.
The reaction of Heydrich to this will not be funny.
He will rather make a massacre so that there will never be an uprising again. He will make an example.

Moreover, it is 1941, the German army and the Third Reich is at the height of its power.
And the air defenses still work. So I don't know how several planes will get from England to the Czech Republic without being shot down.