Seventy years ago, in October 1941, a daring military operation codenamed Anthropoid began to be planned in Porchester Gate to kill SS Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich - one of the most powerful officials of the German Third Reich and the acting Reichs Protector in Bohemia and Moravia. The operation was planned by the Czechoslovak military intelligence-in-exile together with the British Secret Service. Great deal of the ambitious undercover plan was outlined in the Porchester Gate building where the Czechoslovak Military Intelligence Unit resided.

In September 1941, Reinhard Heydrich arrived in Prague and quickly earned his nickname “The Butcher of Prague”. Thousands of people were executed or sent to concentration camps. His aim was the total germanising of the Czech lands. President Beneš felt that something quite dramatic must be done.

In October 1941, President Beneš decided to hit back directly at Heydrich in Operation Athropoid. Operation was planned with the assistance of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Porchester Gate and carried out by two Czechoslovak soldiers Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík in Prague on May 27 1942.

The unveiling was made possible thank to the support of Jan Kaplan (Jan Kaplan Archive), City of Westminster and the Free Czechoslovak Air Force Association.

Media enquiries to be addressed to David Steinke, press attaché of the Czech Embassy: david_steinke@mzv.cz, Tel.: 0272437917