MovieChat Forums > Anthropoid (2016) Discussion > Point of the operation

Point of the operation

posted 8 years ago by aimc (72)
3 replies | jump to latest

The resistance leader knew it all along. Carry out the operation and reprisals would be devastating. Entire villages razed, tens of thousands killed and thousands tortured. He did not see a point to the operation.

The American sniper Carlos Hathcock was said to have regretted an assassination mission because it caused many reprisal attacks.

It seems that high profile (or not high enough) assassinations might not be an effective strategy. Heydrich was not a critical strategist and killing him did not make the Germans less savage in their oppression of occupied lands.

So were the original goals of these operations misguided in overestimating the importance of the targets? If they thought the successor would be intimidated because his predecessor was assassinated, they were probably wrong. Or did the prospect of punching back trump all other considerations.

OTOH, assassinations are part of war, in the Vietnam case. For Czechoslovakia, partisans may have done more damage than good for their own people, as morbid as that sounds.

[–] Sandoz (2021) 7 years ago

The reason for the mission wasn't so much an overestimation of the target and whether Heydrich's death would significantly impact the course of the war, but it was also a symbolic blow to prove to partisan groups--and especially those in Czechoslovakia--that operations like this were possible and serve as a rallying point to provide proof that resistance could contribute to the fight for freedom.

It's debatable whether the killing of Heydrich was worth the reprisals that followed, but then again, every action undertaken in war is debatable, isn't it?

And incidentally, Heydrich was the highest ranking Nazi ever killed by direct action during the entire war.

[–] aimc (72) 7 years ago

Debatable, yes, and is the support for the value of the op bragging rights for getting the highest ranking Nazi?

Proving it can be done causes the Germans to prove that the reprisals will be disproportional. Perhaps it does incite other partisan groups but there really isn't anything special about a Heydrich, who is just a henchman easily replaced.

[–] Sandoz (2021) 7 years ago

Heydrich was more than just a henchman. He was the architect of the Final Solution, which I'm sure I don't need to explain what that was. He also had a meteoric rise within the ranks of the SS, having become Himmler's right-hand man. And he was someone known to and admired by Hitler.