Reinhard Heydrich (WL)

Reinhard Heydrich is a major antagonist in ''Warring Legends' World War II. ''He was a high-ranking German Nazi official and a main architect of the Holocaust. He was an SS Senior Group Leader and Chief of Police as well as Chief of the Reich Security Office. He was also Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.

Assassination
In London, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile resolved to kill Heydrich. Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik headed the team chosen for the operation and the pair returned to the Protectorate, parachuting from a Handley Page Halifax on 28 December 1941. They lived in hiding, preparing for the assassination attempt.

On 27 May 1942, Heydrich planned to meet Hitler in Berlin. Heydrich would have to pass a section where the Dresden-Prague road to the Troja Bridge. The junction, in the Prague suburb of Liben, was well suited for the attack because the motorists have to slow for a hairpin bend. As Heydrich's car slowed, Gabcik took aim with a Sten submachine gun, but it jammed and failed to fire. Instead of ordering his driver to speed away, Heydrich called his car to halt and attempted to confront the attackers. Kubis then threw a bomb at the rear of the car as it stopped. The explosion wounded both Heydrich and Kubis.

When the smoke cleared, Heydrich emerged from the wreckage with his gun in his hand; he chased Kubis and tried to return fire. Kubis jumped on his bicycle and pedaled away. Heydrich ran after him but became weak from shock and collapsed. He sent his driver, Klein, to chase Gabcik on foot. In the ensuing firefight, Gabcik shot Klein in the leg and escaped to a local safe house. Heydrich, still with a pistol in hand, gripped his left flank, which was bleeding profusely.

A Czech woman went to Heydrich's aid and flagged down a delivery van. He was first placed in the driver's cab, but complained the van's movement was causing him pain. He was placed on the back of his van, on his stomach, and taken to the emergency room at Bulovka Hospital. He had suffered severe injuries to his left side, with major damage to his diaphragm, spleen and one of his lungs as well as a fractured rib. A doctor, Slanina, packed the chest wound, while another doctor, Walter Diek, tried unsuccessfully to remove the splinters. Heydrich was given several blood transfusions and a splenectomy was performed. The chest wound, left lung and diaphragm were all debrided and the wounds closed.

Himmler ordered another doctor, Karl Gebhardt, to fly to Prague to assume care. Despite a fever, Heydrich's recovery appeared to progress well. Theodor Morell, Hitler's personal doctor, suggested the use of sulfonamide but Gebhardt, thinking Heydrich would recover, declined the suggestion. Himmler visited him and afterwards, Heydrich slipped into a coma and later died on 4 June; an autopsy concluded he died of sepsis.