Reinhard Heydrich, acting governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was driving to Prague on May 27. At 10:30 a.m., two Czech parachutists, who had been trained in England, attacked him at a bend in the road and wounded him seriously with a hand grenade. Two hours after the attack, Hitler issued orders to execute 10,000 Czechs, and he raised this figure to 30,000 after Heydrich died on June 4.
The assassins went into hiding in a church in Prague. They were discovered after denunciation and fell on June 18 after a fierce battle. After they were killed, the mass reprisal order was postponed and subsequently revoked.
On June 10, 1942, the Czech town of Lidice was liquidated, in response to the assassination.
