User:Jay D. Easy/sandbox/Josef Valčík

Josef Valčík (2 November 1914 – 18 June 1942) was a Czech operative of the British Special Operations Executive during World War II who parachuted into German-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1941 as part of Operation Silver A. They were tasked to link up with the Czechoslovak resistance and to maintain covert radio communications with the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London.

When this fell through, he was reassigned to Operation Anthropoid; the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking German Nazi and one of the principal architects of the Holocaust. The operation was successfully executed. On 18 June 1942, German authorities had tracked their location to Prague's Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral. A prolonged gun battle with Waffen-SS troops ensued.

The Czechoslovak operatives were heavily outnumbered and cornered in the church's crypt, which lacked an escape route. The German objective was to catch them alive, and the defenders were well aware that the SS intended to subject them to brutal torture in such an event. Valčík and his fellow compatriots realized the futility of their situation and committed suicide with their service weapons.

Massive reprisals were carried out by SS troops. The village of Lidice was destroyed and its population massacred.

Early life
Josef Valčík was born on 2 November 1914, in Valašské Klobouky, in the eastern part of the Czech lands in what was then part of Austria-Hungary, close to the Slovak border. His parents were Jan and Veronika and he had three brothers and four sisters. He graduated from high school and then worked as a tanner.

Valčík began his military service in October 1936, when he joined the Czechoslovak Army as a conscript and became part of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, stationed in Jičín. He rose to the rank of sergeant in a short amount of time. After the Munich Agreement of September 1938, his unit moved into the Krkonoše Mountains close to the Polish border. Valčík was discharged from the army in March 1939, after Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

World War II
Valčík went back to his job as a tanner. In December 1939, he fled the country and passed through Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Egypt, before arriving in France in 1940. He was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 1st Czechoslovak Infantry Division in France and was sent to the front when Germany invaded France. He was evacuated from France by way of Sète, where he boarded the Egyptian SS Mohamed Ali El-Kebir. He arrived in Liverpool on 13 July.

Training in Britain
In Britain, Valčík joined the Czechoslovak army-in-exile and underwent grueling specialized military training after volunteering to take part in operations behind enemy lines in the occupied home territory. He joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and underwent parachute training in Manchester, followed by combat training by British commandos. Each morning began with a 10 km run in addition to visiting the shooting range three times a day. They were often dropped at a distance of from their base, at an unknown location. It was up to them to find their way back to base. Valčík was taught morse code, self-defense techniques, and how to handle a variety of weapons. He became an explosives expert and a skilled saboteur.

In 1941, Valčík was picked for Operation Silver A. Also selected were Alfréd Bartoš, as team leader, and Jiří Potůček, as cryptographer and radio operator. Their mission was to link up with members of the Czechoslovak resistance and establish communications with the government-in-exile in London. Volunteers for SOE missions were sometimes referred to as the "Suicide Club". There was a high risk of dying while on such missions. This is attributed to the fact that operations were frequently conducted behind any lines or undercover.

Operation Silver A
They were flown to Czechoslovakia aboard an RAF aircraft along with Anthropoid participants Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, and Silver B participants Jan Zemek and Vladimír Škacha. The men parachuted into occupied territory on 28 December 1941.

The Germans were unable to locate the attackers until Karel Čurda of the Out Distance sabotage group turned himself in to the Gestapo and gave them the names of the team's local contacts for the reward of one million Reichsmarks. Valčík and the others died after a six-hour firefight with Waffen-SS troops and German police in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

Aftermath
Czech village inhabitants executed. Family members mostly killed.