The Mercedes mystery of the Prague attack on Heydrich has been resolved

If the Nazi investigators had not incredibly forgotten to note down the most obvious detail, there would be no mystery about it Mercedes Benz 320B Of Reinhard Heydrich of the attack inOperation Anthropoid of May 27, 1942, who died following his injuries due to another incredible circumstance. The Germans were obsessive in sifting through that open limousine, photographing it from every angle and in every detail, but they didn’t note the serial number.

And yes, Mercedes only produced 43 examples of that model. But now he Czech historians they are absolutely certain that they have found and restored the original modelthe one targeted by Czechoslovakian parachutists Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík who eliminated one of the most ruthless Nazi hierarchs, Reichsprotektor in Boemia Moravia governed with an iron fist, for which definitions such as were coined Blonde beast, Executioner of Prague e Prague butcher. So ruthless that the operation to assassinate him, the only successful one at that level during the Second World Warshe was called Anthropoid because Heydrich only had human features. On the other hand, Hitler had defined him, from his point of view with admiration, as theMan with an iron heart.

From the SS to the Czechoslovak political police, only to end up in a barn

The launch is scheduled for May 24, 2026 public presentationfor the first time, of Mercedes 320B (W 142 II) del 1937in honor of anti-Nazi resistancea Prague 8 where the events of 1942 took place, in Centro culturale di Ládví. After examination by German investigators at the time, the car was repaired as best as possible. Once the war is over it will be confiscated by State Security (StB)the Czechoslovakian secret policeand in 1953 it will end up in a military depot, then in the Přelouč arsenal.

In 1960 it was sold for a negligible price to a soldier, Josef Novakand in the following decade the Mercedes decappottabile will be hospitalized in a barn in Pardubicewhere it will be purchased from classic car collector František Dostálwho began to restore it, and then sold it to the entrepreneur in 2007 Vladimir Macek. It had long since lost its original black livery for a more anonymous blue. All the signs ofattack and of the military origin had been removed with replacement of pieces, welding and putty, and obviously repainting.

Precisely starting from the mechanical and bodywork manipulations guild historians Jaroslav Čvančara and Eduard Stehlíktogether with others forensic expertsthey managed to trace the traces of the damage caused by the grenade launched by Jan Kubiš and exploded at the right rear wheel and mudguard. Therefore the presence of the base for the flag on the right front mudguard and for the additional reflector on the left one. Traces of the splintersin addition to the discovery of pieces of glass dating back to the time of the attack (about forty finds). In the passenger seatback, the metal mesh still bore the damage caused by the splinters that injured it Heydrichwith the leakage of the horsehair padding responsible for the infection that led to his death on June 4, 1942: Sulphonamides couldn’t do anything and German doctors didn’t have penicillin.

Extensive research in the archives and discussions with forensic specialists

Before proceeding to a long and very expensive restoration of the original skeletonstarted with the complete disassembly, each element was compared and compared with the photo of German military experts from 1942. Exhausting research in Czech and German archives led to verifying the pieces through the codes affixed by Mercedeswith the collaboration of experts in restoration. Chatterboxan authority onOperation Anthropoid and on the period of Protectorateand the director of Memoriale di Lidice, Goldfinchthey now say they are certain that the car used by Heydrich to go from Panenské Břežany where he lived with his family to his residence at Prague Castleand the subject ofambush on the tight bend in Holešovice that morning at the end of May 1942, it is right there Mercedes del 1937 (W 142 II) found in a barn in Pardubicenow a wreck with obvious signs of damage and resting on a pile of logs, subsequently carried by A cat in a specialized workshop near Hradec Králové.

The Reichsprotektor traveled in an open car to challenge the resistance

A Prague the almighty Himmler’s right-hand manmainly responsible for Shoahused more than one Mercedes as a representative car. As a sign of defiance, to demonstrate to the Czechoslovakians who feared nothing or anyone, he traveled in convertibledespite having been advised against it several times. After his death – which will unleash a bloodbath and the total destruction of the town of Lidice in retaliation with the killing of all males and the deportation of women and children – ai hierarchs it will be forbidden to move with open cars. At the funeral of Heydrich the same Hitlerwho also admired his ruthlessness, said that theMan with an iron heart he had been really stupid to move with an open car.