Jozef Gabčík (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈjɔzev ˈɡaptʂiːk]; 8 April 1912 – 18 June 1942) was a Slovak soldier in the Czechoslovak Army involved in the Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of acting Reichsprotektor (Realm-Protector) of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.

)[citation needed] In 1937, he began work at a military chemical plant in Žilina; after an accident, however, he was transferred to the gas storage facility (which belonged to the Czechoslovak army) in Trenčín.

[citation needed] The breakup of the Czechoslovak Republic and the subsequent emergence (on 14 March 1939) of the clero-fascist and anti-Czech Slovak State he did not accept – when German Wehrmacht took over the military depot he sabotaged it.

[citation needed] Following France's surrender, together with remnants of Czechoslovak troops, he evacuated (12 July 1940) to Great Britain where he was trained as a paratrooper.

Kubiš recovered and, jumped on his bicycle and pedalled away, scattering passengers spilling from the tram, by firing in the air with his Colt M1903 pistol.

Klein tried to fire at him but dazed by the explosion, pressed the magazine release catch and the gun jammed.

Heydrich returned fire and ducked behind the stalled tram, when he suddenly doubled over and staggered to the side of the road in pain.

[9] Gabčík fled into a butcher shop, where the owner, a man named Brauer, who was a Nazi sympathiser and had a brother who worked for the Gestapo, ignored Gabčík's request for help, and ran out into the roadway, attracting Klein's attention by shouting and pointing.

[12] A rigorous investigation of the assassination determined that it was planned and executed by the Czech Resistance with the assistance of the British.

The oppression and persecution of the defiant Czechs reached its peak following the failure of Nazi soldiers to capture the assassins alive.

More than 13,000 people were ultimately arrested and tortured, including the girlfriend of Jan Kubiš, Anna Malinová, who died at Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.

[17] Coinciding with the release of the film Anthropoid (2016), campaigners called for Gabčík's and Kubiš's bodies to be exhumed from the mass grave at the Ďáblice Cemetery in northern Prague, and to be given a dignified burial fitting "the heroes of anti-Nazi resistance".

[18] A memorial stone for Gabčík and Kubiš can be found in the grounds of St John the Baptist Church in Ightfield (ref W9VR+FJ Whitchurch on Google Maps).