Operation Out Distance was a

Czech resistance Czechoslovak resistance to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II began after the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the formation of the protectorate o ...

group active during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was dispatched by Special Group D of the Ministry of Defence of the

Czechoslovak government in exile The Czechoslovak government-in-exile, sometimes styled officially as the Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia (; ), was an informal title conferred upon the Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee (; ), initially by British diplomatic rec ...

in London. The group operated in the

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...

, a region of occupied

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

File:Operace Anthropoid - Adolf Opálka.jpg,

Adolf Opálka First Lieutenant Adolf Opálka (4 January 1915 – 18 June 1942) was a Czechoslovak soldier, member of the Czech sabotage group Out Distance, a World War II anti-Nazi resistance group, and a participant in Operation Anthropoid, the successfu ...

File:Operace Anthropoid - Karel Čurda.jpg, Karel Čurda, became a Nazi collaborator File:Ivan Kolařík, Czechoslovak resistance fighter.jpg, Ivan Kolařík

Operations

At 2 AM on 28 March 1942, the group parachuted from a British Halifax aircraft which also carried the unsuccessful group Zink. Their objectives included sabotaging gasworks in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, delivering radio-sets to other resistance fighters, and guiding bombers to the

Škoda Works The Škoda Works (, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century. In 1859, Czech engineer Emil Škoda bought a foundry and machine factory in Plzeň, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary that had been established ten ye ...

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

. Due to a navigation error they landed in Ořechov, not their intended destination, resulting in the loss of significant material and pursuit by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. Consequently, the group members decided to split and operate independently. Ivan Kolařík, a member of the group, committed suicide on 1 April 1942, after losing his fake ID, in a desperate attempt to shield his family from reprisals following the compromise of his cover. First Lieutenant

and Karel Čurda travelled to Prague to join

Operation Anthropoid Reinhard Heydrich, the commander of the German Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the acting governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a principal architect of the Holocaust, was assassinated during the Second World War in a coordin ...

, aimed at assassinating high ranking German SS official

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...

. Upon joining group Silver A, Opálka was tasked with commanding the parachute groups. The operation successfully eliminated Heydrich, but in the aftermath, as mass executions started during the second martial law, Čurda sought refuge with his mother in Nová Hlína. Unable to withstand the physical and emotional strain and seeking to protect his family, Čurda betrayed his military oath by providing the

with information after an announcement promising leniency for such intelligence. This led to the discovery of the assassins’ hideout at Prague's Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral. A fierce battle ensued, resulting in the death or suicide of Opálka and other resistors. Čurda subsequently assisted the Gestapo in identifying the bodies of fellow parachutists, receiving a portion of the 10 million

Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replace ...

reward offered by the occupiers. After the war, Karel Čurda was apprehended and brought before an extraordinary people's court, which found him guilty of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

. He was sentenced to death and subsequently executed by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

Pankrác Prison Pankrác Prison, officially Prague Pankrác Remand Prison (), is a prison in Prague, Czech Republic. A part of the Czech Prison Service, it is located southeast of Prague city centre in Pankrác, not far from Pražského povstání metro stati ...

on 29 April 1947.

References

External links

*
Out Distance parachute memorial
*
Who was who in Czechoslovak history
{{Authority control Czech resistance groups People killed by Nazi Germany Czechoslovak soldiers Operation Anthropoid