Thanks guys, yep Ski couldn’t agree more. So, one vote in favour & two abstentions - as mentioned I don’t know where the flying uniform story comes from but most days I’m inclined to believe it. Plausible given the force/direction of blast, the wires were only about 15-20 ft high, and quite likely a dress uniform would have been laid out on the back seat to avoid creases because Heydrich was headed for Prague airport for a conference with Hitler in Berlin later that same day. I can’t imagine why a (presumed) eye-witness would have made it up – they wouldn’t have known about the uniform, and if it was seat upholstery hanging off the wires that was red so hard to mis-identify.

Many thanks Jerry & Erwin for guidance – green piping = SD? What’s the rank & gold badge? For background (according to Wiki) chief investigator Heinz von Pannwitz “was assigned in 1939 to Prague’s Reich Main Security Office, responsible for the Gestapo control room Unit IIa. After the assassination Pannwitz was promptly ordered at the direction of a Special Commission to investigate the assassination of Heydrich. He was the author of the official final report on the assassination & in September 1942 promoted to Kriminalrat, equivalent to SS-Hauptsturmführer or SS-Sturmbannführer. As Pannwitz was not prepared to remove a Gestapo-critical passage after submitting the official final report, he was heavily criticized by the Gestapo.” So that implies he was not Gestapo, and as he’d been a “career policeman” he must therefore have been SD…? Anyhow regarding his subordinates at the crime scene the closest any photo gets to those guys is this one picking up evidence. His epaulette seems to have silver or white piping…SD or SS?



PS How fitting Jerry you posted the 1,000 reply, seeing as this project is entirely your fault as mentioned at the top of page 1 thanks so much for your unstinting support along with others who know who you are

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Thanks guys, yep Ski couldn’t agree more. So, one vote in favour & two abstentions - as mentioned I don’t know where the flying uniform story comes from but most days I’m inclined to believe it. Plausible given the force/direction of blast, the wires were only about 15-20 ft high, and quite likely a dress uniform would have been laid out on the back seat to avoid creases because Heydrich was headed for Prague airport for a conference with Hitler in Berlin later that same day. I can’t imagine why a (presumed) eye-witness would have made it up – they wouldn’t have known about the uniform, and if it was seat upholstery hanging off the wires that was red so hard to mis-identify.

Many thanks Jerry & Erwin for guidance – green piping = SD? What’s the rank & gold badge? For background (according to Wiki) chief investigator Heinz von Pannwitz “was assigned in 1939 to Prague’s Reich Main Security Office, responsible for the Gestapo control room Unit IIa. After the assassination Pannwitz was promptly ordered at the direction of a Special Commission to investigate the assassination of Heydrich. He was the author of the official final report on the assassination & in September 1942 promoted to Kriminalrat, equivalent to SS-Hauptsturmführer or SS-Sturmbannführer. As Pannwitz was not prepared to remove a Gestapo-critical passage after submitting the official final report, he was heavily criticized by the Gestapo.” So that implies he was not Gestapo, and as he’d been a “career policeman” he must therefore have been SD…? Anyhow regarding his subordinates at the crime scene the closest any photo gets to those guys is this one picking up evidence. His epaulette seems to have silver or white piping…SD or SS?



PS How fitting Jerry you posted the 1,000 reply, seeing as this project is entirely your fault as mentioned at the top of page 1 thanks so much for your unstinting support along with others who know who you are

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Well,you are certainly welcome buddy.
The officer in the pic is hard to identify rank wise. All I see is the silver colored thread of a officers' shoulder strap and of course,riding breeches and high quality boots. The uniform in the previous pic shows a SS Major-(sturmbahnf.)I believe the gold badge was a sports award. "Leistungsabzeichen". The Bundeswehr still awards those and they look much the same. I hard scrabbled a bronze version last time I was stationed in Germany and it was a real ordeal! So,getting the Gold version makes you a real beas and a man amoungst men!
To add further to the mix there was still the regular police. "Polizei" but they had a different uniform and very distinctive hat. Many regular police were folded into the new SS when it became the regimes' new state apparatus. One would think they put a former regular police detective in charge of this investigation because that is what someone like that normally did. But he may have been now serving in the SS in the same job description?
Sorry,long winded answer but the SS was not a simple organisation. I spent years trying to unravel it and now I am spending years trying to unravel the British Regimental system,Hahahahahaaaa!
HTH
J

Hi Tim,

I have come across your Anthropoid project and found it absolutely fascinating. As someone who was born in (former) Czechoslovakia, I am very interested in the history of Operation Anthropoid. Your diorama is looking to be an incredible piece of artwork that should be placed in a museum! I am looking forward to following your progress.

As for your questions about the road signs, there is an article on the subject on the Czech Wikipedia: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopravn%C3%AD_zna%C4%8Den%C3%AD_v_%C4%8Ceskoslovensku.

According to this article, the first sign would be white in the middle with red edges (marking a road with the right of way in the intersection). The present-day sign with the yellow in the middle and white along the edges was introduced after WWII (not sure exactly when, but believe it was sometime in the 1950's).

The second sign would be a black arrow on a white background. I am not sure there would necessarily be a thin red border, but it is possible (it would be present on the full round version of the road sign, however).

Hope this helps! Looking forward to following your project!

Jan

Here you are:

1st line - Klein-Holleschowitz
2nd line - K Holešovičkám (street name in Czech)
3rd line - Lieben VIII Libeň (part of Prague)

Few nice pics: https://obalky.kosmas.cz/ArticleFiles/215627/215627_uk.pdf/FILE/Anthropoid_215627_uk.pdf
HTH

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Here you are:

1st line - Klein-Holleschowitz
2nd line - K Holešovičkám (street name in Czech)
3rd line - Lieben VIII Libeň (part of Prague)

Few nice pics: https://obalky.kosmas.cz/ArticleFiles/215627/215627_uk.pdf/FILE/Anthropoid_215627_uk.pdf
HTH

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We are great detectives, aren't we???

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Hi Tim,

I have come across your Anthropoid project and found it absolutely fascinating. As someone who was born in (former) Czechoslovakia, I am very interested in the history of Operation Anthropoid. Your diorama is looking to be an incredible piece of artwork that should be placed in a museum! I am looking forward to following your progress.

As for your questions about the road signs, there is an article on the subject on the Czech Wikipedia: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopravn%C3%AD_zna%C4%8Den%C3%AD_v_%C4%8Ceskoslovensku.

According to this article, the first sign would be white in the middle with red edges (marking a road with the right of way in the intersection). The present-day sign with the yellow in the middle and white along the edges was introduced after WWII (not sure exactly when, but believe it was sometime in the 1950's).

The second sign would be a black arrow on a white background. I am not sure there would necessarily be a thin red border, but it is possible (it would be present on the full round version of the road sign, however).

Hope this helps! Looking forward to following your project!

Jan

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so this one? -Czechoslovak road sign from the 1938 law (č. 82/1938 Sb. z. a n.) Czechoslovakia_1938_road_sign_-_Priority_Road


sorry as I was unclear on which sign?

It actally says the following:

Klein Holleschowitz (a village in the neighbourhood)

V Holešovičkách


Looking up the first gives me the following:

https://obalky.kosmas.cz/ArticleFiles/215627/215627_uk.pdf/FILE/Anthropoid_215627_uk.pdf
Some stunning pics in there....

The second is a streetname
https://en.mapy.cz/zakladni?x=14.4555254&y=50.1164242&z=16&source=stre&id=122522

3rd line: district name:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libe%C5%88 (in German, first word: Lieben)

Prague 8 is a munipal district:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_8


Conclusion, it is a street sign.

Hi Erwin,

I have this image of you now waddling around like Hercule Poirot, .

Cheers, ,

G

Just a small correction on line 2. The street name in Czech is "V Holešovičkách".

Thanks guys & Jerry that’s a big call, you’re too kind & of course I’ll argue against it - maybe a new benchmark in Muddling Through & there’s a bunch more question marks on my list to come!

Hey Jan - welcome to Armorama, and this great Diorama forum, and my little vignette. Thanks so much for going to the trouble of responding to the quiz – which you’ve won of course, although the only prize I can offer is a place in the list of Contributors in the final Credits. I’d tried Google-imaging “ww2/pre-war Czech road signs” & related keywords & only got modern ones, I never broke into Czech-Wiki. So yes the “diamond” sign must be white with red borders, as illustrated by Stuart (thanks mate!) and Erwin that’s what I thought too, but presumably the marked difference in shade between the upper and lower borders is because the edge is bevelled, creating shadow? Such a right-of-way sign makes sense in that location, probably encouraging vehicles to keep away from the parallel tram-ways.

And yes on closer inspection I don’t think the arrow in the 2nd photo has a border - there are 4 of them spread around this diorama and I think I detected a faint edge in one of the others but won’t bother with it. I tend to believe these arrows (along with several big white square “D” signs with thick borders, there’s one just visible down the street from the diamond sign) were all black & likely directions for the Occupation force rather than local signs.

Here’s another question – the indistinct letters/words in the sign on the railings…



The 1st line looks like “Kirim hollrichomits” which makes no sense to me or Google-translate. 2nd line “ V Holesovickach”? 3rd line - impossible. The gardens were in the grounds of the Institute for Geological & Coal Research but none of those words in Czech seem to match the sign - the suburb is of course Holešovice. Maybe the 1st line says “No trespassing”?! Incidentally the diamond sign’s seen side-on in this shot, it doesn’t look particularly bevelled but I guess it must be.

Anyhow thanks again all, any further input most welcome