German officers' cars - WW2

[Mr.Tamzarian]

Whenever there is a programme or film about WW2 on tv, the German officers are always seen in open topped cars. Was this a common feature or just an invention of the film/programme makers? Surely the officers would be easy targets for assassination in these type of vehicles?

[KebabMeister]

Well, they had the Kubelwagon and other staff cars such as Mercedes. With the latter they wanted to be extravagant and any opportunity to have the hood down then they'd surely take it.

As for assassination, a roof wouldn't necessarily protect them (perhaps from minor debris but not from direct hits) and if anyone was killed by resistance then they'd be reprisals. If anything TV often portrays cars as being bullet proof when any military high velocity rifle/machine gun would have no problem shooting through a door or a roof/window.

[Drusilla]

They were easy targets for assassination as illustrated by the killing of Rheinhard Heydrich, (Hitler's possible successor) who was shot on his drive to work one morning in Prague(I think). Apparently, he was such an easy target, the assassins even had time to botch things up before finally wounding him. He later died from blood poisoning because the upholstery from the car entered his system.

[Peter Pedant]

yes, it is a mile or two out of Prague.

Not well Marked - about a mile away from the museum that looks like an iced Christmas Cake.

And I am pretty sure his car as open - as it always is in the films.

The Germans did not allow Czechs to operate on him who were not keen anyway as they thought they would get shot if he died. The German imported surgeon did not completely debride the wound, presumably as he thought both of them would die - even tho' incomplete debridement was a death sentence.

he died from infection a day or so later and the post mortem showed bits of horsehair seat stuffing in the wound which had been blown there and not removed. Horsehair is full of Clostridia and its spores.

very badly handled by the germans =- certainly not kleinlich

[grannog]

My info is that he was wounded by a grenade not a bullet. He actually chased after the attackers shooting at them along the way. He eventually collapsed from the wounds from the grenade.

[Octavius]

Reinhard Heydrich was an SS-Obergruppenf�hrer, chief of the Reich Main Security Office, and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia. He was nicknamed The Butcher of Prague, The Blond Beast and Der Henker (German for the hangman).

During his role as de facto dictator of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich often drove alone in a car with an open roof � a show of confidence in the occupation forces and the effectiveness of their repressive measures against the local population.

On May 27, 1942, a team of British-trained agents of the Czech government in exile carried out the assassination of Heydrich in Operation Anthropoid. Heydrich's car, driven by Klein, had to slow down to take a sharp bend where the Czech team waited. As the car approached, one of the assassins took aim and pulled the trigger of his Sten, but the gun failed and did not fire. Klein, believing him to be alone, stopped to shoot at him. Heydrich stood up and took out his pistol, trying to shoot the assassin. Another assassin then threw an anti-tank grenade at the car. This exploded and severely wounded Heydrich, forcing car seat material including horse hair into his spleen. Evidence suggests that if Heydrich had remained seated, he would have lived.
Despite Himmler sending his best doctors, Heydrich died in agony in a Prague hospital at 4:30 a.m. on June 4 at the age of 38. Although the exact cause of death has not been definitively established, the autopsy states that Heydrich's death was most likely septicemia caused by bacteria and toxins from grenade splinters.

[grannog]

The ironic thing about it was that up until the assassination, Heydrich had not imposed a gestapo type reign of terror in Czeckoslovakia. The country was too important as an arms and munitions producer. The agents sent in were to kill him and provoke a response that would turn the populace against the Germans. It was completely successful in this regard. Interesting sidebar to the open top car issue eh?