Flight from Colditz: British PoWs' daring glider escape finally takes to sky 67 years late...

It may have been 67 years late but a replica of the Colditz glider finally took off from the castle yesterday . . . and promptly crashed.

The original glider – nicknamed the Colditz Cock – was part of one of the most audacious escape plans conjured up by British prisoners of war held at the castle. After discovering a book on aircraft design in the library, the Second World War PoWs designed and constructed it behind a false wall in the attic.

The glider was still under construction when the supposedly escape-proof PoW camp Oflag IV-C was liberated by American forces in April 1945. As a result, its launch, planned for later that spring, never took place.

Yesterday’s flight was for a Channel 4 documentary focusing on the construction of the replica glider and its launch, to be screened in the summer.

They built it in a workshop, just 20ft long by 7ft wide, in the attic, which was patrolled by guards.

It was made from items including sleeping bags, gramophone springs and floor boards. The Channel 4 team constructed their replica on the floor below the attic in the castle.

They spent £3,500 on materials and built their replica to the exact specifications – 33ft 9in wide and 19ft 7in long, although at 23st (150kg) it was half the weight of the original glider to accommodate a dummy rather than two prisoners of war.

Escape from Colditz was one of the best books I ever read. Changed my whole idea about prison escapes. The tunnels were spectacular, but usually didn't work or only got out a few guys. On the other hand stealing or making a German uniform and walking out the front door worked over and over again. Only down side was if you got caught in a tunnel they threw you in the cooler. If you got caught in a German uniform you got shot.

The other thing the book brought up was the idea of small vs large groups (as in the Great Escape). With small groups you had a lot better chance of reaching freedom. With a small group you could send guys with some German language experience. If they couldn't pass for German they could often pass for Belgian or French laborers brought into Germany and going home on leave. This was enhanced by the fact that small groups had better preparation in terms of travel papers and civilian clothing. They even made luggage, because traveling without it was a dead give away. Most importantly with a small group if you got away from the camp nobody was looking for you.

In addition with small groups they could fudge the counts so that the guards might not even know the guys were missing for weeks. Fold up dummies and fake escapes were favorite methods. The fake escape is one where you hide a generic looking guy under the floor boards so that the Germans think he escaped. Then when someone actually does escape you bring out your hidden guy to take his place.

My favorite was they guy stealing the old cans. He didn't have a use for them but the Germans were desperate to be sure the prisoners didn't have them. So he figured the Germans must have a good reason to want them, so he was going to hold onto the cans until he figured out what it was.

I swear I saw a program on tv a few years ago where they did the same thing and the fight was successful.

You probably did. From Wikipedia:

A replica of the Colditz glider was built for the 2000 Channel 4 (UK) 3-part (150 minute total) Escape from Colditz documentary, and was flown successfully by John Lee on its first attempt at RAF Odiham with Best and Goldfinch in tearful attendance. It is currently housed at the Imperial War Museum in London. The Channel 4 material was edited to 60 minutes and shown in the US in 2001 as Nazi Prison Escape on the NOVA television series.

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