Colditz TV Series S01-E14 - Gone Away (Part I) 

In early '80s I attended a boardgaming convention in Maryland where I won a mini-tournament of "Escape from Colditz" -- the new boardgame Pat Reid consulted on. I received an autographed copy from the man himself.

as a young kid who loved this series , out of all the episodes I remember the most it was this 2 episode special, I havent seen this since 1976..thank you for putting this up...I over the years have bought many of the books on Colditz and for some unknown reason each time I was in Germany on holiday in Europe from Australia I never managed to get near Leipzig where the castle is near...one day hopefully

I just had to read about the real history of the Colditz POW camp. It was actually a Dutch officer who found out about a sure way into Switzerland, starting from the German town of Singen. This Dutch officer, Naval Lieutenant Hans Larive, had tried to get to Switzerland before he was sent to Colditz. As if it was a movie, the overconfident Gestapo guy interrogating him after he was captured, told him the safe way into Switzerland. Because, after all, Germany was going to win the war anyway. With this valuable information, several more succesful escapes into Switzerland were made from Colditz. It seems that the Swiss were rather more lenient on escaped Allied POWs than on Allied bomber crews who landed in Switzerland because they were damaged or low on fuel. Those bomber crews were interned because Switzerland was neutral. The Dutch officer who made a second, succesful escape into Switzerland, was provided with false papers by the Dutch consulate in Switzerland and the Swiss pretended they didn't remember his former identity and that he had escaped from German captivity. He travelled onboard a train with passengers from neutral countries through Germany and he ended up in Portugal. Next stop: Great Britain! Starting from March 1942, Naval Lieutenant Hans Larive served onboard the Dutch Motor Torpedo Boat MTB 203, part of the Anglo-Dutch 9th MTB Flotilla untill after D-Day, when the unit was disbanded and their crews were sent as "Port Parties" to liberated parts of The Netherlands.

Always good to see some Canadian content! (The tea chests had "Canadian Red Cross Society" written on them.)

The last scene is a masterclass in tension and cliffhangers. On paper it's such a simple thing - a sentry who has been consistently taking 17 paces just decides to take less. Hardly a huge occurrence. But the silence and build up is just sensational.

I love that ending to the episode. I'm definitely making a little shitpost because of it!

I didn't realise quite how loud the footsteps were when I originally watched these so many years ago.

This is terrific stuff. I particularly like the band playing Noel Coward's A Room With A View while they're doing their research. Mock as you wish, respect the people who had to go through this.

He wrote "Auf Wiedersehen!" on the tea chest lid, but that means, "See you again", or "Until I see you again", which was about 30 minutes later. The same people keep escaping in this series, and the same people keep getting caught. :))

Surely the Germans must have eventually realized that when the POWs broke into loud night-time singing, or brawling or when the lights were disabled....that an escape was underway

Let’s just say that during my time in the USAF, I had the distinct displeasure of having spent some time in a box about that size! It was very unpleasant! Very!

The German military idea of "informality" is pretty funny in my opinion!

(Just another superfluous observation:) At 9:25, the german guard uses a claw-hammer ('Klauen-' or 'Zimmermannshammer'). The "normal" all-purpose hammer would have been a so-called 'Schlosserhammer' (machinists hammer). Nevertheless: I've been binge-watching these episodes for years now - it's a very well made tv-show.

By now Carter has got to be feeling like his name is Gilligan.

One of the things I'm beginning to realize as I work my way through this program, is how the writers portray almost everyone (so far anyway) as struggling to be as decent a human being as they know how. This is so far from the power mongering, sadism etc. that often can go on in any prison, let alone an isolated Nazi POW prison during such a harsh, ugly, and violent period in history

48:00 - The colonel would be seeing Phil again, around two years after this escape happened, when he and his US friends come back to Colditz, I think set in around mid 1944.

A serious broken ankle would mean David McCallum taking about 10 months to a year to be ready for another escape attempt. I bloody well know...I have 6 pins and a plate, after a slip on ice. It has taken that long for my leg to feel almost "right". And that's with a good private surgeon and modern healthcare, not Colditz Castle in 1942.

In the first series Ulman seems much more harder, colder and abrasive to the prisoners compared to series two. Now there is no real delay in the timeline between series one and two, a matter of days or a few weeks, but his style changes from episode one of series two in my opinion, maybe that was down to the introduction of Major Mohn?

Best TV drama of my youth !!! Even had the board game that came out then. GREAT actors and here the apparition of "Reginald Perrin" as the doctor. ! Just miles ahead of todays 95% violence and b.s. Sorry to some , but just my opinion... Which I stick to !

At 35.20 would the German Guard not have spotted the window shutter suddenly open ?

This guy Carter is the absolute worst at escaping. Even if he had a helium balloon with a basket full of food and a ton of German money with a strong head wind pointing directly at England in the black of night he wouldn’t make it pass the front gate. Some people are just unlucky, ask Napoleon. ( let’s see who gets that reference, I bet none do)

Dixieland with a military drum! Lol

I am completely amazed that the Germans in Colditz didn't use microphones in the barracks . This was used by the British in ww2 and Germans even in ww1

A tea chest with a man in it along with a rope maade of sheets and the submariners says of the man inside "from my experience of submarines, he has about an hour before he suffocates"

From my experience in tea chests he can easily push out the sides.

The best part was when McCallum was cramped in a box and had the lit nailed. Ain't this exiting or what! In addition, what one can expect other than shoddy courtyard scenes? This was made in early 1970s.

any attempt with Sub Lt Player does seem to have failure written all over it

did any one get the gilder joke

15:45 Oooooo....now that is embarrassing! :-)

it looks so green and hazt

If anyone noticed, the “ tea boxes” were from Canada! So we’re there Canadian POWs there? Did Britain buy/ borrow those from Canada, or the series just got them ? Stay safe, stay sane, be well

No part II 😢

Well while we're nit-picking about details, you'd think Carter would've at least attempted to 'Para-roll' out of that fall? Basic stuff for an 'Umbrella Dangler' no? Nothing takes away my love for this series though, I could watch it on repeat forever

Where is Part 2 of this season finale?

It would've to be him of all the characters. A scared rabbit in front of car headlights

Thanks for posting this, I am LOVING this series, the Commandant just gets better & better, same w the ranking officer of the Blokes, the Krout keeps lecturing about his lack of integrity, but he knows better, although if this is fact based, those Britts were a real pesky lot, hip hip old man & hurray chap, now I see Y those Nazis were always uptight & pissed, these Blokes kept breaking the rules & not that I want violence, but this can’t be 100 % accurate, I watch enough docs to know they were an angry sadist bunch & that Hitler, what a jerk!!!

Why didn't Carter wait until it was dark?

huge continuity problem - german's deliver two boxes.. and then later walk out with three ???!!

"A cricket bat. Even the ~English don't play cricket in the winter. If Germany played cricket we would beat you."

Bonneserie jemensouviensplaisirsarevoir

What did Airey Neave not like about this?

Neave could have done worse than listen to the script ;) "Dick Player", in almost his second sentence of the episodes, notes that "two successful British escapes in two years isn't enough, morale is slipping...!" Noone was portraying this as the first British escape.

Tremendous moustache

Lügnen, das ist NIE passiertet

One of my relatives was a guard at a pow camp, and he told me they knew exactly what was going on. It made his job easier as they knew not too many would escape. Mainly the toffs who thought of it as a game. The normal soldier couldn't be arsed as they knew their was a good chance of being killed.

what happened to Anthony Valentine.

the courtyard scenes are really poor quality

Danke Gott fur Deutsche efficizency!

Secret army was much better