Can a glider be launched successfully from the roof of Colditz Castle? Prisoners of War were about to find out when the war ended. Hugh Hunt from Cambridge University explores the castle.
This was the only memory of the programme " Colditz" that i remembered as a child around 1972/3, and i now have a plan 60" scale, to build, for no other reason, but i can!
I think I speak for all of us when I say I would have paid good money to see the reactions of the guards if they'd actually gone through with the plan 😅 thank you for sharing x
Interesting, this must be the second glider to be built for a launch test. The first documentary I saw featured some of the surviving prisoners, who are also featured in this video speaking about the glider, snow etc. A copy of the glider was built by a local company that builds gliders, in their workshop, they had an area marked on the floor to represent the attic space. The glider was built and witnessed by the four prisoners. The glider was launched from the ground using a small plane at the test airfield. It flew far better than expected. It was an awesome moment for all that witnessed it. This video appears to have been made after, now the glider design has been proven to fly it's time to try a roof launch. They couldn't do this last time. Time to continue the adventure...
One point easily forgotten is the original plan was to the weight to directly pull the glider, so it would accelerate at 9.8 m/s/s, whereas the one tested had an altered pulley system so it accelerated at twice that rate. It could easily be if they had actually gone ahead with this escape attempt then they'd have changed the pulley system to get more speed, but the best we can say is this was a plausible method of escape. My recollection from reading the books on Colditz is the Escape Committee stopped all escape attempts once it was apparent the Allies were going to win the war because some escapees disappeared and the suspicion was they'd been caught and shot. They let this team keep on building their glider as something to do, but I understood they didn't want them to try to escape in case they got shot.
The only thing i can say is forget the glider for now.... Too sit in the room on your own were your dad was pow and reflect on his situation makes your trip Hugh.... Strange thing is not in a million years did ur old man ever think you wud be in that room
On end of the 2000 Channel 4 Documentary "Escape from Colditz" they tested the pilot manned glider(which was built totally following the original project), which was initially pushed by a plane to get airborne and then released and then it was all good, it and the project was proven has viable. Not to mention all happened at view of Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best(the 2 creators of the Colditz Cock) and also about a dozen of the veterans who had worked on the original more than 55 years earlier.
That was a brilliant documentary, one of the best I have seen for a while. The glider launch was awesome for everyone to witness, both for the veterans and us viewers. It flew much better than I expected.. It just disappeared into the sky..
I've been to Colditz and explored from the cellar to the lofts, most people don't know there were 2 camps in Colditz. ALso there is a replica of the glider in teh Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton, UK
"Willkommen in Colditz" For you za war is over. Have just read Ben Macintyre's book, "Prisoners of the Castle. For a building of the size and history of Coldidz Castle, I always wondered if there were ancient hiding places, secret passages that led from one part of the castle to another, and even escape routes that went out of the castle. Would have saved a lot of digging. Jack, the Japan Alps Brit
32 successful escapes! But 1 attempt a day must have been very distracting to the Guard company and regional government! Imagine the grudging respect these efforts must have engendered.
Very interesting... But not much point if they're not going to at least try and use the same materials the prisoners had to use.. instead of using DeWalt drills & so on 😐
Probably could have side slipped the last few hundred metres to bleed off extra height then gently land it in one piece instead of none diving and wrecking it. Very well done though and no doubt the real one would have flown and flown well and they were a skilled lot and would have worked out all the numbers.
As the pilot in this vid said. He decided to crash it due it was getting too close to comfort of peoples homes and property. He said he would had been able to land it more safely if he didn't have to worry about private property. The prisoners would probably not given an ants fart if they had struck someone's fence or goat. But nowadays there are these things called lawsuits, and an experiment are often not worth the potential farting around in court.
Never underestimate the desire of prisoners to escape. This daring plan is one of the audacious plans ever. I thought it was very nice his son still has the ducks his father made for him. If I was in his shoes, they would have been among the most treasured things I had. Hopefully much of the artwork has been preserved and like the ducks, will feature as part of a prominent display in a museum for all to see. I can understand why these men were called the Greatest Generation by those who came after. Too bad there was no audio for the last 8 minutes after the credits.
