From Soaring and kindly offered to the Colditz Home Page
by Wade H. Nelson Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär und auch zwei
Flüglein hätt flög ich zu dir. Weils aber nicht kann sein,
bleib ich allhier. Deutsches Volkslied
"We lived in a world where fantasy in escape mingled
with reality. Certainly, as an airman, I thought the glider plan was feasible. Quote: Dominic Bruce, former Colditz POW
View from North:
left: attic above the chapel and right:, the lower roof (above
old French quarters) that would have acted as the launch run for the glider.The
lower roof was obscured from German view.
River Mulde Outer and Inner Courtyards Chapel roof.
To right of tower: Chapel roof from the Inner Courtyard.
The glider was built in the left hand, western end of the upper attic.
Readers of Soaringmay recall the television
movie "The Birdmen" in which Allied POW's constructed
a glider and launched it from the rooftop of the German castle used to
imprison them. What you may not know is there actually was such a glider,
constructed by British officers held captive in Colditz Castle during WWII.
Colditz castle was the German "Supermax." RAF prisoners like Jack
Best, Walter Morison, and Lorne
Welch, recaptured after escaping from other POW camps were transferred
to the supposedly inescapable Colditz. Colditz had the distinction of being
the only German POW camp that had more guards than prisoners. Nevertheless,
Allied prisoners continued to tunnel, jump, and sneak their way out of
"The Colditz Escape Academy" in surprising numbers.
Putting so many experienced escapers all in one place turned out to
be a rather questionable idea. As time went by, more and more conventional
avenues of escape were sealed off by the Germans. Tunneling became all
but impossible with the installation of sophisticated sound monitors. Never
the less, prisoners refused to accept the idea that Colditz was inescapable.
Even in the early parts of 1945 some POW's managed to escape, albeit by
ever riskier routes, such as by being catapulted out of high windows. Even
one "home run" raised morale considerably among the remaining prisoners.
It was about this time that Colditz "Heavy Industries Inc." was founded,
to design and build a glider.
The glider idea was hatched by Lieutenant Tony
Rolt and others. Rolt, who wasn't even an airman, noticed the chapel roof
line was completely obscured from German view.
Tony convinced Bill Goldfinch to draft
up some plans for a glider. A concrete filled bathtub plunging five stories
and then crashing into the floor would provide the catapult needed for
launch.
Hundreds of ribs had to be constructed, from bed slats and every other
piece of wood the POW's could surrepticiously obtain. The wing spars were
be constructed from floor boards, and control wires fabricated from electrical
wire stolen from unused portions of the castle. A gliding expert, Lorne
Welch, was drafted to review the stress diagrams and aerodynamic calculations
made by Goldfinch.POW's built a false wall in the attic of one
of the buildings, behind which a proper workshop was constructed. The Germans
were accustomed to looking down, for tunnels, not up, for gliders or secret
workshops. No less than 12 primary lookouts, or "stooges" and an electric
alarm system was used to warn the builders of approaching guards, requiring
silence and a work stoppage.
The glider constructed was a two-place, high wing design which resembles
the popular Schweizer 2-33 in many aspects. It has a Mooney style rudder
and square elevators. The wingspan, tip to tip, was 32'. Prison sleeping
bags of blue and white checked cotton were used to skin the glider, and
true to the movie, German ration millet was boiled and used to dope the
fabric. The take-off was scheduled for the spring of 1945, during an air
raid blackout. But the Allied guns were already rumbling in the distance,
and the war's outcome fairly certain. The British escape officer decided
the launch should be delayed in case the SS ordered the massacre of the
prisoners, as a way to get a message out to approaching American troops.
Instructions from Britain had already called for a halt to all escape efforts,
since by this time the Germans had begun shooting escapees on the spot.
The only known picture of the glider : assembled by Bill
Goldfinch and Jack Best in the lower attic above the chapel : photo taken
in April 1945 by an unknown American GI
Following the peaceful turnover of the camp from the Kommandant to the
Senior British Officer word of the glider's existence was put out. The
glider was assembled and put on display for the prisoners and liberating
American GI's. Dozens of prisoners had helped in it's construction, by
building tools, or parts for the glider, or by stooging. An unnamed GI
took the only photo of the glider known to exist, shown here. The "Colditz
Cock" was then disassembled and lifted back into it's hiding place at war's
end.
The glider disappeared from it's hiding place sometime after the war
ended, it's ultimate fate unknown. During later visits to Colditz survivors
heard rumors to the effect the glider had been burned. One story was that
it was broken into firewood during the brutal winter of 1945-6, a time
during which many Germans and Russians either froze or starved to death.
Another story was that villagers felt "disgraced" by it's presence and
publicly torched it. The truth will probably never be known, unless some
of the Russians soldiers who occupied the town immediately after the war
come forward.
Several books have been written about Colditz, including one by the
head of the German guards, Hauptmann Eggers. Many of the men imprisoned
at Colditz are still alive today, and there is a quite active "Colditz
Association." Lorne Welch had a long and active role in soaring after the
war, writing several books on the subject. A British television station
was finally able to produce a documentary on Colditz after the Berlin Wall
fell. The producer took five of the former prisoners back to the Castle
and re-enacted several of the more notorious escapes. The Colditz story
has been retold over the years in Flying , Reader's Digest, and finally
here, in Soaring. The article in Flying inspired producer
Harve Bennett to produce the American television movie, "The Birdmen."
American Walter Leschander is responsible for finding the only existing
photo of the glider, reproduced here, which the prisoners themselves had
never seen until sometime around 1970. Leschander located a copy of the
photo in the possession of the commanding officer of the GI who had taken
it, whose name, and fate has vanished into history. (Company 1, 273
Regiment, 69th Infantry under Lee Shaughnessy) American Don Berliner
researched the Colditz Glider in the '70s, but his article for Air &
Space was never published
Colditz Castle was reportedly used after the war as a hospital for Russian
officers, and has since fallen into serious disrepair. It is now owned
by the State of Saxony, and is in desperate need of funding for restoration.
Presently a small museum exists, with such exhibits as the universal lockpick
designed by the British to open the supposedly "impenetrable" German locks
- two of which supposedly prevented access to room below where the glider
was being built, through which access to the trapdoor to the secret workshop
was gained.
Virtually everyone I spoke with, from gliding experts, to people who
have built and flown models of the glider, to the participants themselves,
is convinced the Colditz Glider was airworthy, and would have flown two
prisoners outside of the camp's walls. Engineers at De Havilland aircraft
reviewed the glider plans after the war, and concurred. While it never
actually flew the Colditz Glider successfully lifted the spirits of everyone
involved.
Wade H. Nelson, Freelance Writer wadenelson@frontier.net
420 1/2 East Fifth Avenue Durango, CO 81301-5615 970 259 1494 / 4890 fax Story inspired by "Escape from Colditz" by P.R. Reid; J.B. Lippincott
Publishers, out of print; titled "The Latter Days" in it's English publication.
1952-3
Special Thanks to the following for help with the article in Soaring:
Bill Goldfinch,
Jack Best ,
Kenneth Lockwood,
Walter Morison,
MP Francis,
Harve Bennett,
JM Kennedy,
Dominic Bruce
Stanford University Archives
Colditz Photographs - Wolfgang Stadler
Arranging Colditz Photographs - Andrea Mueller
Ms. Walter Leschander
Hugh Thomas
Martin Judkins
RAF Museum
Anglia Television
Rex Haww
Harvey Trabb
Profnet
Imperial College Gliding Club and many others
Further sources of reference on the Glider
Reid, P. R. : The Latter Days Chapter 22 The Glider Includes plan side and front elevation of the glider
copied from the original drawing made at Colditz and in the possession
of Jack Best. In Chapter 25 describes
the viewing of the assembed Glider on Sunday 15th April 1945.
Rodgers,
J : Tunnelling into Colditz, Robert Hale : pages 180 -182. Project was associated with Bill Goldfinch, Tony Rolt
and Jack Best. "Behind them was a galaxy
of talent, including Dick Howe
as escape officer, Lulu Lawton, Geoff Wardle, Andy
Anderson, Lucky Lockett, Lorne Welch, the glider pilot, and at least
a dozen, if not twenty, others." ..."The rope had to be a good one. It
was made with string in a rope race which I saw many times in operation.
This was a fully engineered job, with rotating spools and races... It was,
I think designed by Dick Lorraine and Skipper Barnet."
Morison,
W : Flak and Ferrets Sentinel 1995 pages 161 - 164 Walter Morison says that the glider constructors had
access to Lattimer Needham's early work on aircraft design. Appendix C
shows Bill Goldfinch's calculations for launching the Colditz Glider. It
was calculated that with 600 lbs all up weight of theglider and trolley
and 1800 lbs dropping weight and a 40 foot lauch, the velocity of the glider
at the end of the run would be 30 mph after 1.64 seconds. The tension in
the rope would be 450 lbs.
List of tools made and used in constructing the Glider - some of which
are in the Colditz Museum
(Source: The Latter Days, by P. R. Reid)
Side-framed saw
handle of beech bed-board
frame of iron window bars
blade of gramophone spring with eight teeth per inch
Minute saw for very fine work
gramophone spring blade, 25 teeth per inch
Square, made of beech with gramophone spring blade
A gauge, made of beech, with cupboard bolt and gramophone
needle
Large plane, fourteen and a half inches long
2 inch blade obtained by bribing a German guard
Wooden Box made from four pieces of beech screwed together
AS maiden flights go it was 55 years late and lasted barely
three minutes but a little plane made of wood and cotton yesterday proved
that one of the most ingenious wartime escape plans could indeed have succeeded.
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