Colditz Cock

Last updated

Colditz Cock
Originalglider.jpg
The only known photograph of the original "Cock" glider taken on 15 April 1945 [1] by Lee Carson, one of two American newspaper correspondents assigned to the task force which captured the castle. [2]
RoleGlider for prison escape
ManufacturerInmates of Oflag IV-C
DesignerBill Goldfinch, Jack Best
First flightNever flew
Retired1945
Primary userAllied PoWs
Number built1

The Colditz Cock was a glider built by British prisoners of war during World War II for an escape attempt from Oflag IV-C (Colditz Castle) prison camp in Germany.

Contents

Background

After the execution of 50 prisoners who had taken part in the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III, the Allied High Command had discouraged escape attempts, though the plan to build a glider was encouraged in order to divert the energies of the prisoners from descending into boredom and tedium.

The idea for the glider came from Lieutenant Tony Rolt. Rolt, who was not even an airman, had noticed the chapel roof line was completely obscured from the German guards' view. He realised that the roof would make a perfect launching point from which the glider could fly across the River Mulde, which was about 60 metres below.

Construction

The team was headed by Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best. [3] Goldfinch and Best were aided by their discovery in the prison library of Aircraft Design, a two-volume work by C.H. Latimer-Needham which explained the necessary physics and engineering and included a detailed diagram of a wing section. The glider was assembled by Goldfinch and Best and 12 assistants known as "apostles", in the lower attic above the chapel. Future RAF Air commodore Geoffrey D. Stephenson assisted in the project. [4] The 60 ft long runway was to be constructed from tables and the glider was to be launched using a pulley system based on a falling metal bathtub full of concrete, using a gravity-assisted acceleration to 30 mph (50 km/h). [5]

The officers who took part in the project built a false wall to hide the secret space in the attic where they slowly built the glider from stolen pieces of wood. Since the Germans were accustomed to looking down for tunnels, not up for secret workshops, the officers felt quite safe from detection. Nevertheless, they placed many lookouts and created an electric alarm system to warn the builders of approaching guards.

Over thirty ribs had to be constructed (around a third being structural compression ribs), predominantly formed from bed slats, but also from every other piece of wood the POWs could surreptitiously obtain. The wing spars were constructed from floor boards. Control wires were made from electrical wiring in unused portions of the castle. A glider expert, Lorne Welch, was asked to review the stress diagrams and calculations made by Goldfinch.

The glider constructed was a lightweight, two-seater, high wing, monoplane design. It had a Mooney-style rudder and square elevators. The wingspan, tip to tip, was 32 ft (9.75 m), and it was 19 ft 9 in (6 m) from nose to tail. Prison sleeping bags of blue and white checked cotton were used to skin the glider, and German ration millet was boiled and used as a form of dope to seal the cloth pores. [6] The completed glider weighed 240 lb (109 kg).

A list of tools used in constructing the glider
Side-framed saw
  • handle of beech bed board
  • frame of iron window bars
  • blade of gramophone spring with 8 teeth / in (3 mm teeth)
Minute saw for fine work
  • gramophone spring blade, 25 teeth / in (1 mm teeth)
5/8 in (16 mm) metal drill obtained by bribery
  • drill bits for making holes made from nails
A gauge
Large plane, 14½ in (368 mm) long
  • 2 inch blade obtained by bribing a German guard
  • wooden box (four pieces of beech screwed together)
Small plane, 8½ in (216 mm) long
  • blade made from a table knife
Plane, 5 in (127 mm) long
Square
  • made of beech with gramophone spring blade
Set of keys including:
  • universal door pick, forged from a bucket handle

The take-off was scheduled for the spring of 1945 during an air raid blackout but by then the Allied guns could be heard and the war's outcome was fairly certain. The British escape officer decided that the glider should be available for use in case the SS ordered the massacre of the prisoners as a way to get a message out to approaching American troops. The glider was approaching completion when the American Army liberated the prisoners on 16 April 1945. Assigned to the task force that liberated the castle, war correspondent Lee Carson entered Colditz on 15 April 1945 and took the only photograph of the glider completed in the attic. [7]

Although the Colditz Cock never flew in real life, the concept was fictionalized, depicting a successful flight and escape, in the 1971 TV film The Birdmen starring Doug McClure, Chuck Connors, René Auberjonois and Richard Basehart. One episode of the BBC TV series Colditz depicts the decision to build a glider as an escape attempt. It is also depicted in the final escape from Colditz Castle in the fictional story depicted in the 2002 video game Prisoner of War .

The fate of the glider is not known, but the castle was in the zone controlled by the Soviets, who did not co-operate with its reclamation. However, Goldfinch had kept his drawings, which enabled a one-third scale model to be constructed. This was eventually launched from the castle roof in 1993.

A set of plans for the glider are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. [8]

Modern replica

A replica of the Colditz Glider as seen at the Imperial War Museum in London Colditz glider replica.jpg
A replica of the Colditz Glider as seen at the Imperial War Museum in London

A flyable expanded polystyrene model of the glider was produced by the model kit manufacturer Airfix in its Skycraft range in the 1970s. [9]

In 1999, a full-sized replica of the Colditz glider was commissioned by Channel 4 and was built by Southdown Aviation Ltd at Lasham Airfield. The glider was test flown successfully in 2000 by John Lee on its first attempt at RAF Odiham with Best, Goldfinch and about a dozen of the veterans who had worked on the original more than 55 years earlier proudly looking on. Jack Best died later that year. The replica is now housed on loan at the Gliding Heritage Centre.

The programme was shown in 2000 by Channel 4 in the UK as part of a 3-part documentary series called "Escape from Colditz". 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.

In March 2012, a radio-controlled, full-sized replica glider was built by Tony Hoskins' UK based glider maintenance/repair company South East Aircraft Services in the Chapel attic and was flown from Colditz for a Channel 4 documentary and launched it (unmanned) from the same roof as had been planned for the original. The radio-controlled replica made it safely across the river and landed in a meadow 180 metres below. [10] The documentary aired in North America on PBS under the title "Escape from Nazi Alcatraz" on 14 May 2014. [11] The glider built for this 2012 documentary now forms part of a new museum display in the Chapel Attic in Colditz castle, and opened to the public on the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Colditz in April 2015.

The book Flight from Colditz by Tony Hoskins was published by Pen & Sword in the UK in April 2016. It tells not only the story of the original example built by the prisoners, but also details the other replicas built and on display.

Specifications

Data from British Gliders and Sailplanes [12]

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colditz</span> Town in Saxony, Germany

Colditz is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colditz Castle</span> Renaissance castle in Colditz, Saxony, Germany

Colditz Castle is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. The castle is between the towns of Hartha and Grimma on a hill spur over the river Zwickauer Mulde, a tributary of the River Elbe. It had the first wildlife park in Germany when, during 1523, the castle park was converted into one of the largest menageries in Europe.

Giles Samuel Bertram Romilly was a British communist journalist, Second World War POW, brother of Esmond Romilly, and nephew of Winston Churchill through his wife Clementine Churchill.

<i>The Colditz Story</i> 1955 British film by Guy Hamilton

The Colditz Story is a 1955 British prisoner of war film starring John Mills and Eric Portman and directed by Guy Hamilton. It is based on the 1952 memoir written by Pat Reid, a British army officer who was imprisoned in Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, in Germany during the Second World War and who was the Escape Officer for British POWs within the castle.

Patrick Robert Reid, was a British Army officer and author of history. As a British prisoner of war during the Second World War, he was held captive at Colditz Castle when it was designated Oflag IV-C. Reid was one of the few to escape from Colditz, crossing the border into neutral Switzerland in late 1942.

<i>Colditz</i> (1972 TV series) British television series

Colditz is a British television drama series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974.

Bibliography of Colditz Castle is a list of works about Colditz Castle, its history as POW camp Oflag IV-C, the attempts to escape Oflag IV-C and many prisoners memoirs.

Colditz is a city in Saxony, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oflag IV-C</span> German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II in Colditz, Saxony

Oflag IV-C, often referred to by its location at Colditz Castle, overlooking Colditz, Saxony, was one of the most noted German Army prisoner-of-war camps for captured enemy officers during World War II; Oflag is a shortening of Offizierslager, meaning "officers' camp".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oflag VII-C</span> World War II German prisoner-of-war camp

Oflag VII-C was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers located in Laufen Castle, in Laufen in south-eastern Bavaria from 1940 to 1942. Most of the prisoners were British officers captured during the Battle of France in 1940. To relieve overcrowding, some of the officers were transferred to Oflag VII-C/Z in Tittmoning Castle. The Oflag existed only for a short time. In early 1942 all the officers were transferred to Oflag VII-B in Eichstätt.

<i>Prisoner of War</i> (video game) 2002 video game

Prisoner of War is a 2002 third-person stealth video game developed by Wide Games and published by Codemasters. It follows the story of Captain Lewis Stone, a downed American pilot who must escape numerous prisoner of war camps and return home.

Patrick Palles Lorne Elphinstone Welch,, known as Lorne Welch, was a British engineer, pilot and Colditz prisoner of war.

Prisoners made numerous attempts to escape from Oflag IV-C, one of the most famous German Army prisoner-of-war camps for officers in World War II. Between 30 and 36 men succeeded in their attempts - exact numbers differ between German and Allied sources. The camp was situated in Colditz Castle, perched on a cliff overlooking the town of Colditz in Saxony.

Captain Kenneth Lockwood was a stockbroker and an officer in the British Army. He was one of the first six British prisoners of war to arrive at Oflag IV-C, Colditz, in 1940. He made and assisted in numerous escape attempts, working with the chairman of the escape committee, Pat Reid, and was still at the castle when it was liberated by the US Army in April 1945. He was the honorary secretary of the Colditz Association for 50 years.

Machiel van den Heuvel was a Dutch army officer. As a prisoner-of-war in Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, Germany, during World War II, he served as Escape Officer for the Dutch POWs, a role also held by Captain Pat Reid, the author of The Colditz Story, for the British. Van den Heuvel played a key role in most Dutch officer escapes during the war.

<i>Colditz</i> (2005 TV series) 2005 UK television drama miniseries

Colditz is a two-part 2005 television drama miniseries, based on the book Colditz: The Definitive History by Henry Chancellor, and the Channel 4 television series Escape from Colditz. It is not claimed to be historically accurate. It features an ensemble cast headlined by Damian Lewis and Sophia Myles and was directed by Stuart Orme. The screenplay was written by Peter Morgan and Richard Cottan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oflag IX-A/H</span> World War II German prisoner-of-war camp

Oflag IX-A was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located in Spangenberg Castle in the small town of Spangenberg in northeastern Hesse, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic Bruce</span> British RAF officer

Dominic Bruce, was a British Royal Air Force officer, known as the "Medium Sized Man." He has been described as "the most ingenious escaper" of the Second World War. He made seventeen attempts at escaping from POW camps, including several attempts to escape from Colditz Castle, a castle that housed prisoners of war "deemed incorrigible".

The Birdmen, also known as Escape of the Birdmen and Colditz: Escape of the Birdmen, is a 1971 television film directed by Philip Leacock and starring Doug McClure and René Auberjonois. It was a fictionalized account based on a proposed scheme for prisoners of war to escape from Colditz Castle by a clandestinely constructed glider christened the Colditz Cock. The film appeared on the ABC Movie of the Week on September 18, 1971. The film was shot at Universal Studios Hollywood and released theatrically in several countries.

References

  1. ↑ P.R.Reid "The Latter Days at Colditz", chapter XXV
  2. ↑ P.R.Reid "Colditz: The Final Story", photograph caption
  3. ↑ "Building the Colditz Glider". PBS.
  4. ↑ "Stephenson". Archived from the original on 22 June 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.colditzappreciationsociety.com%2FSeptember%25202007%2520Newsletter.pdf%5B%5D
  6. ↑ "Building the Colditz Glider". Nova . Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "Lee Carson". American Air Museum in Britain. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  8. ↑ Amanda Mason (6 February 2018). "5 Stories of Real Life Escape Attempts by Allied Prisoners of War". Imperial War Museum.
  9. ↑ James, D.B. (2009). "The Airfix Kit Range". pws.prserv.net. Archived from the original on 6 April 2010. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
  10. ↑ "Colditz Castle glider escape plot realised more than 65 years after the war".
  11. ↑ PBS Nova, "Escape from Nazi Alcatraz: A crack team rebuilds a glider that POWs hoped to catapult off the top of Colditz Castle" Aired 14 May 2014
  12. ↑ Ellison, Norman (1971). British Gliders and Sailplanes 1922-1970 (1st ed.). London: Adam & Charles Black. ISBN   0-7136-1189-8.

51°07′53″N12°48′26″E / 51.13139°N 12.80722°E / 51.13139; 12.80722

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.