Warbird Information Exchange

currently reading a 1st hand account of the ww2 german p.o.w. camp COLDITZ CASTLE. the book is a real thicky, & page turner. brits, poles, French, dutch were all prisoners. no yanks!! their ingenuity is incredible to say the least as to escape. countless fantastic strategies, scamming, sneakiness & drive for prisoners of war to escape. most know of the colditz glider built in an attic of the 16th century castle, but it never flew. I saw a rear shot of the glider once in a pic. there was a movie made to the story line w/ a b- grade Hollywood actor in the 70's that portrays the escape attempt via the p.o.w. made glider. long story short it has me wondering a few points........ the book is copyrighted both 1952 & 53. the author, mr reid, alludes to the myth / story. as the date when his book was published he states that the glider may still be up their. let's flash forward to 2014. was the glider recovered?? is it still their as a museum piece?? what of the fortress / castle / pow camp?? I know it's still their, but what is it's status as to history now??

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

I remember the b class actor!!! doug mclure!!! i'll take my new car & trip to bora bora now!

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

You might try the London War Museum. Most of the things they used to escape passports etc. were on display there.

_________________
Better is the enemy of Good.

i stand corrected on 1 point, there were yanks at colditz later in the war.

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Tom,
I'm kind of surprised you are asking those questions as you are a regular here on WIX. Or maybe you have a life away from the keyboard.
Anyhoo, the original Colditz glider was reportedly cut-up and used for firewood by some locals because of the harsh winter '45-'46.
A flying replica was built and flown by towing aloft (2012???). Two of the gentlemen that originally designed and constructed the glider were present for the flight. Great story.

The castle is still there.
Google seach will reveal much information.

Cheers.

The movie was "Flight of the Birdmen" if I recall.

The last time I was at the IWM in London, they had a replica of the glider on display.

thanks for the links, quite informative & jives w/ the book thus far. cool that the reproduction was made to pow specs, but w/ modern tools. it flew so great. the work on the repro w/ modern tools took weeks, where it would have taken many months under actual pow conditions to just build a small segment.

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!