Travel

2019 Colditz

Leave a comment

Colditz was where the Germans brought their troublesome prisoners. It was supposed to be escape proof. 32 escaped but only 15 were home runs, made it Back home. 1 Belgian, 11 British, 7 Dutch, 12 French and 1 Polish escaped.

Took a he train from Leipzig to Grossbothen. The Station is deserted. Get off the train and cross the track. Now you have to walk about 250 meters on a rough road( if you can call it a road) to get to the bus stop under the rail bridge on your right. Get on the 619 bus and get off at the town, Colditz Sportplatz.

The hill on the right leads to the back gate. The only way in at night if you are staying there.
Getting ready to go out the back gate and into the town for dinner. Note next to nothing was open for food. We managed to get something to eat in a a Thai cafe/restaurant. Not very plush but the food was good and you could get a wine. We met a guy from England there He was travelling on his own and also heading back to Leipzig the next day.
The room was for a couple. Two single beds. Clean but sparse. Apparently these were the Colditz officers quarters.
The town centre looked lovely and we thought we would find a nice pub for our evening meal and a few drinks. We were wrong.
From the stairs leading up to the castle.
A view from just outside the town.
The bridge was the route the prisoners would have taken from Colditz Railway Station, now derelict, to the castle.
The mannequin was used in amongst the prisoners at roll call to buy sometime for prisoners trying to escape.
It was amazing that a group of prisoners built a false wall in the attic. And behind that wall they built a glider using bed sheets as the gliders skin. Glued together by porridge. The glider was never tested as the castle was liberated by the Americans on 16th April 1945.

This was the plan to launch the glider 67 years later on 17 March Channel 4 documentary used a weighted radio controlled launched by dropping a bathtub as a weight. The glider did fly but the final landing was a crash landing, which would have killed the passengers. However, the shows producer admired they had to bring the glider down because of a fence and concern for a building that was not there when the escape was planned in 1945.

Leave a comment