Colditz – Oflag IV C
Escapes from war prison camps always exerted a fascination on the film industry. Already in 1953 the Billy Wilder production "Stalag 17"appears in the cinemas. John Sturges "The Great escape" starring Steve McQueen was released in 1963. John Frankenheimer scored with "The Train" two years later. But only a special story caught the imagination of the public that it was filmed twice. Not only this. In the 1970s it was turned into a successful TV serial and in the 1980s a BBC documentary series with record audience ratings. The name of this unusual story: Colditz.
If nowadays Colditz is mentioned in England, one can be sure that almost every British citizen either knows the story or has heard of it at last. The castle between Leipzig and Dresden in the place of the same name has managed a myth without the real originators, the Germans, sharing this myth. Maybe this is due to the fact that town and castle Colditz spent 45 years in the former DDR (East Germany) or behind the iron curtain. Obviously the regime was not interested to wake up sleeping dogs.
The castle is mentioned for the first time documentarily in 1014. In the 15.century it is extended and equipped splendidly by the Saxon Royal House to a hunting lodge. In 1694 August der Starke (August the Strong) extended the place by a second court. With that almost 700 rooms in the building are at disposal. When Dresden is turned into the headquarters of the Saxon kings, however, the interest in castle Colditz vanishes. The valuable interior furnishings are dismantled and the building is seldom used.1800 marks the all time low. The castle is changed into a house for the poor. 1829 it changes into a home for incurable mentally ill people. Names, like Ludwig Schumann, the second youngest son of the composer Robert Schumann and Ernst Georg August Baumgarten who is regarded as the real inventor of the airship are in the patient lists of the hospital Colditz.
Since the castle is already used for prisoners of war in World War I, the National Socialists in abuse the castle as a protection camp in 1933. More than 600 Communists, socialists and other opponents of the regime are taken into custody in Colditz at times. After World War II has broken out, the Wehrmacht is looking for adequate buildings for its prisoners. The OKW (supreme command of the Wehrmacht) is soon aware about the advantages and the security aspects of Colditz and declares the castle as almost "escape-proof". Reichsleiter Herman Göring himself is exited about this new and escape-proof camp for officers in 1939. "Officer Camp IV Colditz" becomes the central assembly point of the so-called difficult cases, called Oflag IV C briefly (the roman 4 stood for military district no 4). Here three categories of prisoners are to be kept behind bars those officers who are regarded as "anti-German", officers who already attempted an escape and VIPs. Among those are Winston Churchill's nephew Giles Romily who was taken prisoner as journalist in Narvik and Michael Alexander, a nephew of field marshal Harold Alexander.
In Colditz the article 48 of the Geneva Convention is noticed very accurately by the Wehrmacht. The Wehrmacht was aware that the allies would watch the activities at Colditz very carefully. The Wehrmacht does not want to endanger their own prominent POWs in allied camps such as the U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer (after the war an officer of the Bundeswehr in the NATO Council). The SS or the Gestapo is not in charge in Colditz at any time. Fortunately for the prisoners as you learn from the following stories. Had the Gestapo been responsible the report on any flight attempt would read: shot on the escape. The Wehrmacht, however, reacts with moderate means. If somebody is taken hold of on the flight, then solitary confinement and not death threatens him.
When Oflag IV C is opened officially in 1940, commanding officer Colonel Schmidt and his camp officers Captain Paul Priem, Captain Hans Püpcke and Captain Reinhold Eggers expect the new guests.
The first prisoners are Poles who arrive in October 1940. They already have a reputation of being extremely keen to escape.The first three RAF prisoners are registered November 5: Flying Officers Middleton, Milne and Wardle. The three Canadian airmen are already shot down over Germany in April. On November 7 the so-called "Laufen Six" arrive in Colditz., Lieutenant Peter Allen, Captain Rupert Barry, Captain Harry Elliott, Captain Richard Howe, Captain Kenneth Lockwood and Captain Patrick Reid. Pat Reid will be promoted to the unofficial British Colditz historian after the war. As one of the first "guests of the Wehrmacht" he has the overview from the beginning till the end of camp Colditz. Before the arrival in Colditz the six are imprisoned in Laufen near Munich where they use the first opportunity for an escape.
The Germans have the idea of assembling the notorious escapees to keep them under control. Unfortunately, the things develop contrary to the real idea. Unintentionally an escape academy is founded. In the next weeks and months more and more "difficult cases" come to Colditz. By the end of July, 1941 there are 200 French, 150 Poles, two Yugoslavs, 68 Dutch and 50 Brits. Among them the English RAF ace Douglas Bader. Bader is a national institution. He represents the special virtues of the British in a big way. His will and forcefulness lets Bader with an amputated leg fight for a place in a Spitfire until the wish is granted to him. From a tired bunch of Canadians he develops a powerful fighter pilot squadron. Bader fights Me 109 and German bombers. Officially he is awarded 22.5 air victories. He receives the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for unusual courage and executive. On August 9, 1941 he must bail out of his Spitfire after a dog fight with a Me 109 of JG 26 and is taken prisoner. Already on the day after his arrival in a hospital he attempts to flee. He then continues his escape attempts in other camps until he is transferred to Colditz.
However, he makes a request at a visit to the fighter squadron JG 26 which is under the command of Adolf Galland, the later general of the fighter pilots, and which is responsible for his crash. As a result from the crash his artificial limb is damaged. He asks Galland to send a message to England, to supply him with a substitute, a more comfortable uniform, a new pipe and tobacco. Galland passes on the wish to Göring, Göring agrees and with the assurance of a free escort for an English aircraft the wish is sent to England via the distress wave.The English actually fulfill the wish their way. A large formation of British bombers attacks targets around the airfield of St. Omer, the JG 26 home base. Apart from a few tons of explosives they also drop the limb for Bader.
Next to Bader there are other top guns in Colditz. For example the New Zealander Captain Charles Upham, the twofold holder of the Victoria Cross frequently called in English media "outstanding soldier of the century", or David Sterling founder of the Special Air Service, the precursor of the modern British elite unit SAS.
The life in Colditz is frequently more pleasant for the prisoners than for their guards. They get red cross packets in which better catering is usually packed than the normal German soldier get to see. Since there is no work for the prisoners, they have to keep busy themselves. No wonder that they realize their imagination and ideas into escape tools. The iron beds with their iron mattresses have to serve as a base for various tools. The "consumption" goes so far that the cannibalised mattresses have to be supported with other material.
The prisoners also provide entertainment themselves. The Poles for example have a marionettes theatre which meets with great approval.. There are unbelievable ideas for the organization of the leisure time. There are Camp Olympic Games in August 1941, the Poles found a choir, the Dutch form a Hawaii guitar combo, the French arrange an orchestra, the British organize games stage productions. Later, when escape activities and tunnel digging cause too much noise some sort of Colditz rugby became popular, Stoolball. Two teams play a version of tightened up rugby. It is all about for the Goalie who sits on the opposing chair and who has to be kicked off this. It is both a form of aggression reduction and noise factory to the reduction of the escape noise. Furthermore one tries to put the life of the guards on the head permanently. The appeal is disrupted, water bombs are thrown at the German soldiers and life is made difficult for them in many another ways. RAF officer Pete Tunstall does it so terrifically that he spends 415 days in solitary confinement.
At first outbreaks are carried out non-coordinated. The British know nothing about the activities of the Poles and reverse. The methods are diverse. Keys, maps and cards are copied and entire uniforms and caps manufactured. M 19, a department of the British War Departments does nothing else but to think up means, tools and information then passed on via the red cross-channels and other communication channels to the prisoners.
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The Germans are conscious of this and try with all means to find out the prisoners and to nip in the bud all escape activities. Captain Eggers, the later safety officer and German Colditz historian, formes his own "defence" to check the outbreaks and even to anticipate them. So a permanent fight for the advantage startes. The prisoners have one benefit ", Eggers remembers, "they are experienced".
Nine French officers start to dig a tunnel which took weeks. The beginning of the tunnel is on the level of the chapel tower. There it goes 28 m deep, then it runs 30 m below the chapel through the wall and on to the garden. German guards on duty hear the noise, however, can not establish for long time, where that noise comes from. Shortly before the completion they discover the tunnel. To dress up is another way to get out. Airey Neave breaks out as a German soldier twice, the French Peodeau does it as "house electrician Willi Pöhnert", the French Boulay disguises himself as a woman.
Most of these attempts fail. The Germans collect many objects, produced for the escapes and exhibit them in a "museum". The local photographer Johannes Lange takes photos of those, who are caught up in disguise. Captain Eggers publishes the cases in the “Colditz Gazette” the defence newspaper. The respect for the prisoners is defined on the German side. A signpost which hangs in the headquarters tells of it:”It is not the worst officers in the war prison camp who prepare an escape and also would go through at the risk of their life. However, the group of defence in the Oflag IV C has the special task of tracking down every preparation for the escape and making it impossible”.
The chaos amongst the different nations which plan and carry out outbreaks non-coordinated com to an end when Pat Reid is appointed "escape officer” after a personal failed attempt. An "escape officer" is not entitled for personal action but to sound classify and organize all activities.
It is an important prerequisite for a successful flight to receive as much information as possible over the flight route. For this every means suites fine properly. With the food, the chocolate or the coffee guard duties arre bribed. When Bader gets permission to visit the city he takes sweets along in the hope to be able to exchange them for news. Airman Cenek Chahorpka has even a girl friend in town who unwittingly provides him with excellent information. David Sterling even becomes the boss of the local black market later.
A whole number of escapes is crowned with success. The Dutch Francis Steinmetz and Hans Larive leave the castle unrecognized, get on the train to Gottmadingen and are in Switzerland three days later. Six men, among them the Dutch Damiäm Van Doorninck and the Australian Bill Fowler, dress up as German soldiers and marched through the guard-room to the outside. The two make it to Switzerland, the other four are caught.
One of the most notorious escapees is Mike Sinclair. His eight attempts are legend. His portrait iss present in all police stations in the entire Reich. He is even given the nickname "Roter Fuchs", red fox. .Captain Eggers calls him the "greatest escapee of everyone". His first attempt leads him from a camp in the northeast of Germany via Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia, until he is apprehended at the Bulgarian border. He then comes to Colditz. On the way there he tries again in vain. Next is an attempt from a hospital in Leipzig. He makes it until Cologne. And it goes on and on. Sinclair is on a mission. He wants to go home. His probably most famous attempt is the one in disguise of the Staff Sergeant Rotheberger who is only known as "Franz Josef". If this test effort had worked, there would have been a mass escape. So he is stopped with sharp shots, however. Like a miracle, he is neither hurt nor killed. That happens only on September 25, 1944 when he undertakes a suicidal attempt to escape in the garden of the castle. This costs him his life. He is buried in Berlin Charlottenburg today.
There are so many examples of outbreaks that succeed or fail which would simply blow up the frame. Therefore here the last and, the probably also most spectacular escape attempt.
At the beginning of 1944 the RAF officers L.J.E. Bill Goldfinch and Lieutenant Tony Rolt, before the war a famous car racer, decides to build a two-seater glider. The idea is to fly across the river Mulde and land 60 metres further on the opposite shore. The enterprise starts with an increased crew in May. Jack Best and Dick Howe still join the two "aero engineers". These four put their "company" together, twelve assistants and 40 watchers. Within ten months they work for four hours daily. The start is provided on the roof in which a weight of two tons hangs on a rope that shall accelerate the aeroplane running on wheels on 30 miles per hour.
The workshop is a tiny space under the church roof. There is an entry hatch in the floor. The material for the plane comes from floor boards, bed boards, lockers, shelves and quilt-covers. Although the aeroplane is completed it is never used. The war is over. When the 1. U.S. Army frees Colditz the army takes pictures of the aeroplane in April 1945. It is destroyed for unknown reasons later. In 1993 the British TV station "East Anglia TV" builds a model of the aeroplane for its documentation "Escape from Colditz" in the scale 1:3. After a successful test the model is submitted to the "Escape Museum" in Colditz.
