"A great escape plot devised by British prisoners held at Colditz Castle during World War II is finally to come to fruition. The brave men had planned to fly to freedom across Germany's River Mulde on the 'Colditz Cock' - a glider they built using sleeping bags, gramophone springs and porridge. But the PoWs were released by U.S. troops in April 1945 before they could launch the aircraft, which they had hidden behind a false wall in a chapel at the 1,000-year-old castle. This summer, the Colditz Cock will at last be completed, to take to the skies as part of a Channel 4 documentary. It will be piloted by two dummies instead of desperate prisoners, according to the Daily Telegraph." Great escape plot by Colditz PoWs to finally be realised as glider made with gramophone springs takes to the sky | Mail Online
"It may have been 67 years late but a replica of the Colditz glider finally took off from the castle yesterday . . . and promptly crashed. The original glider – nicknamed the Colditz Cock – was part of one of the most audacious escape plans conjured up by British prisoners of war held at the castle. After discovering a book on aircraft design in the library, the Second World War PoWs designed and constructed it behind a false wall in the attic. The glider was still under construction when the supposedly escape-proof PoW camp Oflag IV-C was liberated by American forces in April 1945. As a result, its launch, planned for later that spring, never took place. Yesterday’s flight was for a Channel 4 documentary focusing on the construction of the replica glider and its launch, to be screened in the summer. The radio-controlled replica, which was piloted by a dummy, had taken off from the roof above the castle chapel. But it crash-landed in a field and the dummy was decapitated, suggesting the two escapees who would have piloted the plane would have died." Flight from Colditz: British PoWs' daring glider escape takes to sky, 67 years late | Mail Online
