We were all up early and ready to go on our bikes at 9.30am to Colditz Castle. We were quite excited as we had all watched the Colditz series in the 1970s. Sean has been reading books on Colditz and watching videos to update himself on it. 

After a 10 minute bike ride we arrived to see the castle’s impressive white frontage. We rode in the front gate and tied up our bikes.

We went into the first courtyards and then through more gates into the second courtyard containing life size figures. We found out later most were of prisoners in their escape outfits that had been recorded by the German soldiers in order to make sure any escape attempts were remembered. 

One had a dummy that was used in headcounts after someone had escaped. It was successful for a while. 

We went onto a terrace to get the view.

We then checked in for our special tour that I had booked months ago – XXL Legendary Escapes for 3 hours.

Colette Louis , the Cultural Officer of Colditz was our guide and told us that only VIP prisoners were located here. There were Polish, French, Dutch, Belgian with the main contingent being British.

The German soldiers were career soldiers from the Wehrmacht so had respect for the POWs and treated them well under the Geneva convention – giving them proper rations, parcels from overseas and a walk in the park every day. 

We went to the location of our first escape – the theatre where soldiers performed shows. Normal visitors don’t get to go there. It’s also a bit of a safety issue. 

Pat Reid the escape officer of the British escape committee had cut a hole under the stage to the lower floor used by the Germans. 

We saw it from the lower floor.

During a performance when all the Germans were distracted 2 other escapees Airey Neave and Tony Lutyen went through the hole with Pat and changed into German uniforms went out the window onto a roof and got into the German guardhouse block. Relying on the darkness and their fake uniforms, they strolled right past the sentries and out of the castle’s main gates.

Pat hid their footprints with bellows and went back up to the performance up a bedsheet rope and hid the hole. As escape officer he isn’t allowed to escape – only organise. 

The escapees got to Switzerland and back to the UK. This was the first successful ‘home run’ out of 32. 

We then were at the site of many escapes. 

We went outside to the park where all prisoners got their 2 hours of fresh air. 
On the way out we went to the guardhouse where they had a solitary confinement cell for punishment after a prison escape. It was basic.

We continued to the park which was really quite pleasant on this sunny day. The prisoners  relaxed and played football here.

Away from the exercise area 2 prisoners hid in the Dutch well, one up to his waist in water and the other on his shoulders. The bolt in the metal cover had been replicated in glass that another prisoner placed there.

They then waited for dark to get out of the well and escape out of the park.

Another attempt was a sheet with leaves sewn on that prisoners hid under. That one wasn’t successful. 

The best view of the castle was from the park.

Back in the top courtyard we were told about the attempted escapes of the characters.

The ‘lady’ was a dressed up prisoner who got to the main gate but dropped his watch. A German soldier picked it up and saw it was a man’s watch – and that it wasn’t a lady.  

The 2 men with glasses who look the same are the 2 Willi’s. The castle electrician was Willi. One of the prisoners looked a bit like him so created an outfit to mimic him. When Willi came in the prisoner attempted to walk out the gate. However he was apprehended as all civilians on entering are given a numbered tag that they have to return – and Willi 2 didn’t have one. 

Eventually Pat Reid gave up his position of escape officer and was allowed to attempt an escape. 

After evening roll-call, four men including Pat Reid slipped into the prisoners’ kitchen and forced their way out onto a roof, dodging a patrolling sentry to reach the potato cellar under the German headquarters

We then went down the potato cellar. The 4 men then had to get through this tiny slit. Some of them had to strip off to get through and there was a lot of pushing and pulling!

They got out into the park and made it to Switzerland.

We then went into the public museum area where we saw a French tunnel in the walls next to the chapel. They had taken months to dig it but the Germans knew digging was going on somewhere and eventually found it.

We went up into a few floors to see a museum area where items related to escapes were shown. There were many German uniforms made with cloth dyed exactly to the right colour. There were typewriter keys to make official documents.

Ingenious things were a walnut with a compass and unfortunately missing we were told about were playing cards with backs that come off with a hidden map that can be seen when all joined together.

We then went further up to the attic to see a glider. They had taken covering was made from bedsheets. This had been created by the British but they didn’t get a chance to use it as they were liberated at the end of the war. Unfortunately this was a copy as the real one was chopped up and used for firewood at the end of the war. 

A British university team thought they would see if it would actually have flown. 

They built this copy and it actually flew. 

We were now at the end of our private tour. We said goodbye to Colette who had given us a great tour.

We then checked out the youth hostel to see if they had any food to sell us. Unfortunately not – so lunch was icecream from the castle shop and some nuts we had brought.

We were then able to revisit the public museum areas which we did to make sure we hadn’t missed anything.

We then cycled home looking forward to a nice swim in the pool next door. 

Unfortunately they would accept cards and we didn’t have any cash so Sean went cycling down town to get some . Unfortunately his transaction was rejected. I tried to get money from the campsite owner using card. He tried but couldn’t get any network. So we were destined not to have a swim. We instead had cooling showers and it was dinner time anyway. 

We slept well that night!