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Nazi Prison Escape

Yard
The hidden air shaft lies roughly in the middle of this photograph taken from the German yard.
Escaping Colditz
9: July 28, 1941

Dressed as German civilians, two French officers slid 40 feet down a rope lowered into an airshaft that led from the prisoner's theater four stories up to the German kitchen on the ground floor. They walked out into the German yard and on to the park gate, where the guard let them through. But the prison laundryman, who had idly watched them go, thought it odd he didn't recognize them. Mulling it over for an hour, he finally informed the security officer, who went after them with dogs and guards on bicycles. Lieuts. A. Thibaud and R. Perrin were caught about six miles away.

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  1. First escape
    April 12, 1941


  2. Straw mattresses
    May 8, 1941


  3. Locked cells
    Mid-May 1941


  4. Canteen tunnel
    May 1941


  5. German woman
    June 1941


  6. Air-raid shelter
    June 1941


  7. Hacksaw
    June 1941


  8. Over the wall
    July 2, 1941


  9. Air shaft
    July 28, 1941


  1. Lavatory
    July 31, 1941


  2. Manhole
    Late summer, 1941


  3. Dummies
    December 1941


  4. German officers
    December 1941


  5. Main gate
    January 6, 1942


  6. Town dump
    March 1942


  7. Wooden crate
    September 7, 1942


  8. Mussolini's office
    September 9, 1942


  9. Headquarters building
    October 15, 1942


  1. Willi the electrician
    December 1942


  2. "Maddest attempt"
    May 11, 1943


  3. Franz Josef
    September 2, 1943


  4. Cellar house
    January 19, 1944


  5. Rubbish heap
    May 2, 1944


  6. Greatest escaper
    September 25, 1944


  7. Glider
    April 1945



Escaping Colditz | The Jailor's Story | Great Escapes | The Colditz Glider
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