| Property | Value |
|---|
| rdf:type | |
| rdfs:label | |
| rdfs:comment | - The take-off was scheduled for the spring of 1945 during an air raid blackout but by then the Allied guns could be heard and the war's outcome was fairly certain. The British escape officer decided that the glider should be available for use in case the SS ordered the massacre of the prisoners as a way to get a message out to approaching American troops. The glider was approaching completion when the American Army liberated the camp on 16 April 1945.
|
| owl:sameAs | |
| empty weight kg | |
| dcterms:subject | |
| dbkwik:military/property/wikiPageUsesTemplate | |
| lift to drag | |
| airfoil | |
| stall speed kmh | |
| gross weight kg | |
| Name | |
| primary user | |
| Type | |
| Caption | |
| span m | |
| wing loading kg/m | |
| Manufacturer | |
| length m | |
| aspect ratio | |
| First Flight | |
| prime units? | |
| Retired | |
| Crew | |
| Number Built | |
| Designer | - Bill Goldfinch, Jack Best
|
| ref | - British Gliders and Saiplanes
|
| abstract | - The take-off was scheduled for the spring of 1945 during an air raid blackout but by then the Allied guns could be heard and the war's outcome was fairly certain. The British escape officer decided that the glider should be available for use in case the SS ordered the massacre of the prisoners as a way to get a message out to approaching American troops. The glider was approaching completion when the American Army liberated the camp on 16 April 1945. Although the Colditz Cock never flew in real life, the concept was fictionalized, depicting a successful flight and escape, in the 1971 TV film The Birdmen starring Doug McClure, Chuck Connors, Rene Auberjonois and Richard Basehart. One episode of the BBC TV series Colditz depicts the decision to build a glider as an escape attempt. It is also depicted in the final escape from Colditz Castle in the fictional story depicted in Prisoner of War, a video game released in 2002. The fate of the glider is not known but the castle was in the zone controlled by the Russians who did not co-operate with its reclamation. The only evidence of its completion was a photograph, said to have been taken by an American soldier. However, Goldfinch had kept his drawings which enabled a one-third scale model to be constructed. This was eventually launched from the castle roof in 1993.
|
