I haven’t really thought about Colditz since the 1970s. We loved the TV series, but best of all was the board game, Escape From Colditz, which my brother and I played solidly for about three years. I always wanted to be the Dutch, groovy orange pieces in the same colour as the great football team of the day.
Augustus the Strong was also fond of fox tossing – Fuchsprellen. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when someone first broached the idea and decided ‘this is what aristocrats are missing out on’.
In Armed Struggle, his history of the IRA, Richard English points out that, like Mountbatten, Neave fought Nazis while the people who killed him had an alliance with them. That always stuck with me.
Neave worked for MI9 when he returned, alongside future Goon Michael Bentine.
I thought "In the Presence of my Foes" was a good read alongside Macintyre's book. It's by Brigadier Gris Davies-Scourfield who was an inmate after escaping his initial POW camp and spending 9 months on the run in occupied Poland.
About a third of the book is about Colditz and it's a bit more positive about Captain Mazumdar's experience. I couldn't shake the feeling that Macintyre had been looking for a story about Mazumdar which Davies-Scourfield's account doesn't quite match. That is *not* to say that being the only Indian officer in Colditz would have been an easy experience given prevailing attitudes at the time.
I have read many of Ben McIntyre’s books and find his topics and research very interesting.
However his obsessive focus on homosexuality is wearing thin.
I am not interested in the sexuality of historic figures unless it has an impact on the story he is telling and illicit fumbling in colditz distracted me from the narrative.
Likewise his insistence on casting an unsupported homosexual agenda to Paddy Mayne’s feelings for his dead friend and comrade in arms is not consonant with the drift of his story.
I don’t know if I can read anymore of his books if he carries on like this- maybe a eulogy to the strength other people got from their heterosexual family life might provide a bit of balance but that ain’t happening.
A neighbour of ours growing up in Windermere, John Watton, had been a prisoner in Colditz. He sketched a portrait of Elie de Rothschild (Lieutenant Baron Élie Robert de Rothschild of Château Lafite Rothschild) while he was a prisoner there and this was reproduced on the first page of a local Anglo-Italian restaurant's wine list for many years, with the original hanging on the wall. Having eight children, Lt Watton could never afford to eat there. As a junior officer in the Border Regiment (Westmorland and Cumberland), he was part of the Highland Division's rearguard 'fight till you run out of ammo' effort in 1940 and was a POW for five years. He helped forge documents for escapees and habitually wore a beret in civilian life to show he was an artist. A striking, gentlemanly figure in the village, always courteous even to us children but not a man to be trifled with. I wonder if he's mentioned in Macintyre's book?
The Highland Division were not really part of a rearguard in 1940, if the “Second BEF” fiasco is what you mean. Total disaster, referenced in Evelyn Waugh’s books about WWII. Another example of Churchill sending men onto Operation Certain Death - or in this case, five years in prison. Unless they escaped…
The landing a plane near Colditz was not as far fetched as some of the plans for escape. When I was there, I found that some were building a glider from an old manual they found in the library. The plan was to make the pieces seperately, then put them together suddenly one night on top of a building, and launch it by dropping a weight on a rope and pulley arrangement.
The man who explained shook his head, and thought they were out of their minds. But I don’t know. Many fliers then had trained on gliders. And think of the propaganda black eye for the Germans, actually flying out of the place! But, the war ended first. Maybe luckily for them.
A Tommy developed sepsis while in Colditz and one of his legs had to be amputated below the knee. He asked the Commandant for it to be dropped over Blighty in the next Luftwaffe raid. “Ja, das ist possible. Ve are not all ze heartless fascists your BBC [curls lip] portrays us to be.” replies the Commandant. Sadly, soon after, his other leg has to be chopped off. He asks for the same compassionate treatment. “Hmm, Ja, ok Tommy. For you ze war ist warscheinlich over”. But when an arm has to be removed, Der Obersturmbahnfuhrer is adamant: “Nein, Tommy, we think you are trying to escape!”.
"While the two Indians were able to slip away, Sinclair’s seventh attempt at escape saw him get as far as the Dutch border, where he was stopped because the guard thought that he didn’t look German: ‘He told us that my face and hat had aroused his suspicions as they did not look Teutonic.’"
It's not like most of the Reich leadership looked very Teutonic, apart from Reinhard Heydrich!
"By the end of June 1941, the French contingent included 80 Jewish officers, among them Robert Blum, classical pianist and son of former prime minister Leon, and Elie de Rothschild from the famous dynasty. "
Leon Blum had the noteworthy distinction of being a head of government before AND after the war who saw the inside of an extermination camp!
"There were also deepening divisions between the British and French, which soured in July 1940 following Mers-el-Kebir, and also among the French themselves, divided between the Vichyites and Free French, some of the former displaying a large poster of Petain in their quarters."
Did you know that the American government continued to recognize and retain diplomacy with Vichy France even after they entered the war in Europe with Hitler's declaration of war on them?
In part this was because they actually saw the Petain government as a more legitimate continuation of government from the pre-war years (it had many prominent pre-war politicians like Pierre Laval) and in part due to FDR's utter loathing of De Gaulle who he was as a vain wannabe military dictator in the tradition of the Bonapartes or various Latin American despots!
It was a judgement call. And the contact was useful when negotiating Operation Torch. Diplomacy with Darlan delivered a comparatively bloodless victory to the Allies.
I haven’t really thought about Colditz since the 1970s. We loved the TV series, but best of all was the board game, Escape From Colditz, which my brother and I played solidly for about three years. I always wanted to be the Dutch, groovy orange pieces in the same colour as the great football team of the day.
You can still buy the boardgame, though the swastika that was on the original cover has been replaced by an eagle.
Also, the shed in the yard has been torn down in real life, tho still in the game. Wonder why?
Augustus the Strong was also fond of fox tossing – Fuchsprellen. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when someone first broached the idea and decided ‘this is what aristocrats are missing out on’.
In Armed Struggle, his history of the IRA, Richard English points out that, like Mountbatten, Neave fought Nazis while the people who killed him had an alliance with them. That always stuck with me.
Neave worked for MI9 when he returned, alongside future Goon Michael Bentine.
I thought "In the Presence of my Foes" was a good read alongside Macintyre's book. It's by Brigadier Gris Davies-Scourfield who was an inmate after escaping his initial POW camp and spending 9 months on the run in occupied Poland.
About a third of the book is about Colditz and it's a bit more positive about Captain Mazumdar's experience. I couldn't shake the feeling that Macintyre had been looking for a story about Mazumdar which Davies-Scourfield's account doesn't quite match. That is *not* to say that being the only Indian officer in Colditz would have been an easy experience given prevailing attitudes at the time.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Presence-My-Foes-Colditz-Underground/dp/1844151972
We listened to the audiobook in 2022 or so. Very involving.
I have read many of Ben McIntyre’s books and find his topics and research very interesting.
However his obsessive focus on homosexuality is wearing thin.
I am not interested in the sexuality of historic figures unless it has an impact on the story he is telling and illicit fumbling in colditz distracted me from the narrative.
Likewise his insistence on casting an unsupported homosexual agenda to Paddy Mayne’s feelings for his dead friend and comrade in arms is not consonant with the drift of his story.
I don’t know if I can read anymore of his books if he carries on like this- maybe a eulogy to the strength other people got from their heterosexual family life might provide a bit of balance but that ain’t happening.
A neighbour of ours growing up in Windermere, John Watton, had been a prisoner in Colditz. He sketched a portrait of Elie de Rothschild (Lieutenant Baron Élie Robert de Rothschild of Château Lafite Rothschild) while he was a prisoner there and this was reproduced on the first page of a local Anglo-Italian restaurant's wine list for many years, with the original hanging on the wall. Having eight children, Lt Watton could never afford to eat there. As a junior officer in the Border Regiment (Westmorland and Cumberland), he was part of the Highland Division's rearguard 'fight till you run out of ammo' effort in 1940 and was a POW for five years. He helped forge documents for escapees and habitually wore a beret in civilian life to show he was an artist. A striking, gentlemanly figure in the village, always courteous even to us children but not a man to be trifled with. I wonder if he's mentioned in Macintyre's book?
He's briefly quoted and described as "an accomplished artist."
Thank you.
The Highland Division were not really part of a rearguard in 1940, if the “Second BEF” fiasco is what you mean. Total disaster, referenced in Evelyn Waugh’s books about WWII. Another example of Churchill sending men onto Operation Certain Death - or in this case, five years in prison. Unless they escaped…
The landing a plane near Colditz was not as far fetched as some of the plans for escape. When I was there, I found that some were building a glider from an old manual they found in the library. The plan was to make the pieces seperately, then put them together suddenly one night on top of a building, and launch it by dropping a weight on a rope and pulley arrangement.
The man who explained shook his head, and thought they were out of their minds. But I don’t know. Many fliers then had trained on gliders. And think of the propaganda black eye for the Germans, actually flying out of the place! But, the war ended first. Maybe luckily for them.
Thanks! Now I won’t have to read the book!
A Tommy developed sepsis while in Colditz and one of his legs had to be amputated below the knee. He asked the Commandant for it to be dropped over Blighty in the next Luftwaffe raid. “Ja, das ist possible. Ve are not all ze heartless fascists your BBC [curls lip] portrays us to be.” replies the Commandant. Sadly, soon after, his other leg has to be chopped off. He asks for the same compassionate treatment. “Hmm, Ja, ok Tommy. For you ze war ist warscheinlich over”. But when an arm has to be removed, Der Obersturmbahnfuhrer is adamant: “Nein, Tommy, we think you are trying to escape!”.
"While the two Indians were able to slip away, Sinclair’s seventh attempt at escape saw him get as far as the Dutch border, where he was stopped because the guard thought that he didn’t look German: ‘He told us that my face and hat had aroused his suspicions as they did not look Teutonic.’"
It's not like most of the Reich leadership looked very Teutonic, apart from Reinhard Heydrich!
With his enormous nose - and high voice? He was the archetype for the camp Nazi!
"By the end of June 1941, the French contingent included 80 Jewish officers, among them Robert Blum, classical pianist and son of former prime minister Leon, and Elie de Rothschild from the famous dynasty. "
Leon Blum had the noteworthy distinction of being a head of government before AND after the war who saw the inside of an extermination camp!
"There were also deepening divisions between the British and French, which soured in July 1940 following Mers-el-Kebir, and also among the French themselves, divided between the Vichyites and Free French, some of the former displaying a large poster of Petain in their quarters."
Did you know that the American government continued to recognize and retain diplomacy with Vichy France even after they entered the war in Europe with Hitler's declaration of war on them?
In part this was because they actually saw the Petain government as a more legitimate continuation of government from the pre-war years (it had many prominent pre-war politicians like Pierre Laval) and in part due to FDR's utter loathing of De Gaulle who he was as a vain wannabe military dictator in the tradition of the Bonapartes or various Latin American despots!
It was a judgement call. And the contact was useful when negotiating Operation Torch. Diplomacy with Darlan delivered a comparatively bloodless victory to the Allies.
"Another British officer keen to get out was Airey Neave, who had been especially disappointed by his war so far"
Later on a mentor to Margaret Thatcher and was killed in a car bomb during the Troubles.
I'd change that "who" to "and" Aidan for the sake of historical accuracy ;-)