At the outbreak of WWII, the ancient gothic castle of Colditz was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp. Its location on a rocky spur overlooking a river made it the ideal location for a high-security prison, or so the Germans thought.
Sent to Colditz were some of the most difficult allied prisoners-of-war.
Made famous after the second world war in memoirs, films and TV, Colditz was known for its multiple escape attempts, some of great derring-do, others were feats of ingenuity and engineering.
In this episode, I'm joined by Ben Macintyre.
Ben is the bestselling author of books including Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. Ben's new book Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis’ Fortress Prison takes a new look at the Colditz and really fills out the story.
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223 - Landing Craft Infantry
222 - The D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations
221 - Training the Indian Army
220 - The Archer: Reversing to Victory
219 - D-Day Tourism
218 - Target Hong Kong
217 - How the Luftwaffe Lost the skies over Germany
216 - The Latvian Legion
215 - The Power of Japanese Propaganda
214 - Stan Hollis VC and the Green Howards on D-Day
213 - The British Empire and Commonwealth’s War Against Imperial Japan
212 - Invisible Generals
211 - HG-76: Taking the Fight to Hitler's U-boats
210 - The Battle for Italy, 1943
209 - Hospital Trains of WWII
208 - 2SAS and Bill Sterling
207 - Tank Warfare in North Africa, 1942-43
206 - The Extraordinary Life of Journalist Wallace Carroll
205 - Victory to Defeat: The British Army 1918-40
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