NP Hogan's Heroes

[Jeremy Osner]

Here's something from the hand-tool list

Posted By: Dan Stickney (IN)
Date: Wednesday, 2/7/01, at 11:23 a.m.

    If you get a chance, catch the PBS NOVA show on the WWII POW camp at

    Colditz Castle. (For folks outside of the States, NOVA is a weekly
show about
    science, technology, and history. At least half of the shows come
from the BBC or
    Channel 4 in the UK, and I assume that the other half are shown
there through some
    sort of reciprocal agreement.)

    Anyway, Colditz Castle was the prison camp where they sent POW's who

    repeatedly escaped from other camps. It was in a Medieval castle
sitting on a
    pinnacle overlooking the town of Colditz. The bluffs gave the walls
an effective
    height of nearly 30 meters. Apparently, life for the prisoners was
not especially
    harsh. The very security of the physical location, and the
personality of the
    commander, meant that the guards didn't need to be brutal or
draconian. However,
    all of these prisoners were obsessed with escape, and concentrating
the most
    enterprising prisioners had the unintended result of creating a
virtual graduate school
    for escapees.

    Anyway, here's the hand tool content. For their last escape plot,
the prisoners
    constructed a glider in the attic. The idea was for two men to glide
across the river
    and land in a park. The glider was designed by two prisoners and
constructed by
    two others. All of these men participated in the story. One of the
builders showed
    off two tools that he had made for the job: One was a plane carved
out of a chair leg
    with a pocket knife, using a broken butterknife blade for an iron.
The other was a
    fellow saw style rip saw with a frame made from an iron window bar
and a blade
    made from a gramophone spring.

    Anyway, using these primative tools, these guys built this glider in
a tiny hidden
    shop in one of the castle attics. They carefully cut, steamed, bent,
and assembled
    over 6000 pieces by the light of homemade lard lamps. However, by
the time the
    glider was done, the situation in Germany had deteriorated to the
point where escape
    was too dangerous. A few months later the Colditz was captured by
the U.S. Army.
    Before they left, the prisoners pulled the glider down from the
attic and assembled it
    for the first time, and all of the pieces fit perfectly. In the
final sequence of the show,
    a group of modern aviation technicians built an exact replica of the
glider from the
    original plans. It flew beautifully.

    Anyway, this should serve as a lesson for anyone who wants to know
"How many
    tools do I really need." I think the answer must be: "How badly do
you want to
    make something?"

    Dan