AceShowbiz
 
 
NOVA Episode 41.21 Escape From Nazi Alcatraz
NOVA Photo

NOVA Episode 41.21 Escape From Nazi Alcatraz

Episode Premiere
May 14, 2014
Genre
Documentary
Production Company
GBH
Official Site
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
Episode Premiere
May 14, 2014
Genre
Documentary
Period
1974 -
Production Co
GBH
Distributor
PBS
Official Site
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
Director
Ian Duncan, Tom Cook
Additional Cast
  • Jim Carter

Colditz Castle, a notorious prisoner of war camp in Nazi Germany, was supposed to be escape-proof. But in the dark days at the end of World War II, a group of British officers dreamt up the ultimate escape plan: in a secret attic workshop, they constructed a two-man glider out of bed sheets and floorboards. Their plan was to fly to freedom from the roof of the castle, but the war ended before they could put it to the test. Now a crack team of aero engineers and carpenters rebuild the glider in the same attic using the same materials, and they’ll do something the prisoners never got a chance to try: use a bathtub full of concrete to catapult the glider off the roof of the castle. As the hair-raising launch 90 feet up draws near, the program explores the Colditz legend and exposes the secrets of other ingenious and audacious escapes. Then, after a 70-year wait, the team finally finds out if the legendary glider plan would have succeeded.