The Colditz Story

A dramatization of a real life situation at a WWII POW camp is presented, one of the factual elements remaining being the name of the original storyteller, P.R. Reid, "Pat", with all other names having been changed. In small groups, existing Allied POWs are brought to a castle, known as Colditz, for a reason none of them know. They eventually learn that Colditz has just been set up as a POW camp to house chronic escapees, the Kommandant who warns them that any attempts at escape are "verboten" and will be treated harshly. Reid, one of the British POWs, believes that the senior officer not only among the Brits but of the entire prison population, Colonel Richmond, may be a problem in dissuading their collective escape attempts in his officious nature. Richmond doesn't end up being a problem, he who wants to see the men escape, but that the many nationalities at the camp, who are housed in different areas of the castle, are not communicating with each other, and thus are stepping over each other in their escape attempts, each blaming the other. Not without trouble, Richmond is able to set up an escape committee comprised of a representative from each nationality who will be the liaisons between the nationalities and their own men, the representatives, Reid for the Brits, who are not allowed to make those escape attempts themselves in needed in that liaison position. With some subsequent attempts successful and many more not, Richmond and Reid lament the fact that no Brits have yet been able to escape. That may change when McGill, Mac in casual circumstances, has what he considers a foolproof plan to escape, he only divulging it if he can choose his friend Reid as his partner in the escape. What happens with this plan is then presented, with the major problem being that the good plan which has a high probability of success has a major liability in Mac himself.