Thanks Herman!
Let me first say that I love the BBC TV series. But it has a major flaw. I always feel like they downplay the roles of other nationalities, especially the Dutch and the Poles. This seems to be somewhat unfair, partly because I'm a little patriotic of course, but mainly because both, Pat Reid and Hauptman Eggers considered the Dutch contingent to be the most efficient escape machine with relatively the highest ratio of succesfull escapes.
This brings me to the tiergarten, the place where a lot of escapes took place, mainly by Dutch and French prisoners. The tiergarten used to be the castle's hunting ground. It's a big forrest, stretching to the east. A smaller part, close to the castle has been separated by a stone wall, perfect for the Germans. According to the Geneva convention, the Colditz courtyard was too small, so the Germans were forced to let the prisoners loose in the tiergarden for a few hours a day so they could get some exercise. These journeys however were not popular with the prisoners, apart from a possibility to escape. The officers had to give their word not to escape, but the Dutch and the French did not feel bound to that. No British officers escaped from the tiergarten, apart from the tragic attempt by Mike Sinclaire.
Here the gate leading from the German coutyard to the tiergarten:
After passing the gate you look straight into the tiergarten, down below. At first both sides of the little road you see were used for recreation. Unfortunately most escapes happened in the area to the right, so later the Germans closed that part and only used the open field. The Dutch well was in that area on the right.
The road down. A French officer managed to get into the cellar of the building you see and tried to escape. Don't remember if it worked or not. Have to read the books again, I guess
In the first pic here on the left, you see a pile of rubish. That's the area were most attempts were made and were the Dutch well is located.
Six Dutch officers escaped in three shifts from the park by this well. They seemed to be very religious and did bible readings and prayer while standing round this area. In the mean time, they replaced the iron bolt on the cover of this well with a self made glass one and put 2 officers into the well. The Germans inspected the bolt and didn't see it was replaced. THe two, stiff after hours of standing in the small well, climbed out at night, breaking the glass bolt. They then thoroughly removed the glass and put the original bolt back on. 4 of the 6 made a homerun, best result up until then for any group. The method was discovered after they let the British join in the method. The Germans than put a metal lid on and bricked the lid shut.l It cannot be opened and the well hasn't been open since.
View on the castle from the tiergarten
About a meter in front of this wall, there was barbed wire. Here French officer Mairesse Lebrun did his famous escape by jumping over the wire in broad daylight. He kept on moving between the wire and the wall until the guard had fired and missed. Then he climbed over the wall while the guard was reloading. He made a homerun.
Looking to the other side, you can see the playground. Sinclair tried to escape in the far end and he was killed in that attempt. The only prisoner to be killed on escape during the war.