Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found
themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the crown
was casting-about for ways and means to facilitate their escape. Now
obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and
accurate map, one showing not only where-stuff-was, but also showing the
locations of "safe houses", where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and
shelter. Paper maps had some real drawbacks: They make a lot of noise
when you open and fold them, they wear-out rapidly, And if they get
wet, they turn into mush. Someone in MI-5 (similar to America 'S CIA)
got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be
scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and
makes no noise what-so-ever. At that time, there was only one
manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of
printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd.
When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do
its bit for the war effort.
By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for the
popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened, "games and
pastimes" was a category of item qualified for insertion into "CARE
packages", dispatched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of
war.
Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible
old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy
employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of
Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were located
(Red Cross packages were delivered to prisoners in accordance with that
same regional system). When processed, these maps could be folded into
such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing
piece. As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's
also managed to add:
1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass,
2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together.
3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and
French currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!
British and American air-crews were advised, before taking off on
their first mission, how to identify a "rigged" Monopoly set ----- by
means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary
printing glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square! Of
the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated
one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets.
Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy Indefinitely, since the British
Government might want to use this highly successful ruse in still
another, future war.
The story wasn't de-classified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen
from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were finally honored in a
public ceremony. Anyway, it's always nice when you can play that "Get
Out of Jail Free" card.
themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the crown
was casting-about for ways and means to facilitate their escape. Now
obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and
accurate map, one showing not only where-stuff-was, but also showing the
locations of "safe houses", where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and
shelter. Paper maps had some real drawbacks: They make a lot of noise
when you open and fold them, they wear-out rapidly, And if they get
wet, they turn into mush. Someone in MI-5 (similar to America 'S CIA)
got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be
scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and
makes no noise what-so-ever. At that time, there was only one
manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of
printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd.
When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do
its bit for the war effort.
By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for the
popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened, "games and
pastimes" was a category of item qualified for insertion into "CARE
packages", dispatched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of
war.
Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible
old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy
employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of
Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were located
(Red Cross packages were delivered to prisoners in accordance with that
same regional system). When processed, these maps could be folded into
such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing
piece. As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's
also managed to add:
1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass,
2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together.
3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and
French currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!
British and American air-crews were advised, before taking off on
their first mission, how to identify a "rigged" Monopoly set ----- by
means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary
printing glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square! Of
the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated
one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets.
Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy Indefinitely, since the British
Government might want to use this highly successful ruse in still
another, future war.
The story wasn't de-classified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen
from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were finally honored in a
public ceremony. Anyway, it's always nice when you can play that "Get
Out of Jail Free" card.
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