WWII History and Monopoly.... | SouthernPaddler.com

WWII History and Monopoly....

oldyaker

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
1,949
31
Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British
airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third
Reich, and the authorities were 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-loose 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 got the idea of printing escape maps on
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
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 declassified until 2007, when the surviving
craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself,
were finally honoured in a public ceremony. Anyway, it's
always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail Free'
card.


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