216 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
216 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2013-03-27T15:16:54.000Z'
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title: Maps Hidden in Monopoly Helped World War II POWs Escape (2009)
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url: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/monopolys-hidden-maps-wwii-pows-escape/story?id=8605905#.UVHWojfmDK-
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author: cpeterso
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points: 44
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 4
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1364397414
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_cpeterso
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- story_5449873
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objectID: '5449873'
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year: 2009
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---
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It's a story that will forever change the way you think of the phrase,
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"Get Out of Jail Free."
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During [World War II](http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131624&page=1),
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as the number of British airmen held hostage behind enemy lines
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escalated, the country's secret service enlisted an unlikely partner in
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the ongoing war effort: The board game
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[Monopoly](http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/monopoly-city-streets-launches-google/story?id=8525472).
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It was the perfect accomplice.
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Included in the items the German army allowed humanitarian groups to
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distribute in care packages to imprisoned soldiers, the game was too
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innocent to raise suspicion. But it was the ideal size for a top-secret
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escape kit that could help spring British POWs from German war camps.
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null
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Play
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The British secret service conspired with the U.K. manufacturer to stuff
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a compass, small metal tools, such as files, and, most importantly, a
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map, into cut-out compartments in the Monopoly board itself.
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The British secret service conspired with the U.K. manufacturer to stuff
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a compass, small metal tools, such as files, and, most importantly, a
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map, into cut-out compartments in the Monopoly board itself.
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"It was ingenious," said Philip Orbanes, author of several books on
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[Monopoly](http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8518588),
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including "The World's Most Famous Game and How it Got That Way." "The
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Monopoly box was big enough to not only hold the game but hide
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everything else they needed to get to POWs."
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British historians say it could have helped thousands of captured
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soldiers escape.
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So how did a simple [board
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game](http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6845230&page=1) end up in a
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position to help out one of the most powerful military forces on the
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planet? Silk and serendipity.
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#### Silk Maps Were Key Escape Kit Elements
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Of all the tools in a military-grade escape kit, the most critical item
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was the map. But paper maps proved too fragile and cumbersome, said
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Debbie Hall, a cataloguer in the map room at the Bodleian Library at the
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University of Oxford in Oxford, England.
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For hundreds of years, even before World War II, silk was the material
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of choice for military maps, Hall said, because it wouldn't tear or
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dissolve in water as easily as paper and was light enough to stuff into
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a boot or cigarette packet. Unlike maps printed on paper, silk maps also
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wouldn't rustle and attract the attention of enemy guards, she said.
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"Initially, they had some problems printing on silk," Hall said. "It's
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quite technically challenging."
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But then MI9, the British secret service unit responsible for escape and
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evasion, found the one British company that had mastered printing on
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silk: John Waddington Ltd., a printer and board game manufacturer that
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also happened to be the U.K. licensee for the Parker Bros. game
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Monopoly.
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"Waddingtons in the pre-war era was printing on silk for theater
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programs. For celebration events for royalty and that kind of thing,"
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said Victor Watson, 80, who retired as chairman of the company in 1993.
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"It made a name for itself for being able to print on silk."
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He was just a child during the war but said his father Norman Watson,
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president of the company at the time, worked with British secret service
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to embed the maps in Monopoly games.
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He said a secret service officer named E.D. Alston (known around
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Waddington as "Mr. A.") used to come by to place the orders in person.
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"Because he was in the secret service, I never knew who he was," Watson
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said.
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## Maps, Compasses, Tools Hidden in Monopoly Boards
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Watson said his father formed a small division of the company that first
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printed silk and rayon maps for the British military and later embedded
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escape kits in hundreds of Monopoly games.
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Before leaving for missions, British airmen were told that if they were
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captured, they should look for escape maps and kits in Monopoly boards
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and other games delivered by charity groups. They were told that
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"special edition" Monopoly sets would be marked with a red dot on the
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free parking space.
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Watson said that in addition to the concealed compass, tools and maps,
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real bank notes were hidden under the fake money.
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During the war, the Official Secrets Act prevented anyone involved from
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disclosing the plan, and Watson said his father was concerned that the
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company could be targeted by the Germans if they were tipped off
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"It was very special and very secretive," Watson said, adding that he
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didn't learn about the company's role helping the military until years
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later.
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#### Different Maps for Different Regions
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Waddington printed six different maps that corresponded with regions
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surrounding six different German camps, Orbanes said. Monopoly kits
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bound for a camp in Italy, for example, would include a map of Italy and
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Italian currency (lira).
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To make sure each set reached its destination, the secret service
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devised another code.
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"Each game was pinpointed as to the camp it would go to," Orbanes said.
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To innocuously tag each board game, a period was added after different
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locations on the board.
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A period after "Mayfair," for example, meant that the game was intended
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for Norway, Sweden and Germany. And a period after Marylebone Station
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meant it was a game destined for Italy. (It being a British version of
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game, London streets replaced the Atlantic City streets used in the
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original American version.)
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## Hundreds of Thousands of Silk Maps Helped POWs Escape During WWII
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While "Mr. A." may have been responsible for bringing the war to
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Waddington's door, map experts credit another MI9 officer, Christopher
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Clayton Hutton, with hatching the master plan.
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"He put two and two together," Hall said, adding that Hutton was likely
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not alone in implementing it. "He was the first who had this idea to get
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maps into camps concealed in board games. It looks innocent, they
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wouldn't arouse any suspicion... it just looked like someone was being
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charitable."
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Hall and others familiar with the Monopoly maps say not wanting to
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compromise the integrity of the Red Cross, the secret service created
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fake charity groups to smuggle the games into the German camps.
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Barbara Bond, Pro-Chancellor at the U.K.'s University of Plymouth who is
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writing a book on silk maps, said Monopoly games weren't the only
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vehicles used to conceal escape maps. Decks of cards, the board game
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Snakes and Ladders and pencils also concealed maps for prisoners.
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"There was a whole industry going on," she said.
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During the war, hundreds of thousands of silk maps were used to help
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prisoners escape. And she said it marked a change in the way the
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military viewed POWs.
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During World War I, she said, "If you were captured in battle that was
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it."
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But after Winston Churchill and others shared their experiences as POWs,
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she said, the perception of them changed.
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"The POWs could still do a job," Bond said. "Not only was it their duty
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to fight if they were captured, it was their duty to escape."
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The silk (and rayon) maps and the clever ways they were distributed, she
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said, reflected that philosophy.
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## All 'Special Edition' Monopoly Sets Destroyed
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Though silk maps from that era exist in libraries, homes and museums
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around the world, none of the original rigged Monopoly sets still
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remain.
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After the war, everything was destroyed, Watson said.
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But though the games themselves are gone, their legacy is a source of
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pride for the makers of Monopoly, past and present.
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"Since Charles Darrow created Monopoly in the 1930s, the game has had a
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rich and interesting story. The use of Monopoly by the British
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government to sneak maps, money and supplies to prisoners of war during
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World War II is a little-known, but important part of our history," said
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a spokeswoman for toymaker Hasbro, Inc. "We are always honored when this
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iconic game becomes an important part of the fabric of a family's, or a
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country's, history and memories."
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In the 1970s, Watson had the chance to meet a few former POWs who
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actually used Wadddington's maps to escape from a prisoner camp at
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Colditz Castle, near Leipzig, Germany.
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"It was really exciting," he said. Although it's impossible to know
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precisely how many prisoners escaped with the help of the hidden maps,
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experts estimate that about 35,000 members of the British, Commonwealth
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and U.S. forces who were taken prisoner during the war returned to
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Allied lines before the end of the war.
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"We reckon that 10,000 used the Monopoly map," Watson said.
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