Monopoly ruse

[goudie]

Apologies if this has been posted before. First time I've heard of the Waddingtons connection

INTERESTING STORY ABOUT WW II

When an increasing number of British airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, the Government began casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape. 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 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 silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise whatsoever. 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.

[Sir George Cayley]

Great story and 35,000 escapees comes as a surprise. I wonder how many successful Axis escapees were there from the UK?

Sir George Cayley

[taxydual]

AFAIK, none from UK. But a 'famous' one from Canada

The One That Got Away (1957 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_That_Got_Away_%281957_film%29)

[goudie]

I did a little more research on this item and came across this website

I too was surprised at the 35,000 estimate of escaped POW's looks like one '0' too many

Monopoly Used To Assist WWII POW Escapes-Truth! (http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/monopoly-game.htm)

[virgo]

I'm not certain of the exact figures but I think 35,000 ESCAPERS is very wrong.
I remember being told during an "Escape and Evasion" course that the number of successful ESCAPES from POW camps ................ was about 25 !

However, thousands of allied airmen EVADED capture and returned to the UK, courtesy of the various Continental resistance groups

The moral of the story being that to stand any chance of getting back home, you had to avoid getting caught - once you were banged up, that was it !

The exact figures are (were ?) on display at Hendon and they confirmed those sort of statistics.

[Mycroft]

There were many more escapes than 25; but I would accept that the number would be correct for the number of prisoners not only escaping from the camp; but also making it back to Britain (of course there were also many who evaded capture and got home but were never in camps). As an example in the real Great Escape, there were 70+ escapers who made it through the tunnel (out of 100 planned - the tunnel was discovered during the escape). Of these 2 made it to neutral territory and 50 were executed (illegally according to the Geneve Convention) upon recapture by thr Germans. Of course the same camp had also been the site of the earlier 'Wooden Horse' Escape; with 2 making a successful 'Home Run'. Colditz is also famous for attempted escapes (one or two being home runs), and Colditz was only used for 'awkward' prisoners, most of whom had made at least one escape attempt.
Many war-related (and especially RAF) Museums, including Hendon and Tangmere, have escape supplies exhibitions; not only the Monopoly sets but also packs of playing cards containing maps and even equipment (including money) moulded inside gramophone records.
As well as items supplied via the Red Cross (who were unaware of their role), RAF uniforms also had escape and evasion features, including such things as magnetic trouser buttons (usually not those described in a recent QI, which unscrewed to reveal a small standard compass, but instead magnetized so that the button indicated north when resting on a point moulded onto another button), but also maps (some inside jacket linings so that hopefully they would not be found during a search) and the fact that the standard RAF flying boot could be converted to a civilian-style shoe by cutting off the top.
The Swiss and Spanish borders were notoriously 'leaky', generally with mountainous areas complete with civilians willing to act as guides for idealogical of financial reasons; and internment for the prisoners was usually of fairly short duration (some escapers via Spain actually getting to Gibraltar without being intercepted). The French Resistance were also of great help to RAF/USAAF aircrew who had evaded capture; but were usually more reluctant to aid escapers as their identity was often difficult to confirm.

[Double Zero]

The exhibit mentioned at Tangmere is a shapely lady's dress made entirely from silk escape maps; of course parachute silk clothing is fairly common, but this is special.

I don't know the story behind it, but have always guessed that at the end of the war, the C/O or similar requested pilots to ' volunteer ' their maps in this project for his wife / girlfriend.

Judging by the dress, she was, in modern parlance, 'fit' ! Though petite - would be interested to see a photo' of her, hope she lived up to it...

[Tankertrashnav]

I've got one of those interesting escape buttons which unscrews to reveal a little compass. Mine happens to be an army "General Service" pattern button, and I have certainly seen RAF and RCAF buttons with the same arrangement.

What has always intrigued me though is what use they really were? Other than early on in the war, say up to the end of 1940, RAF aircrew didn't fly in No 1 uniforms, which were the only ones to have brass buttons, and similarly army troops, including officers, would be wearing battledress when in the combat area, not service dress. Was this one of those ideas which looked great on paper, but in fact was never of any practical use? Did anyone, in fact, ever use to one to assist an escape? Or were they a bit like all those saucepans which got melted down and were never turned into Spitfires!

[Britace]

I've got one of those interesting escape buttons which unscrews to reveal a little compass. Mine happens to be an army "General Service" pattern button, and I have certainly seen RAF and RCAF buttons with the same arrangement.

What has always intrigued me though is what use they really were? Other than early on in the war, say up to the end of 1940, RAF aircrew didn't fly in No 1 uniforms, which were the only ones to have brass buttons, and similarly army troops, including officers, would be wearing battledress when in the combat area, not service dress. Was this one of those ideas which looked great on paper, but in fact was never of any practical use? Did anyone, in fact, ever use to one to assist an escape? Or were they a bit like all those saucepans which got melted down and were never turned into Spitfires!


RAF crews actually retained their service dress much later than the ‘official ‘ withdrawal dates, aircrew are seen in photographs dated after 1943 in Service Dress. Fleet Air Arm moved to a form of BD (number 5a rig) but then put brass buttons back on them... described as: Number 5a: Blue/black serge "battledress" type blouse with serge lapels, exposed guilt RN buttons, and a button fastening on the waist (as opposed to the buckle fastening on Army Battledress), and blue/black serge trousers.

If you read the MI9 escape reports, there are frequent references to use of escape button compasses. In fact, there was an MI9 debriefing form which specifically asked high Escape devices were used, what they found useful and what could be improved...

currently, I am aware of the following Escape Buttons, but would welcome hearing of any which have been Seen, by others:

Royal Artillery
Reconnaissance Corps
General Service button
Royal Air Force
RNZAF
RCAF
Polish Air Force
USAAF
Australian Armed Forces
New Zealand Armed Forces
British Staff Officer's button
Berkshire Regiment
Royal Navy
Royal Marines
Fleet Air Arm

[rolling20]

My great uncle was KIA in December 42 in the service of Bomber Command. His mother sewed an ‘escape button’ on his battledress. That was I believe sometime in the summer of 42. I am guessing he would have flown in that with his flying clothing on top?

[Innominate]

'games and pastimes' was a category of item qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages', dispatched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of war.

Although that's correct, the decision was made NOT to use Red Cross parcels, since discovery of escape aids in a Red Cross parcel might lead to the withdrawal of such parcels and an adverse effect on POWs' welfare. Instead, MI9 set up a range of bogus organisations which sent their own parcels to the camps. Christopher Clayton Hutton was MI9's maverick "fixer" who came up with vast numbers of gadgets which were made and despatched under strict secrecy. His book "Official Secret" came out in the late 50s/early 60s and is a fascinating read.

[FlightlessParrot]

I too was surprised at the 35,000 estimate of escaped POW's looks like one '0' too many

The Wikipedia article on Christopher Clayton Hutton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hutton) contains the following footnote on the 35 000 estimate:
-----------------
Foot & Langley (1979) include a Statistical Summary, pp.309-316. Their conclusion is that 35,190 escaped or evaded. However this total includes a large number (around 23,000) who were in the Army and many of these escaped from the Western Mediterranean theatre. These personnel were less likely to carry silk maps.
-----------------------
That seems a bit more reasonable, perhaps?