Monopoly - Did you know....?

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

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 an accurate map, one showing not only where stuff was but also showing the locations of ‘ afe houses' where a POW on the run 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 pulp.
Someone at MI5 had 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 also made the 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. When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny wads that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.


As long as they were at it, the clever workers 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 stil 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.

It's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail Free' card!

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

No I didn't know, good story Steve

John

[Chuck Plains]

WoW! First I'd heard of that. Good old Monotony (as we used to call it).

For some reason my li'l bro often used to win. He could never explain it either.

[Morgan Goule]

really interesting, I like good war stories. Having scoured google I have found some more information on the matter , I love the fact that he went on to meet a few former POWs who actually used Wadddington's maps to escape from a prisoner camp at Colditz Castle, near Leipzig, Germany.

[ted hughes]

A good story, but probably an (old) urban legend:

"Although to date, no examples of any such monopoly boards have surfaced, it is therefore doubtful if the operation to use monopoly as part of escaping tool for POW escapees ever took place. No samples were kept for record purposes in either Waddington or the War office archives and the pictures of such boards currently available are all modern reproductions.^[8]"

From Wikipedia

Edited By ted hughes on 14/04/2015 00:59:46

[onetenor]

WIKIPEDIA ?What do they know. When I was a lad I had a girl friend whose dad had been a P.O.W. and actually had a silk /ratyon map from a Monopoly set which he got a Buchenwald I think it was. I could be wrong on that score . He also one from a packet of FLAG cigarettes. although he never actually escaped. He also had a flexible saw concealed in a shoe or boot lace. He was a flight sergeant / gunner in a Halifax .A great bloke and quite happy with my dating Jenny but her mother played dirty tricks on us both that split us up. Bumped into her a few yrs ago and swore if we lost our respective spouse we would get back together.But I digress. George did not escape when he should have because he got Pneumonia and wasn't fit enough to travel When I met Jen again we talked about her Dad who passed away two yrs after we split up,but she still had his map and saw and also a button compass she came across. We lost contact again though so cannot get access to the goods to snap them. I can't recall if the map had Waddingtons name on or not for sure but I don;t think it would have any way. So ignore "Wikedpedia". The maps do exsists I have seen and held one. Where one exsists there are probably more

[John F]

This story is true : **LINK**

Interestingly the entire post is word for word what Snopes are quoting as a factual reference.  With Wikipedia you can edit an entry and put anything you like in there and the only reference to the story being false is an internet link that no longer exists.

The British Library Map Library has a collection donated by Waddington and was included in Monopoly, card packs and chess sets.

**LINK**

 

Edited By John F on 14/04/2015 08:16:33

[Dave Hopkin]

Posted by onetenor on 14/04/2015 07:13:21:

WIKIPEDIA ?What do they know. When I was a lad I had a girl friend whose dad had been a P.O.W. and actually had a silk /ratyon map from a Monopoly set which he got a Buchenwald I think it was. I could be wrong on that score . He also one from a packet of FLAG cigarettes. although he never actually escaped. He also had a flexible saw concealed in a shoe or boot lace. He was a flight sergeant / gunner in a Halifax .A great bloke and quite happy with my dating Jenny but her mother played dirty tricks on us both that split us up. Bumped into her a few yrs ago and swore if we lost our respective spouse we would get back together.But I digress. George did not escape when he should have because he got Pneumonia and wasn't fit enough to travel When I met Jen again we talked about her Dad who passed away two yrs after we split up,but she still had his map and saw and also a button compass she came across. We lost contact again though so cannot get access to the goods to snap them. I can't recall if the map had Waddingtons name on or not for sure but I don;t think it would have any way. So ignore "Wikedpedia". The maps do exsists I have seen and held one. Where one exsists there are probably more

At least some part that story is wrong, Buchenwald was a concentration camp not a POW camp - while it is recorded that 5 allied POWs ended up in Buchenwald they were all American Army - there were cases of allied airmen who were held in Concentration camps but the Luftwaffe always reclaimed them and moved them to Luftwaffer run camps.

And he certainly didnt get the Silk map from a red cross parcel in Buchenwald Concentration Camp as those camps were out of reach of the Red Cross as they offically "didnt exist" so perhaps time and memory have corrupted the story and he was a POW in a normal Stalagluft camp

But Silk escape maps most certainly did exist (though I have no idea who manufactured them) there is a POW escape kit in my Regimental Museaum in Chicksands which (if my memory serves) was used for a home run in 1944 and included a silk map and a button compass smuggled in via Red Cross Parcels (though I dont recall it saying how it was sumggled into the camp)

Edited By Dave Hopkin on 14/04/2015 08:25:48

[Peter Miller]

Silk maps continued to be made after the war.. I had one from the late 40s or early 50s showing Egypt and Libya.

Thinking about it, I wonder if that came from the Suez crisis.

I don't have it now but think I know where it is.

[onetenor]

Great stuff Dave Hopkin and thanks for the memory jog .50+ yrs is a lot of forgetting time. Yep you are right about the P < O < W .> camps. George was taken to a Stalag Luft but I cannot recall which but I know he was not a well man when released. Lovely guy but I don;t know how he stuck with his wife.. A real viper ,or at least when I was around.. I do not know what I did to her but she hated me i am sure. Any.way I think his map covered the Swiss .border area.but only part of it Jenny told me that she would never part with these items even though she has been offered a lot of money for them. but she said a friend of her dad also a George, ~Uncle G- to her has some playing cards which you soak to separate them to recover what is in between the front and back She reckons more than just maps but couldn't recall what else. If I ever find her again I will post piccies. Thanks again John

[Dave Hopkin]

Well what do you know ....... a website decicated to silk maps and it mentions Waddingtons being the printers too

**LINK**

Some nice examples of them too