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ISSUE
111 - March 2010
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REALLY?! |
By David Rose
San Diego, California |
You
may have seen the story circulating in the emails; about how
the Monopoly board game played a major role in the escapes
of allied POW’s from German prison camps during the Second
World War. The story goes that the British Secret Service,
MI-5, went to Waddington’s, the company who marketed
the Monopoly game in England, and developed a ‘special’ version
of the game to be distributed by the International Red Cross
to POW’s in Europe. The story claims these games had
hidden within them a number of articles to assist escaping
prisoners finding their way back to Allied lines.
In heavily guarded workshops at the Waddington factory were produced
the various pieces of escape paraphernalia which were then secreted
within the games.
Silk maps were hidden within the playing tokens; compass pieces
were to be found within the folds of the game board, European
currency was hidden among the play money and the locations of ‘safe
houses’ were displayed on game cards. Only in 2007 was
the British War Secrets Act protection of the story lifted in
order that the government might honor Waddington and the surviving
workers who participated in the program.
What a great story.
I discovered it among my emails and read it with interest. I
also did some background checking on the story, as I always do
with ‘great’ stories from the internet. I found however
to my surprise that ABC News had carried an in depth report on
the story and that no less a source than Snopes.com branded the
story ‘True’. Not only that, but various reports
on the story quote Victor Watson, chairman of Waddingtons, as
stating that they had a secret department which produced the
escape paraphernalia and placed them in recesses on the game
board. Published in 2004 “The Game Makers”, a history
of the Parker Brothers Company who originated the Monopoly game,
told of how the British and Waddingtons had produced the ‘escape’ versions
of Monopoly and had them distributed by the Red Cross.
I even
came across an Associated Press article released in 1985 which
reported the whole story and even quoting surviving POW’s
familiar with the games.
Plus! You will find that Hasbro, who
manufacture the Monopoly games today, on their official history
of the game site at http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/discover/history.cfm
carry the following statement.
“Escape maps, compasses and files were inserted into MONOPOLY® game
boards smuggled into POW camps inside Germany during World War
ll. Real money for escapees was slipped into the packs of MONOPOLY® money” I
mean, they make the things. You’ve got to believe them,
right? The story must be true!
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Really?
I thought; but I couldn’t help but wonder.
Call me a
skeptic if you will, but I like to remember that ‘some
things are just obvious’.
Obvious first of all is that,
from my extensive exposure to the worlds military, I learned
that no secret that could be intercepted by an enemy is ever
written or printed un-coded. That fact alone pretty well eliminates
all the ‘safe house’ references.
Safe houses, safe
areas, they’re never written down; we would memorize
them just as the aircrews over Europe did during the Second
World War.
The same can be said for ‘escape routes’.
There certainly were maps in the camps, mostly ‘printed’ by
the POW’s themselves. Read Philip Evan’s matter
of fact account of life as a POW which includes an extensive
report on their ‘map printing processes’. You would
never find a map marked with a recommended escape route.
Most
accounts of the story have the Red Cross delivering the games
in their packages which the Germans allowed the POW’s
to receive. I however, can’t accept that anyone within
the Red Cross would ever have allowed their neutrality to be
jeopardized by their being used to smuggle escape paraphernalia
into the camps. It’s well known that the Germans always
had a man assigned to oversee the unpacking of all packages
prior to their contents being distributed within the camps.
As for files and compasses, how useful is a tiny file which,
when assembled from the several pieces described in various
accounts, is still a tiny file; and used to file what? There
was no need to jeopardize anything by smuggling in a compass
when a compass can, with a little patience, be made simply
by repeatedly rubbing a needle. It takes time, but one thing
they had in abundance, they had time.
Wouldn’t you want
one of those Monopoly sets as a souvenir, even if you hadn’t
been a POW? And if you had been, wouldn’t it be something
to have? Wouldn’t you like to see one? |
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But there aren’t any. They were
all destroyed after the war to “protect the secret
for use in future wars”, goes the official story; along
with comments that “the games were destroyed after
the escape paraphernalia was removed”. Fine. But why
destroy the games ‘to protect the secret’, after
the stuffs been removed?
Sorry ABC. Sorry Snopes. Sorry Truth or Fiction. And especially,
sorry Hasbro. But nothing in this story makes much sense
to me.
Finally, the following:
A writer, claiming to be an archivist from Waddingtons,
responded to an article on the subject by Ben Macintyre in
the London Times. This gentleman stated that while Waddingtons
did indeed produce many maps on silk for the Government during
the war, none were ever enclosed in Red Cross parcels or
anything like that. They were given to private organizations
who found it difficult enough to smuggle them into the camps.
I even find that exchange suspect.
The true truth is that men such as Christopher Clayton-Hutton
did work for MI9 and did design and manufacture escape aids
for RAF officers during WWII. These escape aids fitted into
two categories: 'pre-capture' devices and those surreptitiously
sent to POW's through a network of fake aid organizations.
An example of Clayton-Hutton’s work were the aircrew’s
flying boots. They were just too distinctive looking for an
escapee. Hutton designed boots which contained a tiny blade
in a cloth loop at the top of the boot, allowing the wearer
to detach the bottom part which created ordinary looking walking
shoes. In addition, the laces contained a powerful 'Gigli'
saw and hidden in the heel were silk maps a compass and a small
file. Another of the MI9 devised aids were cardboard chess
sets.
These little chess sets contained a prisoner of war escape
kit. The white bishop here reveals a tiny compass hidden inside
and a silk map is concealed within the cardboard tube. These
chess sets were sent to POW camps throughout World War II by
MI9 and government department CT6, to aid in prisoner escapes.
Virtually none of the kits still exist. This set, without
its board, sold at Bonham's auction house in Oxford on December
12, 2006. Robin Lucas, Bonham's resident expert on militaria,
stated that the sets were not very durable so "it's
amazing any have survived".
Charles
Fraser Smith of the secret department CT6, along with Christopher
Clayton-Hutton of MI9 were each responsible for designing
the methods by which escape kits could be sent to camps.
They never tampered with Red Cross parcels as is widely reported,
but sent the games from fictitious London addresses. Messages
written on the packages and printed labels would carry clues
for prisoners. On this chess set the name 'Ajax' alludes
to the 'Trojan Horse'. Three kisses in the message 'Many
happy hours, all my love Dorothy xxx' which was written on
the tube, could have indicated the compass was hidden in
the third piece inside. Another sign of the escape aids contained
was the phrase 'Patent applied for' and a large full stop
point. It is not known how this set ended up back in Britain. |
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It turns out that the POW’s
themselves were the most ingenious in forging papers, making
German uniforms and civilian clothing, and fabricating compasses
and back packs from their own uniforms and equipment.
Speaking of POW escapes, you might be interested in reading
the famous nonfiction account of a group of POW’s held
in Colditz Castle, where the Germans incarcerated high value
prisoners. Unfortunately for the Germans, high value often
meant high energy, high intelligence and a high desire to
escape. Those held there proved among the best escape artist
of all.
Read their exploits in “Escape From Colditz” (or
put the movie version on your NetFlix queue)
So much for the Monopoly game story ----
But then, what is the significance of this photo?!
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