\n(You’ll\u00a0 never look at the\u00a0game\u00a0 the same way again!)
\n\t\u00a0Starting\u00a0 in 1941, an increasing number of British Airmen found\u00a0 themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and\u00a0 the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate\u00a0 their escape…
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0Now\u00a0 obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a\u00a0 useful and accurate\u00a0map, one showing\u00a0\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0not\u00a0 only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of ‘safe\u00a0 houses’ where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and\u00a0 shelter.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0Paper\u00a0 maps had some real drawbacks — they make a lot of noise when\u00a0 you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly, and if they get\u00a0 wet, they turn into\u00a0 mush.<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0Someone\u00a0 in MI-5 (similar to America ‘s OSS ) got the idea of printing\u00a0 escape maps on silk. It’s durable, can be scrunched-up into\u00a0 tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no\u00a0 noise whatsoever.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0At\u00a0 that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain\u00a0 that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and\u00a0 that was John Waddington, Ltd. When approached by the\u00a0 government, the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the\u00a0 war effort.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0By\u00a0 pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for\u00a0 the popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened,\u00a0 ‘games and pastimes’ was a category of item qualified for\u00a0 insertion into ‘CARE packages’, dispatched by the\u00a0 International Red Cross to prisoners of\u00a0 war.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0Under\u00a0 the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and\u00a0 inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington’s, a\u00a0 group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing\u00a0 escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where\u00a0 Allied POW camps were regional system). When processed, these\u00a0 maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would\u00a0 actually fit inside a Monopoly playing\u00a0 piece.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0As\u00a0 long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington’s\u00a0 also managed to add:
\n\t1. A playing token, containing a small\u00a0 magnetic compass
\n\t2. A two-part metal file that could easily\u00a0 be screwed together
\n\t3. Useful amounts of genuine\u00a0 high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency, hidden\u00a0 within the piles of Monopoly money!
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0British\u00a0 and American air crews were advised, before taking off on\u00a0 their first mission, how to identify a ‘rigged’ Monopoly set\u00a0 — by means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look\u00a0 like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the\u00a0 Free Parking square.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0Of\u00a0 the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an\u00a0 estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged\u00a0 Monopoly sets.. Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy\u00a0 indefinitely, since the British Government might want to use\u00a0 this highly successful ruse in still another, future war.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0 story wasn’t declassified until 2007, when the surviving\u00a0 craftsmen from Waddington’s, as well as the firm itself, were\u00a0 finally honored in a public\u00a0 ceremony.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tIt’s\u00a0 always nice when you can play that ‘Get Out of Jail’ Free’\u00a0 card!<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0I\u00a0 realize most of you are (probably) too young to have any\u00a0 personal connection to WWII (Dec. ’41 to Aug. ’45), but this\u00a0 is still interesting.<\/p>\n
\tSnopes states this is a true story.<\/p>\n