Saturday, March 7, 2009

A slice of history

The piece below has been circulating on the web for years. I have a student, Rick Stone, who was a POW in a German camp, so I forwarded this to him for comment. Please read the story, then read Rick's comments afterward. I think you'll enjoy the little bit of history.

WWII 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 and accurate map, one showing not only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of 'safe houses' where a POW on- the-lam 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 (similar to America 's OSS ) 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 f irst 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. Anyway, it's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.

Mr Wedlake,
As you know the Germans separated the various forces ,army ,navy and airforce into different prison camps.
For some reason the airforce camps were "better" than the army camps. They had things allowed them that the soldiers didn't. This Monopoly business was one. I was aware of the program but never participated in it.
Most of anything that could keep the soldiers from being bored was taken from us, including decks of cards.
Surprise visits from the guards was a regular thing day and night to catch us doing anything that was "not allowed".
As regards to the air force. There was one pilot, rather famous, who had lost both legs, but insisted on flying.
He was shot down and taken prisoner. Upon chuting out both of his artificial legs were damaged, the German headquarters got in touch with the British government and arrangements were made to provide a plane to fly him over a new set of legs. The plane was given information as to where the camp was, the plane flew over unmolested and dropped the legs in the camp.
Oddly enough,some time after that the individual was caught trying to escape so the guards took his legs away from him.
Rick

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