I received a very interesting email from a friend today................
Fascinating history!
Starting in 1940, an increasing number of British & Canadian Airmen found themselves the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the British Crown was seeking 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 , Italy , France or where ever Allied POW camps were located. 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 declassified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were finally honored in a public ceremony.
It's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail' Free' card!
Many of you are (probably) too young to have any personal connection to WWII (Sep. '39 to Aug. '45), but this is still an interesting bit of history for everyone to know.
I remember when my Dad would invite his 3 brothers and their wives to stay (we had a lot of bedrooms where we lived, in those days !), and the fellas got together playing either Bridge or Monopoly ! Both games would play on into the early morning and the rising sun would still see these four daft guys sitting round a large table still playing Monopoly (they used to have regular 'dish outs' of the money, as and when the bank was getting over-loaded! That, of course, led to Monopoly going on for hours ! I believe Monopoly was devised as a childrens' game, and it was rather comical watching a Pharmacist (with his own business), a research chemist, a headmaster and a bank manager playing this childrens' game !
I enjoy the occasional game of Monopoly, but I prefer to play it straight and not have a sharing out of money part way through the game. My Dad brought a set of Monopoly back with him when he was demobbed after WWII - it happened to be a German version, so even today, my oldest brother John calls "Mayfair" by its German equivalent ! :wah: We managed to translate the Community Chest and Chance cards . The houses and hotels were all cardboard, and I wonder what the possible value of this German Monopoly, that is at least 75 years old, could be. I hasten to add that it is not quite complete so this would reduce the value somewhat !
Bridge was another story, particularly when it involved my Grandmother and 3 of the brothers playing 'partners'. They seemed to take a delight in winding my Grandmother up - she would get sooooo angry with them too ! :wah: They usually teased her with their various secret signals during the 'bidding' ! If you've never played the card game 'Bridge' (using ordinary playing cards), I doubt you would understand what I'm talking about. But if you have played this game before then you will surely have a bit of a smile.
I obviously assume it is some form of explosive, possibly to do with the American Army ? Sounds as if you were very lucky ! I don't expect you tried that stunt again eh ! 
