Silk maps made no noise, took up very little space and could be folded into a garment or hidden in a package of cigarettes. MI-9 developed the military policy of escape and evasion and that it was the “duty of all those captured to try to escape if possible.” Hall said, “One man who was behind many of M19’s most ingenious plans, including the Waddington project, was Christopher Clayton-Hutton.” This agency found out that the Waddington Company had the technology to print maps on on silk and made a special request of the company. Hallexplained that in 1939, the British government had set up an agency designated as MI-9 whose primary mission was to assist resistance fighters behind enemy lines and recover Allied troops being held prisoner.
This was not the plan of MI-5, however, but rather an idea from another branch of the British secret service. According to Hall, Silk maps of the area were hidden in the games along with special features such as a file and compass, made to look like game pieces, along with real currency hidden in the monopoly play money to aid the prisoners in their escape. Monopoly games were sent to British prisoners of war in Germany by the International Red Cross. Debbie Hallhas a special interest in silk maps and was the Map Curator at the British Library, where some of these silk maps are currently on display.Īccording to the article, The Waddington PLC company in England manufactured playing cards and game boards including the ones for Monopoly that were marketed in Great Britain. Silk maps of Germany, Italy, Norway and Sweden did exist during the Second World War, according to an article written by Debbie Hall for the Map Forum magazine in 1999. At first, Parker Brothers turned him down but two years later purchased the game from Darrow and today it is one the most popular board games in the world. The Monopoly board game was created in 1933 by Charles Darrowwho approached Parker Brothers regarding the marketing of the game. This summarizes their own research into the tale: The following is from an Internet Fact-Checking group, “ Truth or Fiction,” which ascertained the truthfulness of a number of similar fact-based stories about this interesting aspect of WWII. This story is thanks to a submission by Roger Nichols, former Flight Captain of the El Paso Daedalians, and a long-time FASF enthusiast and member. The maps helped many among the some 34,000 odd Allied POW’s who managed to escape their Axis Prisons in Europe during WWII. This is one of the British made silk maps tightly folded and inserted into one of the playing pieces of the games of Monopoly which were distributed to POW’s in Germany by the International Red Cross.
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