Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: trigger2 on August 18, 2008, 01:39:58 PM
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I have not confirmed that this story is authentic, but regardless it is interesting.
Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the authorities were 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-loose 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 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be crunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise what-so-ever. 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 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 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.
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That's a cool story! If it is true that's some pretty clever thinking :aok
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False.
Another one of those lame Internet stories like the fake "origins of words" and other chain mails that seem to have taken root in the past 5 years stronger than ever before.
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I just found this in the book
"to the ends of the earth: 100 maps that changed the world" by Jermey Hardwood
it talks about all the elements from the story above.
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l191/captfish/silkmaps.jpg)
edit: These silk maps and mini survial kits were given to pilots it says. It also says they were made by Waddington's the maker of Monopoly. It says they were hidden on the pilots person, it does not mention hidding the kits in the game Monopoly. they did have the file, currency, map, compass and other odds and ends.
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Oh, I know about the silk maps and all that, hiding papers and currency, etc.
But the whole smuggling-them-in-via-boardgames bit? Rubbish.
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This is from CNN seems to cofirms the story
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/12/05/mf.waropoly/index.html
edit: oops forgot to type
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That columnist has no reference, no citations, no sources, and if you look at the other "recent" articles for his "mental_floss" category of article, you find such insightful stories as "5 Things I Didn't Get about Pixar's Wall-E" and "Lunchtime Quiz: The Likelihood of Death" (and let's not overlook "The Fear of Fear Itself (and Other Esoteric Phobias)", eh?).
The Luftwaffe was probably smart enough to search any gifts sent to their prisoners, and even the most rudimentary of examinations would find a wad of silk jammed into the belly of the yorky figurine, or bulges in the cardboard where metalic files and compasses were hidden.
But hey, it's on Wikipedia, it must be truth, right!
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They absolutely would not have shown the location of safe houses. They would have to assume that the Gestapo would get their hands on at least some of the maps and as such would not put info on them that the Gestapo did not already have.
That lends a lot of credence to the story being false.
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I have not confirmed that this story is authentic, but regardless it is interesting.
Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the authorities were 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-loose 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 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be crunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise what-so-ever. 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 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 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.
i met a bombardier from a B24 crew last year at trewnton mercer county airport. he had a whol bag-o-goodys. in said bag was a map exactly as you described. and it was still perfect.
then he broke out the pictures. he started off with 2 of us listening, and ended up with an audience of almost 30.
<<S>>
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And we never went to the moon, and Elvis is still alive I guess. :rolleyes:
I never said it was on wikipedia. I seem to have found a lot of articles on it. I suggest searching google for "silk escape maps" and "waddington's silk maps"
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i met a bombardier from a B24 crew last year at trewnton mercer county airport. he had a whol bag-o-goodys. in said bag was a map exactly as you described. and it was still perfect.
then he broke out the pictures. he started off with 2 of us listening, and ended up with an audience of almost 30.
<<S>>
My girfriend's uncle that recently passed away was interned in Switzerland during the war briefly (he escaped) (http://www.west.net/~macpuzl/internee.html). One of the care packages he received from the Red Cross contained a silk map which was of no use to him or his fellow internees. The map was of Germany. We found it when we were going through his stuff from the war last year after he passed away. Ended up donating the map and other memorabelia to his home town's museum in Montana.
ack-ack
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i met a bombardier from a B24 crew last year at trewnton mercer county airport. he had a whol bag-o-goodys. in said bag was a map exactly as you described. and it was still perfect.
then he broke out the pictures. he started off with 2 of us listening, and ended up with an audience of almost 30.
<<S>>
i should also add, this guy told us that they were issued to the aircrews. they were specific for the areas they would be overflying on their missions. they also had billfolds with their picture id, and a request to get them to the nearest friendly border, in the languages of the areas they were overflying.
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Red Cross packages of WWII:
http://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/11/19/wwii-pows-perk-monopoly-with-real-money/
Never heard anything about this until now and there are a lot of stories about it out there.
Autobiography of Clayton Hutton:
http://www.amazon.com/Official-secret-remarkable-invention-production/dp/B0007DU032/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219102266&sr=8-1
which I just ordered... I will let you know.
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That columnist has no reference, no citations, no sources, and if you look at the other "recent" articles for his "mental_floss" category of article, you find such insightful stories as "5 Things I Didn't Get about Pixar's Wall-E" and "Lunchtime Quiz: The Likelihood of Death" (and let's not overlook "The Fear of Fear Itself (and Other Esoteric Phobias)", eh?).
The Luftwaffe was probably smart enough to search any gifts sent to their prisoners, and even the most rudimentary of examinations would find a wad of silk jammed into the belly of the yorky figurine, or bulges in the cardboard where metalic files and compasses were hidden.
But hey, it's on Wikipedia, it must be truth, right!
But, you've proven time and time again that you DO NOT know it all. This is yet another case.
It's good that you belittle others as well. :rock
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but Karaya...he has posted all his sources to refute this claim...urrr....no...no he hasnt. I guess he is just as bad?! :huh :uhoh
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but Karaya...he has posted all his sources to refute this claim...urrr....no...no he hasnt. I guess he is just as bad?! :huh :uhoh
:noid :uhoh