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During WWII, MI9 instructed RAF airmen to look for Monopoly games in care packages sent by charities to prisoners. Marked games contained escape maps and tools disguised as game pieces. Chess sets and cards were also used to hide maps, printed on silk by John Waddington Ltd. POWs knew to look for Monopoly sets with a red dot in free parking and destroyed the games after finding the tools and maps.
Before going on missions during the Second World War, the British intelligence agency MI9 instructed Royal Air Force airmen that if they were shot down and captured they should look for Monopoly games in the care packages sent to them by one of charities” allowed parcels to be sent to prisoners. Specially marked games would contain escape maps – and sometimes tools such as compasses and metal files, disguised as game pieces – hidden inside. The Geneva Convention, which requires the humane treatment of POWs, allowed for these kinds of “games and pastimes” and Germany complied, but the so-called charities that sent bogus monopoly sets were also fictitious entities created by the allies.
If you pass go, take a map:
Chess sets and decks of cards were also useful for hiding maps, which were printed on silk due to the material’s durability.
John Waddington Ltd, the British manufacturer of Monopoly, were among the few companies that had mastered the skill of silk printing, so they were the ideal company to join the war effort.
POWs knew to look for Monopoly sets with a red dot in the free parking space. After finding the tools and maps, the soldiers followed orders and destroyed the games.
