Posted by Helen on: 08.26.2008 /
According to an article on Mental Floss (h/t Nick Fiedler)
During World War II, the British secret service hatched a master plan to smuggle escape gear to captured Allied soldiers inside Germany. Their secret weapon? Monopoly boxes. The original notion was simple enough: Find a way to sneak useful items into prison camps in an unassuming form. But the idea to use Monopoly came from a series of happy coincidences, all of which started with maps.
I googled this topic a bit more. From an article about escape maps used during World War II
Another letter, not displayed here, refers to a conversation between Clayton-Hutton and Norman Watson of Waddington on the innocuous subject of car parking; this was actually a reference to the Free Parking space on the Monopoly board which had been marked with a full stop to show that there was a map inside of northern France.
It’s impossible to know how many of the maps smuggled into the camps were found or used. But it is known that over 35,000 British and other Allied troops imprisoned or cut off behind enemy lines did manage to make their way to Allied territory before the end of the war. It has been estimated that about half of these would have had a silk map with them. In many of these cases their maps and compasses, and other escape aids, must have saved their lives.
Why wasn’t I taught interesting things like this in history class at school?
Comment by: Nicholas
1 08/28/08 3:01 PM | Comment Link |Thanks for the link love.
These are some pretty amazing stories.
Comment by: Helen
2 08/28/08 6:26 PM | Comment Link |I think so too Nicholas. Thanks for stopping by!
Comment by: Jason Horton
3 08/29/08 9:21 AM | Comment Link |That’s a question I keep asking myself. I hated history at school but went back to it for part of my Open university degree. We covered the Industrial Revolution and got into the whys and hows of things like the Salvation Army, rural migrations to urban areas, colonialism, the Great Exhibition, loads of stuff. At school we learned all about who invented the automatic threshing machine and the date of construction.
We also learned about the Tudors at school but it is only since my kids started to learn the same lessons that I’ve become interested in it. Why did Henry VIII break with Rome? What allowed this to happen? How has it shaped the present? All fascinating stuff but taught without any passion to children, the fastest and most enthusiastic learners we have.
I’ve also got interested in some alternate history fiction and it really puts things in perspective if you take something like the America Civil War, change the winner by losing and winning a battle or two the wrong way round and then advancing the timeline to World War Two. What happens if the Confederate States of America stayed out of the war.
I’m babbling in my enthusiasm. ;)
Comment by: Helen
4 08/29/08 10:27 AM | Comment Link |Jason, I didn’t realize you did an OU degree - neat. My father in law did one and liked it so much he went on to do an OU PhD!
I did Tudors and Stuarts for O Level and the break with Rome has interested me more as an adult than it did back then. Maybe the problem is, teenagers know so little that they don’t realize what’s interesting. Or can’t be shown until they have more background knowledge and life experience.
The ‘what if’s can be fascinating too so I’m not surprised to hear the alternate fiction is interesting.