How the British Used Monopoly To Save Lives & Win the War
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- Опубліковано 25 бер 2024
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As a Canadian living in the UK, I love learning about my new home - and when I can across this incredible story, I knew I had to share it with you guys! So how could a simple board game like Monopoly influence World War II and save British soldiers??
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How Monopoly boards got second world war prisoners out of jail free: www.theguardian.com/uk/the-no...
How Monopoly Games Helped Allied POWs Escape During World War II: www.theatlantic.com/technolog...
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Hey! I'm Alanna - a thirty-something documenting my life as a Canadian living in England.
I share the ups and downs of an expat living abroad and what it's really like living in the UK. It's not always easy, but there's been so many wonderful experiences, too. I post a UA-cam video every Tuesday plus an additional video every Saturday on Patreon + YT Memberships. I also livestream every Wednesday and Sunday at 5:30pm GMT/BST on Twitch.
Alanna x
Want to join me in learning something new? Check out Rosetta Stone for an exclusive discount! partners.rosettastone.com/adventuresandnaps-1
Je pense que non, pas que he suis trezzźzz stupide !😂
In the British monopoly, the poorest is old Kent road. Ha😂
Here’s the full list:
MI1 - merged with the Navy’s ‘Room 40’ to become the Government Code and Cypher School, which became GCHQ.
MI2, MI3, MI14 - geographically organised intelligence departments, all became part of MI6.
Mi4 Air Intelligence - became the Joint Air Photographic Intelligence Centre, which still exists.
MI7 Propaganda. Transferred to the Ministry of Information.
MI8 Signals interception. Became part of GCHQ.
MI9 Helping Prisoners of war to escape. Disbanded.
MI10 Technical Intelligence. Became part of GCHQ.
MI11 Field Security. Disbanded.
MI12 Censorship. Transferred to the Ministry of Information.
MI13 Special Operations. Became part of MI6.
MI15 Aerial photography. Transferred to the Air Ministry.
MI16 Scientific Intelligence. Became part of MI6.
MI17 Secretariat. Disbanded.
MI19 Prisoner of War interrogation. Disbanded.
MI20 Ministry of Aston Martin Disbanded, now run by Mercedes Benz.
@@gordonwallin2368 Still, the Aston Matin F1 cars are faster. It seems like we kept some secrets back.
I’m a 50 year old Brit and I’d never heard of any of this before, brilliant vid👍
Really? That genuinely surprises me!
Not only Monopoly but also RAF navigator pencils had silk maps secreted inside them. If you ever get to Keswick in the Lake District, the pencil museum there (yes there really is a pencil museum) tells of how the method of hiding the silk maps was kept secret from even the work force- the management went to the factory in the evening to do the work clandestinely.
'Lakeland Pencils' (or mebbes crayons) were a 'thing' in my Infant School years (mid 1960's), the school was in South East Northumberland.
"I was always the cannon in Monopoly"
Me:
A Canon camera would have been useful.
MI9's inventions were the inspiration behind Ian Fleming's ones that 'Q' came up with. Lieutenant Fleming RNVR (the Wavy Navy, so named due to the wavy rank stripes) was a RN Intelligence Officer for the duration of the war.
Getting Monopoly out in my house at Christmas was guaranteed to start a war. Have two lurking under the stairs, a London and a Dublin set, an old Irish Pound (Punt) set not a Euro one.
Heard on the news today that a new one featuring places in the Yorkshire Dales, with appropriate playing pieces such as hiking boots and sheep, e bah gum, has been launched.
and he wrote chitty chitty bang bang, the guy was caracatus potss// i wonder if thats who Q was, and chitty ther first bond car
The Monopoly set is almost the same as the one I played with as a child in the 60's except the houses and hotels were solid wood rather than plastic.
We have a classic set with plastic houses and hotels but the one we had at home had proper wooden ones too
Another UK initiative was the Air Transport Auxiliary - a collection of flyers who were too old, too female or otherwise unsuitable to join the RAF. So they did all the other stuff - delivering aircraft from factories, moving them where they were next required, etc.
They had to be able to fly an unfamiliar aircraft using only a crib sheet strapped to their thigh...
Those women were amazing, sadly many were killed including Amy Johnson.
There are many tales of a brand new Lancaster or similar landing at an RAF base and the CO not believing the ferry pilot when she said she flew it in on her own.
@@davefrench3608
Just one of the few.
Wikipedia:
Diana Barnato Walker MBE FRAeS (15 January 1918 - 28 April 2008) was a pioneering British aviator. In World War II, she became one of the first women pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary, flying 80 types of aircraft and delivering 260 Spitfires. In 1963, she became the first British woman to break the sound barrier, flying at Mach 1.6, which also represented a world air speed record for women.
They replaced all the chance cards with Free get out of jail cards! Thats how they escaped! All they needed to do is to present them to the German guards and they let them all go!
Wow amazing never knew that 😮
Crazily in WW1 prisoners of war did get passes to go home on the understanding they'd return and all did return
When out of the POW camp all they had to do was show a 'Go Back To Old Kent Road' or 'Advance To Mayfair' card to the German authorities get free travel back to England.
My father in law was a Japanese PoW for over 3 years.
The Japanese kept the Red Cross parcels for themselves at the camp he was held in.
This was a minor act compared to the beatings and executions for the smallest of misdemeanours.
Hi Alanna, I've got a silk map of Italy, issued to my dad, he was never a POW, but he was a photo reconnaissance pilot, but I'm not sure if they were issued to all allied aircrew who flew over enemy territory. Incidentally, have a look into Trent House, a country house run by MI9 to house high ranking German officers in complete luxury, every room in the place was bugged, and the amount of intelligence gained from it defies belief.
Also check out Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU ) a group of mathematicians (many female) who analysed U-boat tactics. They devised a large board game to work back from the outcome of an attack (ship is sunk or not) to the tactics preceding it. They were then able to devise very effective counter-measures. The unit was disbanded in mid-1945 and all the young ladies went back to civilian life and never breathed a word about what they had done. It was only when their records were de-classified that their huge contribution was finally recognised.
@@kumasenlac5504That piece of history deserves a wider audience. ✌️
Yeah, interrogations by British officers were generally quite relaxed things. Apparently they got quite a lot of their intel over a game of ping pong. The problem with torture is that it produces far more false information- people will say ANYTHING to get it to stop, true or not. British policy is to NEVER torture.
There is a great book about Trent House and what happened there called The Walls Have Ears by Helen Fry.
My Dad told me that RAF flight boots could be converted to shoes if shot down so they wouldn't stand out.
Also the part’s of the flying boots that were detached to convert them into shoes, could be attached together to make a sheepskin lined waistcoat, that evading aircrew could ware for extra warmth while escaping.
From Operation Mincemeat, I'm not surprised at what the Brits would've done. (Your comedy skills is getting even better.) Nice video, Alanna. And the cool little metal racing cars from the 1930's.
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
This is a prime example of why you must never miss an A&N video - you simply never know what sort of wonderfull stuff is going to come up 👍💓👍
Ex military surveyor here. In the 1980s there was a massive clearout of old stuff from the main map store and amongst the items got rid of were loads of silk maps covering various parts of Europe. I got hold of some but unfortunately they have been lost during various house moves 😒
This channel's variety is quite impressive. There is something for everyone here!
Thank you! ☺️
You're welcome!
Germans believed Monopoly would keep POWs busy and quiet, only thing worse than Monopoly for fights is Risk.
That was the same style set I remember from when I was a kid in the 60's/70's. Haven't played in far too long. I was always the car or I refused to play!
I had never heard this story before so it was very interesting to hear it. The intelligence people were amazing during the war with so many clever schemes.
And here I thought I knew everything to know about WW 2. Those clever Britons😂. Appreciate the education Alanna. Thanks!
Thank you so much Brian, I really appreciate it! 🙏
I'm totally amazed. As a 53 year old child of war time parents, I have never heard of this before. Great story. 👍
I'm 64 and this is all new to me. I have never heard of Mi 9 or the rigged monopoly game. Excellent video, well done!
Thanks so much!
Making learning fun and entertaining! 😁
Alanna, thank you. Never knew this before, so, total news to me ! As a Brit, I am happy to confirm to the rest of the world - Careful sunshine, do not mess with us, we will defeat you. Yes, we will ! Cheers.
Well Alanna, I have learnt something today, I never new that Waddingtons did that. Did you know that they also made a secret giant map of the Normandy coast for D Day in 1944 for Eisenhower's HQ at Southwick house in Hampshire. Apparently because they made jigsaw puzzles they were asked to make in pieces and only assemble it on the wall in the HQ just before June the 6th. It is still there today where visitors can view it. Thanks for the informative video. 👏👏👏😊
There it is. That's what I love about the English people. Creativity, perseverance, cleverness. Sure wish we had more of that here in the US.
Don't miss out in praising Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish people who very much played an amazing part in the war effort.
I didn't know about this, it's an excellent idea, whomever came up with it. The version of Monopoly which you have looks like a late '60s one where they changed the houses and hotels from wood to plastic.
I knew about this but you retelling it in your inimitable style was great fun! Thanks Elanna
My Dad's uncle was in the RAF, and he had a silk escape map made into a tie after the war. This passed on to my Dad, and when he died it went to my brother, who has it now.
They hid compasses in buttons - and to make sure that the enemy didn't unscrew the buttons and find them, they used a left-hand thread!
Fascinating!
As a Brit in her '60's, whose parents lived through the War, I had heard of the use of Monopoly Boards to smuggle stuff/ Information into the camps- but not the details of what was in them, or the code with the full stops.
Your set looks like the ones we had in the seventies , with plastic hotels and houses but there were still a few older ones that had them made of wood and painted red and green .
More A&N history episodes please, absolutely glorious content.
Thanks so much!
You're now becoming a truer Brit than some of us true Brits, Alanna - discovering and reporting on things that even we didn't know! I used to play Monopoly with my cousins at my grandparents' house in the 90s... I had no idea that all of this lay behind it.
Hi Alanna, these things have been dipicted in British war movies in the past (but not Hollywood movies).
The USA wasn't the country we have today. An interesting fact for you is the the British inteligence service basically created what became the CIA at training camps around the Great Lakes in Canada.
Unfortunatly we also created the forerunner of the KGB at the same time and place (coz Russia was an ally in WW2).
One of my favorite naps in a while.
Never heard of MI9! I've learnt something today! Thank you!
Check out Peter Butterworth (Carry on films), his war record is worth a read. He was one of the people who had one of these sets in Stalag Luft 3 (The Great Escape)
He was one of the crew for the Wooden Horse escape, but when they were casting for the film in the 50s they turned him down as he didn’t look the part.
Thanks for this Alana, I knew silk maps were in the lamination of a board games in WW2 (I don't know if I saw it in a documentary, or a WW2 film). I didn't know they had full stops in different areas, to denote which map it contained. This video is up there with your Royal Mail post box video.
All the railway stations on the British Monopoly board are former London & North Eastern Railway stations, since the LNER did a crafty deal with Waddingtons to get their stations featured and keep out the other three railways.
I did my HGV training at Tangmere, which is where agents were flown to the continent and airmen landed after being brought back. Before they left the base they were checked and interviewed by MI5 as there were concerns that the Nazis may have turned them. I think there is a Museum there which tells the story of RAF Tangmere, it was very important during the battle of Britain. If you get the chance and can, you need to get down to Beaulieu in Hampshire where they have a museum dedicated to SOE, fascinating place. M19 along with Station X, were kept under wrap and the release of information of what they did, wasn't actually released until well after WW2 was over. Am liking your content. 👍
I am a WW2 buff this is new to me. Good research. World Wars still continue to this day around Christmas tables all over the UK. We have to keep 'match fit'.
You're a very interesting person, i like the way you divulge deep into researching vast historical and factual information.
Your monopoly board is late 50s early 60s..
That’s an interesting bit of history!
I grew up in Ireland and we had the Dublin edition at home. Shrewsbury Road was worth £400 and Crumlin was worth £60 (punts). An updated edition was produced in 2011. Shrewsbury Road is now worth €4 million and Crumlin has been replaced by Rathfarnham, valued at €600K. And banking is electronic.
Thanks Alannah! I did not know much about MI9 either - it's certainly not common knowledge here in the UK. Bearing in mind the significance of Canada's contribution on land,sea and in the air, this is also a story about Canada. Perhaps MI9 hoped that the POWs would be so keen to avoid playing Monopoly again that they would be more motivated to escape. My heart sank when you got the board out but fortunately you did not start to set the game up. Enjoy trying out your French in France some time!
Always good to see the grey sofa again.
Really interesting. I'm a 'Brit' - and I'd never heard of this..! Thanks Alanna.
Fascinating, thank you! Love history, so right up my street. Never heard of this story or MI9 before. The Monopoly set you have there looks much like the one I had as a kid. Kind of surprised that Canadians use the US version.
Thanks for watching!
That box looks familiar. Your Monopoly game is probably from the late 1960's. I can remember my parents playing this all night long when we stayed over at my Uncles house.
A full article about you in the Daily Mail Lass! congratultions! It put a big smile on my face! lol!
When I saw the title for this video I thought "What did they do - send them to the enemy and bore them to death?" The truth was much more interesting
you can play Blitz monopoly... by simply having a cat. some of the houses and hotels 'go away ' at random
Yours was not a vintage Monopoly set. As a child we had the war-time utility Monopoly set. It was in a much smaller box, a black one with a label on the top of the lid. The Board was separate. The whole thing, including the oieces were made out of materials that were not restricted during the war. That was what I would think of as the vintage Monopoly set.
The set that I have was from around the same period, all of the playing pieces are small blocks of wood with a small cardboard cutout picture of each playing piece, so a top hat , a car, a Spitfire, a steam ship etc. Instead of a pair of dice it came with a single cardboard hexagonal piece that had the numbers 1 to 6 printed on one face with a small hole in the centre to push a spent matchstick through so it could spin. The playing board has the facility to fold into a quarter of the size of the full board, making it the same size or approximately as the small box containing all of the playing piece’s and the property cards, money and chance cards.
@@andrewcoates6641Yep, that's precisely the ones. I was lucky to have two such sets as a child because my parents had both acquired one each before their marriage in 1949. Now they really were vintage, and likely to have been the style which were manufactured in time to be sent to POWs.
The US/Canadian version of Monopoly are based on the streets of Atlantic City NJ
That was the original version.
They also used to hide silk maps inside records (those things that came before CD's). This led to most records owned by POW's to be broken just in case there was a map hidden inside. For more info, read The Colditz Story and The Latter Days At Colditz by P.R. Reid.
Thank goodness we had such imaginative and clever people working in intelligence during the war.
It’s a stereotype but the Germans only though in straight lines whereas the guys in British intelligence had no limits to their imagination. Operation Mincemeat was a prime example
This, when combined with the bravery and tenacity and sheer bloody mindedness of the POWs, riled the Germans beyond belief.
Yes we Brits think outside the box, especially when in the box/prison camp.
Hi Alanna your inventiveness of subject never ceases to amaze me,I love it .cheers,Roly🇬🇧.
You taught me something today I've heard of 9 but never about the monopoly game not even in any films or books so shout out to you 👏👏👏
My family had this Monopoly set - that box design, anyway - from the late '70s. We had slightly different player tokens - Car (always me), Dog, Boot, Ship, Top Hat and Iron
I was also a terrible loser!
Great story - this was something I never knew about.
I recommended you watch QI (British comedy panel show) and this fact was on an episode of QI.
I own a very similar vintage Monopoly set. It was given to me by my British cousins in the early 1970s.
Cool! I'd never heard this before. Excellent video Alanna.
Thank you for such an interesting video, I never knew any of this before today and now I'm going to have to do my own research into the subject. Also love your lighthearted videos especially the British phrases and things only brits do, makes me chuckle because its so true and well observed. Xxx
Please do more odd videos like this, I never knew the thing with Monopoly.
If you can find more stranger things I’m all for it. ❤️
I know that compasses were hidden behind uniform buttons you could unscrew them to reveal a tiny hidden compass. The Germans got wind of this, so we changed the threads so they were counter clockwise. Genius.
Many pilots and aviators had MI9's silk maps stitched into the the linings of their flight jackets in case they were shot down over enemy territory.
I like the way Monopoly has evolved over the decades, changing materials, tokens and money. Our very old set has wooden hotels and houses, painted red and green respectively. The playing tokens are all vehicles made of metal: tractor (orange), train (blue), car (red), motorbike (grey), ship (gold) and the tank (dark green) The money colours are: £1 light yellow; £5 darkish blue; £10 grey; £20 green; £50 pink; £100 orange; £500 red. I once tried to play with a modern set, but kept making mistakes as all the colours were "wrong"
Love your videos. They are very uplifting. Keep it going please
Extraordinary! The first time I have ever heard about this. Thank you for your very instructive video. From Lee in the UK
Excellent video, Alanna. Really enjoyed it!
Congratulations on your mention in the Dailymail . Should boost your subscriptions
Great idea for a video. Sadly my uncle was in a Japanese POW camp where they did not have such opportunities. He did not survive.
I'm so sorry to hear that.
Thank you so much for sharing. Have a good night ❤
More odd British history please. Your presentation style is lovely.
Great video Alanna! Really interesting, and learnt something new.
Of course back then, the Monopoly components were sold in a small box and the board was separate.
I think I saw these boards on QI once - very interesting topic and you told me some new information about them.
Never heard of MI9 though! I guess a lot of these organisations were set up due to WWII and then only the ones that were useful post-war were kept.
I used to play a board game called ‘Escape from Alcatraz’. The prison guards may have got wise to that one.
Actually ‘Escape from Colditz’! Even better.
And by sheer planning, this video notification was just behind Indy Neidell's latest. Wonder if he will be taste testing some crisps.
A canon in monopoly? Never even heard of it.
American version I suspect. Something to do with the civil war maybe?
Or a Bishop, lol, cannon is the spelling, a canon is a clergyman.
English is hard, so many words sound the same as in where wear or the town ware, bear bare , weight wait etc.
That version of Monopoly looks exactly like the one I own, which dates back to before I was born (pre-1975)...
You really must read up on Operation Mincemeat - a truly remarkable piece of 'outside the box' thinking that had very significant results and probably saved tens of thousands of soldiers while changing the course of the war. Ingenious invention and perseverance is what we did (do?) best.
Absolutely fascinating 😁👍🏻
Great video! What a cool story!
Thanks so much!
There were 19 MI designations - tho MI:13 & MI:18 were not used. MI:19 for example was for POW interrogations - some got absorbed by another MI or the Ministry of Information. Many disbanded during or at the end of WW2. MI:1b became GCHQ (which is active today), MI5 & MI:6 are the only two MI# still in active service.
Alanna, you've hit the big time, you're in the papers, well The Mail online, well done, I think.
I mean, you could certainly say that Monopoly helped British AND Canadians, seeing as Canada announced War with Germany alongside Britain in 1939.
That looks like a 1960s version of the game. We had a similar one back then. I always picked the ship.
The lads who got sent the Escape from Colditz game were the unluckiest, not because the Germans figured it out, but because the game took so long to figure out that the war had ended by then
I did know this!! Also packs of playing cards etc would have hidden things to assist POWs....AND remember there were plenty of Canadians who would have escaped as well!!!🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
I live in Canada for one month and I will search about Monopoly at the store to play with my family
Hi Alanna, Both the British and Americans hid maps in playing cards, compasses could be found in pencils as well as other things to aid escapees.
Interesting video thanks Alanna
I flat out refused to use the iron, lol, flatiron. I think I always had what was left after the other players chose, what token you use I suspect has not any bearing as to who wins the game.
Wikipedia:
What is a flatiron?
noun. an iron for pressing clothes or fabric, especially an old-fashioned, nonelectric one that is typically made of cast iron and heated on a woodstove.
Flat iron steak (US), butlers' steak (UK), feather steak (UK) or oyster blade steak (Australia and New Zealand) is a cut of steak cut with the grain from the chuck, or shoulder of the animal. Who knew, so thanks to you Alanna I know now.
I have a peripherally related story. After the war, Czechoslovakia was taken over by the Soviets 😠 They did not allow anything to do with capitalism, so I grew up playing a game with stables of horses and betting on their races (because gambling was better haha). As an animal and horse lover, I loved this game. My family ended up emigrating to the US, but I never played Monopoly there. Imagine my surprise when my kids were playing Monopoly, and I recognised the pattern of the game. It was the same as my childhood horseracing game.
funnily enough i don't remember the "get out of prisoner of war camp" card in the chance pile 😂
3:10 ooh, so much to learn, Alanna 😃
I had never heard that either, nice one
Thanks for sharing. I guess that M19 had a monopoly on concealing these things inside Monopoly games 😆Gives a new meaning to having a form of entertainment to provide one with several moments of escape 😂
While they may not mention Monopoly there are some books out there that tell the stories of those who made a 'Home Run' - escaped and made it back home. A little more history for you Alanna, some PoWs from WWI also made it home, without the aid of a board game.
While I appreciate the details and work that went into this, you forgot one crucial fact: Monopoly sets already come with a "Get out of jail free" card 😂
TY 🙏🙏
I've seen one of those at a gun show one. Can't remember how much it cost but it was a small fortune.