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| Canadian Chess Set canadiancontent.net |
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| German Reichmark in Gramaphone Record |
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| Playing Cards With Maps |
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| Magnetised Razor Blades |
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| Christopher Clayton Hutton |
Under the Geneva Convention rules of war, POW’s had the
right to receive recreational devices approved by the holding power, in parcels
that would be carried postage free by all nations. The Allied and Axis powers
adhered strictly to this protocol and German POW’s held in Britain, Canada and
the United States received the same privileges. This provided an ideal outlet for
MI9 (Britain
Such practices were never used by the Allies within Red
Cross parcels, as these contained food and provisions which were the POWs
lifeline, supplementing inadequate German rations. Instead, fictitious
humanitarian societies were created, and under these guises, secretly marked
parcels and items would contain concealed escape aids, often in sports
equipment, games or everyday items such as shaving brushes and razor blades. The
POW’s would often be aware in advance of what was arriving by way of a system
of coded messages contained in correspondence between the prisoner and home.
Some POWs were known code users and information would be slipped into an
innocently written letter to a friend, wife, sweetheart or family member.
Red or purple German postmarks with an accompanying swastika
signified an incoming letter from a POW. MIS-X had a record of known code users
and relevant addresses which they used. Sorters on the fifteenth floor at 90
Church Street New York (censoring department for all mail to or from American POW’s
in Europe) sifted the letters from these individuals out, diverting them to
MIS-X where they would be decoded, stamped with a censor’s stamp and routed on
to the destination address. This process was double edged as the decoders also
wrote back to the POW’s posing as fictional family members and friends etc.
Each decoder had up to twenty POW’s to correspond with and a separate set of
stationery for separate prisoners to avoid suspicion from the German censor.
British practice in MI9 went along similar lines and had first
been in operation on a smaller scale in 1940 courtesy of a code developed
called ‘HK.’ Simple to use, and in skilled hands difficult to detect, the user
had to initially complete two prerequisites. They would indicate by the fashion
in which they wrote the date on a letter that a code would be used and then show
by the opening words which part of the code they were using. After this a normal chatty piece of
correspondence would be written, which was subsequently then decoded by the
cryptographers. (more on MI9 and MIS-X in future posts)
The names of fictional humanitarian societies created by MI9
and MIS-X to ‘sponsor’ and despatch the parcels were interesting in themselves.
MIS-X primarily used The War Prisoners Benefit Foundation, whilst MI9 had up to
thirty six national bodies including, The Licence Victuallers Sports
Association, The Prisoners Leisure Hours Fund and The Welsh Provident Society.
Great care was taken to ensure that authentic post marks were used, and that
newspaper which formed part of the wrapping material was printed near the
parcel’s origin.
The Germans became experienced in detecting suspicious objects
and once an item containing a hidden aid was deemed to have been discovered, it
was withdrawn and a fresh approach made. The POW code writers would inform home
if they had not received specifically marked items, or found out they had been
located by their captors, although a five week delay existed between despatch
of a letter and arrival.
Parcels were usually opened and examined in the camp Vorlager by the German censor or often a
Feldwebel with POW witnesses, who would be there to carry out the necessary
administration for their own purposes. Often sleight of hand or diversion was
used to sneak a parcel through without full check or an item that might be spotted
or X-rayed. As the war progressed and the numbers of prisoners grew, so did the
parcels. German manpower sometimes had difficulty coping and items got through.
After the Great Escape and the execution of ‘The Fifty’,
items continued to arrive, but with Hitler’s new orders on dealing with
servicemen who broke out of POW camps in Europe, getting under the wire or through
a tunnel had become a greater risk to life. With the course of the war changing
after D Day, escaping decreased and the angle on getting back home or at the
very least tying up enemy resources in searching for missing POW’s had changed.
At one point in 1943, an American officer sent a coded message back to request
that no more aids were sent in the immediate future because the prisoners had
run out of space to hide them.
A dedicated team of American experts worked on creating
ingenious ways of concealing escape aids. In Britain
The list of concealed aids is ingenious and extensive. I
have listed below ten favourites of my own:
1) Canadian ‘Ajax’ Chess Set (see picture) – Ajax alludes to
The Trojan Horse. Compass contained in the white bishop when prized open , silk
map concealed in the cardboard tube which has a coded message written on the
outside. ‘Many Happy hours. All my love Dorothy xxx.’ (Possible clue that there
is something concealed within the third piece – bishop is third position on a
chess board). Also the phrase ‘Patent applied for’ with a large full stop
indicated an aid inside.
2) Playing cards which contained a map inside when peeled
apart. (see picture)
3) Gigli saws (minute strong fine wire with a serrated edge
used by surgeons) concealed inside a bootlace.
4) German Reichmarks inside a gramophone record. (see picture)
5) A quarter inch brass cylinder which had a luminous needle
balanced within it under a protective transparent cover. This was hidden in a
small object such as a tobacco pipe, fountain pen or behind a cap badge.
6) Magnetised razor blades to be adapted as compasses. (see picture)
7) Maps and money inside chess or Monopoly boards.
8) Compasses and two part files in game playing pieces such as Monopoly.
9) Blankets for adapting into civilian clothes. These would
be impressed with cutting patterns or invisible ink, the latter showing once
soaked in water.
10) The publication of an RAF pamphlet announcing a new mess
dress which was to be worn once supplies became available. With the aid of the
Wool Association, a cloth was used that would convert to a Luftwaffe dress.
Sources:
Escape and Evasion – Ian Dear
The Escape Factory – Lloyd Shoemaker
MI9 Escape and Evasion 1939-1945 – MR D Foot & J M
Langley
©Keith Morley
