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How Top-Secret World War II Operations Used the Game of Monopoly to Help Allied POWs Escape, Conceal Spies, and Send Secret Codes
by Philip E. Orbanes
An amazing true story of World War II that reveals how British and American military intelligence smuggled supplies and escape tools into German P.O.W. camps disguised as Monopoly game sets, enabling imprisoned servicemen to escape.
Monopoly X is the fascinating true story of what is arguably the most unusual and daring secret operation of World War II. The masterminds at England's top-secret MI-9, and later America's MIS-X, created a special version of the popular game, hiding tools, maps, and money within game boards—delivered by an unwitting Red Cross—to captured Allied servicemen held at gunpoint behind barbed wire in German prison camps. This ingenious and complex plot, dubbed "Monopoly X," was never discovered by the Nazis and led to successful Allied breakouts.
The creation and success of Monopoly X remained a deep secret through the war and for decades after, until now. For the first time, Phillip E. Orbanes tells the full story of the breadth and depth of this clandestine program—how it was devised, implemented, and used to great success. A tale of derring-do as compelling as the World War II classic, The Great Escape, Monopoly X is an amazing war story of Allied intelligence services, resistance forces in Europe, heroes and heroines, a notorious traitor, and the pivotal role a ubiquitous board game had in secret codes and espionage.
"[T]hrilling...While some of the stylishly written scenes are clearly speculative, it's all so gripping that readers won't mind suspending a bit of disbelief." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Reveals the never-before-told story of how an authority in the game of bridge used a Monopoly board to create an ingenious code that, surprisingly, exposed spies at the highest level of the U.S. government." —The New York Times
This information about Monopoly X was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Philip E. Orbanes is an American board game designer, author, and former president of Winning Moves Games. Prior to founding Winning Moves Games, he worked as a Senior Vice President for Research and Development at Parker Brothers. He is considered the foremost expert on the history of Monopoly, writing several books about the board game, including Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game—And How it Got that Way. He lives in Massachusetts.
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