The game of Monopoly has been around for longer than most of us have lived. (Apologies if your are, in fact, 80).

But the game’s developers, Hasbro, are soon going to be making some big changes to the original board game we’ve come to know and love. Remember the thimble? The scotty dog and the shoe? Those tiny cast-iron miniatures that guided you through your childhood?

Yeah, well, they’re going to be replaced by a cat, a diamond ring, a guitar, a helicopter, or a robot.

And on the eve of this complete makeover, we look back at the role Monopoly has played in the course of history.

During the war, loads of British pilots were taken down over enemy airspace. Those who survived were kept captive. But in keeping with the Geneva convention, Germany allowed humanitarian groups to send ‘care packages’ to prisoners of war.

The allies, posing as charities (like the ‘Licensed Victuallers Prisoners Relief Fund’), sent board games to prisoners that came with secretive escape kits filled with compasses, metal files, money, and, most importantly, maps.

The most appropriate board game to use for stashing escape tools? Monopoly.

The compasses and files? Both disguised as playing pieces. The money, in the form of French, German, and Italian bank notes? Hidden below the Monopoly money. The maps? Concealed inside the board itself.

The British Secret Service, MI9, worked closely with  John Waddington, Ltd., the producers of the game , to produce the ideal POW escape kit.

Philip Orbanes, author of several books on Monopoly explained that:

It was ingenious, the Monopoly box was big enough to not only hold the game but hide everything else they needed to get to POWs.

But if the POWs actually, really, sincerely wanted to play monopoly, they would have been left bitterly disappointed.

[Source : The Atlantic]