by Barbara Bond
One particular record contained a frontier map in two parts, i.e. the map and the route. While not specified, the map is believed to be the Schaffhausen map, sheet Y (see Chapter 6 and Appendix 1). Evidence survives of the despatch which took place on 14 May 1941, and it is clear that some of these boxes were destined for Oflag IVC (Colditz), Stalag XXI D (Posen) and Stalag Luft III (Sagan). Sagan can only be identified by four men whose names appear on the despatch list, namely Flight Lieutenants J. C. Breese and D. A. Ffrench-Mullen, Pilot Officer W. H. C. Hunkin and Squadron Leader W. H. N. Turner, and whose names also appear in the Sagan camp history as coded letter writers. Certainly it is the case that some of the individuals to which the records were despatched subsequently escaped successfully, for example Captain P. R. Reid from Oflag IVC (Colditz). The timing of the despatch is also such that the hidden map might have helped in the escape from Colditz of Airey Neave (see Chapter 6).
A letter from Hutton to HMV with some packing instructions for the records (for an explanation of Red and Black, see illustration below). This letter has a rare example of Hutton’s signature.
Part of a despatch note for gramophone records sent under the cover of the Prisoners’ Leisure Hours Fund (abbreviated to P. L. H. F. at top right). Capt. P. R. Reid at Oflag IVC (Colditz) is listed as one of the recipients; he was later to escape from Colditz (see Chapter 6).
A total of 1,300 gramophone records containing maps were produced and despatched. Hutton’s choice of the particular gramophone records to send was clearly subjected to the same careful consideration and reasoning which was the hallmark of all his work: he chose to send recordings of the works of Beethoven and Wagner, studiously avoiding the selection of any Jewish composers which would have been automatically confiscated by the German censors or guards. While the records were perfect in every aspect of manufacture and could be played, Hutton did see the irony of the fact that the prisoners of war had to break the records in order to access the concealed items and, employing a touch of black humour, he dubbed the whole enterprise ‘Operation Smash-Hit’.
Christmas crackers
It is clear that other members of MI9 came up with ideas for concealment of escape aids from time to time. One ruse was apparently the brainchild of Jimmy Langley (see page 23). His idea was to hide maps, currency, compasses and dockyard passes inside Christmas crackers which were despatched in September 1943 in boxes as apparently innocuous seasonal treats from the Lancashire Penny Fund, one of MI9’s cover organizations, to arrive in the camps in time for Christmas. The parcels were accompanied by an open letter to the Camp Commandant inviting them to share in this harmless Christmas cheer. The prisoners of war had been alerted in coded letters beforehand which colour box was ‘good’ and which was ‘naughty’ (MI9’s terms) to ensure that only the innocent crackers went to the German captors, although it was subsequently reported that the escape aids in some of the crackers were discovered by the Germans. The matter was apparently regarded as serious enough for the Germans to report it as a breach of the Geneva Convention. Under the Convention, the Red Cross held a unique position and was allowed access to prisoners of war because of its impartiality and neutrality. However, since the ‘contraband’ had not been sent under cover of the Red Cross, the referral apparently resulted in no action.
A Christmas celebration at Oflag IVC (Colditz), as recorded by an official German photographer. Crackers would not have been out of place with the Christmas tree and streamers.
Other festivities were exploited as well. In October 1943, as part of a Hogmanay scheme, sticks of shaving soap were sent in toilet parcels into eight camps where there had previously been no contact with MI9. The sticks of soap contained maps, compasses, money and a message. It was successful in four of the eight camps chosen.
Pencils
Pencils were also used as a secret conduit for the provision of maps. Certainly at one stage the Cumberland Pencil Company became involved in covert activity with MI9. The company is mentioned in a post-war list of companies as being involved with MI9. The Pencil Museum in Keswick has examples of pencils that appear perfectly normal and usable but which contain a silk or tissue map rolled very tightly inside the pencil in place of part of the pencil lead. In addition a miniature compass was hidden under the rubber at the top of the pencil. The pencils were distinguished by being painted dark green (as an economy, wartime pencils were unpainted) and the number stamped on the pencil (103 in the example illustrated here) indicated which map the pencil contained, although no records remain that link the codes to specific maps. Per Ardua Libertas also contains an illustration of maps being concealed in bridge marker pencils.
Cumberland pencils, now in the Pencil Museum, Keswick, showing the map and compass that would have been secreted within them.
OTHER ESCAPE AIDS: COMPASSES AND PURSES
From the beginning Hutton had decided that compasses were as vital as maps to aid the escapers. He designed them in a quite bewildering variety of forms. Miniaturized, they were hidden in the buttons of RAF uniforms, on both trousers and tunics. When eventually the buttons were found by German guards to hide compasses, Hutton simply resorted to altering the screw direction by having them manufactured with a left, rather than right, hand thread which proved to be a simple but very effective change. In addition, Hutton arranged for almost anything made from metal to be magnetized, for example razors, hacksaws and pencil clips. Together with maps, compasses were sometimes hidden in a small compartment inside the heel of an RAF flying boot so that any air crew who were shot down, and managed to evade capture, had at least a fighting chance of finding a route to escape successfully.
A button compass and a selection of other escape aids, including a miniature telescope.
An MI9 drawing of a compass hidden within a button on an RAF uniform.
Purses with currency and maps were also provided for RAF flight crews overflying occupied Europe. They were essentially tobacco pouches but they were also used to hold maps. The term Purse Maps was at one point coined as the generic term for all escape and evasion maps produced on fabric and tissue. Some years ago, in the early 1980s, the Intelligence Corps Museum held a volume of escape and evasion maps entitled Purse Maps. It was a large, black-bound folio of one hundred pages with ‘PURSE MAPS’ marked on the spine. It contained maps on thirty-seven pages, many of them double-sided and a few of which have never been found elsewhere in other collections. The source of the folio in the collection at that time was clearly indicated as being MI9.
Purses were also produced containing town plans and addresses of British Consulates in Spain, although there is evidence that these were in fact photographic plans which were subsequently considered to be undesirable for inclusion. MI9 directed that they should be removed and destroyed as a new type of purse was to be made available and the older ones were to be withdrawn and returned to MI9.
A fabric tobacco pouch containing an escape and evasion map with France on one side and Germany on the reverse.
This Purse Map showing France (sheet 9Ca, see Appendix 8) was issued to Flight Lieutenant John H. Shelmerdine, DFC who, for three years from April 1942, flew Spitfires out of RAF Benson in Oxfordshire on photographic reconnaissance flights over Western Europe. The red shaded area identifies the ‘Coastal Defence Area’, which was much more militarized than the rest of France. Note the number of folds that were required to fit the map into a purse.
ESCAPE PACKS
Johnny Evans (see page 21) had long advocated to Hutton the need for some form of food-pack or emergency ration box to sustain the evader. Based on his own escape experience in World War I, Evans assured Hutton that ‘the escaper’s greatest enemy is hunger. When a man is starving, he very soon becomes reckless and insensitive.’ In fairly typical fashion, Hutton initially decided against involving the Quartermaster’s department in whose field of responsibility this would fall, but rather went directly to commercial companies who had proved to be so helpful and supportive thus far in MI9’s covert
work. He felt that the standard fifty cigarette tin was ideal in size and shape as it would fit into the breast pocket of an RAF flyer’s uniform and also into the map pocket of battledress trousers. He acquired these cigarette tins in large numbers from the W. D & H. O. Wills cigarette factory in Bristol, having personally approached the company’s directors to seek their cooperation.
A drawing produced by MI9 showing a proposed escape pack.
An MI9 drawing of a stopper for a water bottle that could double up as an escape pack. The stopper contains a hidden compass and watch.
After experimenting and listening to the experiences of former escapers such as Evans, Hutton apparently decided that each pack should contain malted milk sweets (provided by Horlicks), chewing gum, a bar of peanut blended food, water purifying tablets, a rubber bottle for water, a small saw, a bar of chocolate, Benzedrine tablets (for the purpose of keeping escapers awake at critical times), matches, a compass, thread, tape and two tissue maps (one of Germany and one of northern France). This escape pack became standard issue for RAF crews overflying occupied Europe. Later, after the Chairman of Halex, the toothbrush manufacturers, had been persuaded to help, a new case was manufactured in plastic. This plastic case had three advantages over the cigarette tin: it was waterproof and transparent, it had a compass built into the screw top and it could be moulded to better fit the human frame, proving less obtrusive and rather more comfortable than its predecessor. Indeed, the escape pack became very popular. It was later modified further to avoid the inclusion of a rubber bottle, rubber having become scarce, whereby it was made in one piece of plastic with a screw top to serve as a water bottle in its own right. Despite preferring to avoid the ‘pettyfogging bureaucrats’ in the Ministry of Supply, Hutton found that he had to deal with them since he needed food supplies to ensure the efficacy of the escape packs. He had a number of brushes with them but largely succeeded in acquiring supplies of everything needed for inclusion in the escape packs.
As with some of the maps, after the war ended, the Ministry of Supply sold off some of the surplus escape packs. It is clear that some of these were purchased by an enterprising individual who subsequently advertised them for sale as ‘Holiday Accessories for Campers’ at the not inconsiderable price at the time of 11/- (shillings), the equivalent of around £13.60 today.
DELIVERY AND COMMUNICATION
Having created a diverse range of escape aids, there was a pressing need to develop a reliable system of delivery. They had to smuggle the items into the camps without arousing the suspicions of the enemy. There were two existing supply channels, both provided for under the Geneva Convention, namely Red Cross parcels and monthly parcels sent by family and friends. MI9’s system had to be different and separate to ensure that neither of these two existing channels was ever compromised. Such compromise would have inevitably resulted in the withdrawal of the privileges and MI9 was already only too aware of the extent to which some of the camps were dependent on Red Cross food parcels as a veritable lifeline since camp rations were often extremely thin. In response, therefore, distinct but entirely fictitious cover organizations were set up, amongst which were the Prisoners’ Leisure Hours Fund, ‘a Voluntary Fund for the purpose of sending Comforts, Games, Books, etc. to British Prisoners of War’, the Lancashire Penny Fund and the Licensed Victuallers’ Sports Association. The War Diary entry for August 1941 noted:
This month has marked an important step forward in the parcel side of our work. In March, April and May large numbers of parcels containing escape material as well as clothing of all kinds were sent to prisoners under the auspices of ‘The Prisoners’ Leisure Hours Fund’. Considerable anxiety was felt as to whether the Enemy would swallow this Fund and it has been most gratifying for us to receive during this month no fewer than 63 acknowledgements of parcels despatched under its name.
These organizations had properly headed notepaper and apparently real, but entirely fictitious, addresses in London. The notepaper for the Prisoners’ Leisure Hours Fund was particularly notable; not only did it contain details of the company’s officers and non-executive Board members, but it also carried a quotation from Runyan (sic) ‘the treasures to be found in idle hours – only those who seek may find’, clearly an allusion to what was contained in the parcels and an apparent play on the work of John Bunyan’s, The Pilgrim’s Progress. It provided yet another example of the black humour which sometimes characterized MI9’s covert work. There were many more of these cover organizations carrying such titles as the Authors’ Society, Browns Sports Shop, Jig Saw Puzzle Club, League of Helpers, The Old Ladies Knitting Committee, The Empire Service League, Crown and Anchor Mission and others with similarly innocuous titles.
A letter from the Prisoners’ Leisure Hours Fund, advising the recipient of the arrival of gramophone records, as reproduced in Per Ardua Libertas.
MI9 was keen to test the extent to which parcels were getting through successfully to the prisoners in the camps and, therefore, inserted special cards requesting that the Camp Commandants allow the prisoners of war to acknowledge receipt, thus saving the prisoners one of their weekly letters. The Germans proved to be very helpful in allowing the prisoners to send back their signed receipts. To afford as much cover as possible to the ‘naughty’ parcels, MI9 also sent in ‘good’ parcels containing much needed winter clothing, jumpers, socks, vests and the like. The receipts clearly indicated what had been received and were franked with the stamp of the oflag from which they had come. A number of the surviving examples show clearly the stamp of Oflag IVC (Colditz).
A receipt of a parcel from the Prisoners’ Leisure Hours Fund, stamped with the Oflag IVC (Colditz) stamp.
A receipt for five gramophone records signed by Flight Lieutenant J. C. Breese on 6 August 1941 and sent back from Stalag Luft III (Sagan). He was sent the ‘naughty’ parcel 12310 on 14 May 1941, according to MI9’s records.
There is no doubt that the Germans did find some of the escape aids and the prisoners did try to alert MI9 to any mishaps. In the coded letter dated 14 February 1943 from John Pryor, the hidden message was:
GERMAN FOUND CONTENT OF GAMES PARCEL FOR FRANKLIN MILAG
Franklin would have been the name of the recipient and MI9 would know what the parcel contained and, therefore, which method of hiding the escape aids had been compromised. Such a warning would have ensured that that particular method would not have been used again and no further parcels would have been despatched to Franklin. It has already been noted in Chapter 1 that the Germans were aware of at least some of the escape and evasion maps, through discovering them in clandestine parcels, and the extent to which escape was regarded as a duty by the British officers and men.
The men in Stalag Luft III (Sagan), as noted in its camp history, regarded the most secure method of concealing escape aids to be:
in games parcels, especially in poker chips, shove ha’penny boards and dartboards, chess sets etc. A first rate carpentry job of this kind could not be detected unless the article was destroyed completely.
Apparently every method of concealment was successful at one time or another: the German censors tended to concentrate on one category for a period, as their suspicions were aroused, and then turned their attention to another category, i.e. all gramophone records would be searched before they moved on to search all items in another category. After the winter of 1942, all gramophone records which arrived in Sagan were apparently sent to Berlin to be X-rayed and 20 per cent were found to contain escape aids. No records were allowed in the camp thereafter until the Senior British Officer eventually persuaded the Camp Commandant to allow the German Medical officer to X-ray them, presumably as he knew that they were ‘clean’ by that time.
Certainly in the Sagan camp, all parcels arrived at the local railway station and the post office. They were collected by prisoners of war supervised by German guards and parcel censorship staff. Red Cross parcels were stored in one store and all other parcels were placed in a separate store where t
hey were sorted by the prisoners of war who had been briefed by their Escape Committee, as a result of coded messages from MI9, on which parcels to select and remove. Cigarette and tobacco parcels were usually not checked by the Germans, as together with Red Cross parcels, they were regarded as above suspicion. The selected parcels were often, therefore, secreted into the sacks of the cigarette and tobacco parcels in order to smuggle them into the compounds. Games parcels were often subsequently smuggled back into the store, once the aids had been extracted, so that suspicion would not be aroused.
MI9 was in direct communication with the camps from the very earliest months of its operation. Initially, the only means of communication with the prisoners of war was through coded letter traffic. By 1942, this coded communication had developed markedly with messages being distributed more widely. As a result, escape equipment was being sent in increasing volume into the camps. By Christmas 1942, MI9 was feeling bold enough to send the first bulk parcel containing only escape material into Oflag IVC (Colditz). They were advised by a successful escaper from Colditz, likely to have been Airey Neave, who had returned to the UK earlier that year, that they should send advance notification to the camp so that the store room could be broken into and the parcel’s contents extracted. The plan worked successfully and the plan was implemented with other camps. Some 70 per cent of these bulk parcels subsequently successfully reached the camps and the men for whom they were intended. This considerably eased the problem of continuously searching for new ideas to conceal the escape aids. By August 1943, large quantities of escape aids were arriving in the camps, including material as bulky as cameras, typewriters and wireless sets. The wireless sets allowed far more immediate contact with the camps.