Lloyd R. Shoemaker

If you enjoyed "The Great Escape," you will relish Lloyd Shoemaker's The Escape Factory. Shoemaker worked for MIS-X, a super-secret agency, patterned on Britain's MI-9, that was devoted to helping Allied prisoners-of-war escape from prison camps in Germany. At the end of the war all MIS-X records were destroyed -- a puzzle that Shoemaker does not explain.

MIS-X invented special codes (samples are included in the appendix) that permitted POWs to correspond with MIS-X headquarters. In some instances bombing targets were located, in others, important airplane defect information was relayed. For example, one message revealed that the escape hatch on the B-17 did not work properly, preventing many airmen from escaping their burning airplanes. The defect was promptly corrected.

Phony humanitarian agencies were created to ship parcels containing contraband. (The regular Red Cross parcels were never used - had they been discovered all food shipments would have been cut off.) Compasses were sewn into buttons, game pieces contained maps, hair brushes were manufactured with radio components hidden inside -- in one case baseballs were sent over containing small radio parts. Only an X-ray could reveal the hidden parts.

The Geneva Convention rules stipulated that recreational materials were to be shipped free between belligerents for POWs. It was to everyone's benefit to keep the mails flowing, and right up to the end of the war POWs were receiving packages, usually within about 6 weeks of their mailing date. Amazing.
Some of the contraband that was sent to prisoners included radios, guns!, cameras, and even a complete darkroom. The ability of the POWs to trick their captors was simply astonishing.
Some of their feats were quite amusing. One German general, too lazy to walk to the center of the Stalag, drove his Mercedes right into the compound, against the better judgement of the camp's commandant. The general scoffed at the commandant's alarm, pointing out that his chauffeur and guards could certainly handle any contingency. Well, the POWs just couldn't keep their hands off the car, so impressed were they. The plied the guards with questions. Unfortunately, when the general returned a short time later, the car would not run, as the entire ignition system had disappeared. Not only that, but so had his copy of the German Field Manual which had been in a locked secret compartment. Losing such a document could bring the death penalty.
The prisoners could not understand how it might have vanished. They did suggest that if the prisoners received extra rations for several weeks they might just be able to find it. Sure enough it showed up some weeks later, marked "Censored at Stalag 17"!

Unfortunately, prisoners captured on the Pacific front were not so lucky. Japan's Diet had not ratified the Geneva Convention when war broke out and they refused to allow parcels for prisoners. Their POWs were given about 20 cents a day to buy food and other goods from native villagers who were allowed into the camps. MIS-X did try to get the villagers' cooperation to smuggle in goods, and in some cases they were successful, but on the whole prisoners of the Japanese were not fortunate.… (plus d'informations)