During World War II, innocent-seeming Monopoly game sets were a useful tool in the hands of crafty Allied intelligence services.

While board games have been popular for centuries, those created in the 20th century – such as Risk, Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly – are probably the best known.

Suddenly, the popular board game seemed like the perfect way to get supplies inside German-run POW camps. At the time, the Nazis were hard-pressed to get provisions to their own troops, much less to ...