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MI9 was set up in December 1940. At first it was placed in the Room 424 of the Metropole Hotel , Northumberland Avenue in London but later it was moved to Wilton Park , Beaconsfield.

1 Personnel

MI9 was under command of colonel Norman Crockatt, who had been head of the London Stock Exchange. Staff included Christopher Clayton Hutton, WWI pilot and movie PR man and Johnny Evans, who had fled from various POW camps during World War One. A later addition was Airey Neave, who joined the staff after his escape from the Colditz Castle in 1942 and added his experience to the repertoire.

2 Escape aids

MI9 manufactured various escape aids that they sent to POW camps. Many of them were based on the ideas of Christopher Hutton. Hutton proved so popular that he built himself a secret underground bunker in a middle of a field where he could work in peace.

Hutton made compasses that were hidden inside pens or tunic buttons; when the Germans discovered them, he reversed the thread so that if the searcher would try to screw them open, they would just screw tighter. He printed maps on silk so they would not rustle, disguised them as handkerchiefs and hid them inside canned goods. For airmen he designed special boots with detachable leggings so they could be quickly converted to look like civilian shoes. Their hollow heels also contained packets of dried food. Some of the spare uniforms that were sent to prisoners could be easily converted into civilian suits. Officer prisoners inside Colditz Castle requested - and received - a complete floor plan of the castle.

Hutton also designed escaper's knife - a strong blade, a screwdriver, three saws, a lockpick, a forcing tool and a wire cutter.

MI9 sent the tools in parcels in the name of various, usually nonexistent, charityCharity is the short form for charitable trust, a charitable foundation, or a corporation set up entirely for charitable purposes. These are set up for specific causes, such as curing diseases; providing goods or services for people or areas that lack the organizations. They dared not to use Red CrossThe terms Red Cross and Red Crescent are often used as short names for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, or its two leading international organs, the ICRC and the IFRCS. This page is about the symbol itself, see respective articles fo parcels lest they violate the Geneva Conventions and also to avoid the chance that guards would restrict access to them.

MI9 used the advice of master stage magician Jasper MaskelyneJasper Maskelyne (1902-1973) was a British stage magician in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a progeny of an established family of stage magicians, the son of Nevil Maskelyne and a grandson of John Nevil Maskelyne. He could also trace his ancestry to the roya to design hiding places for escape aids; tools disguised in a cricket bat, a saw blade inside a comb, maps on the backs of books and playing cards and inside gramophone records, board game sets that concealed money.

In time, German guards learned to expect and find the escape aids. They destroyed all the gramophone records to find concealed maps. MI9 had to find new methods. Sometimes they sent a coded message to the camp and told that a "naughty parcel" was coming; the prisoners had to steal it before it was investigated.