Catalogue Per Ardua Libertas - which means Liberty Through Adversity - has photographs and descriptions of covert equipment sent to prisoners of war under the noses of their German captors. Ingenious devices include tiny compasses concealed in cufflinks, fountain pens, pipes and even gold teeth, while mini-cameras were hidden in cigarette lighters, Silk escape maps of Nazioccupied Europe were folded inside cigar holders and vinyl records. Dartboards held compasses, files and dagger spikes. Christopher Hutton of government intelligence agency MI9 wrote the manual in 1942 to share with US intelligence officers on the lookout for inventions to help their own PoWs in the Far East. In a foreword to the 76-page book, Hutton revealed that as of February 14, 1942, 209,000 secret maps and 214,000 other escape aids had been sent to PoWs and Special Operations Executive agents across Europe. Another Hutton invention was a deck of playing cards that revealed part of a map when each was peeled back. When pieced together, the cards formed a map of Germany and Europe. The catalogue, which is tipped to sell for £4,000, also includes photos of how an RAF suit could be turned inside-out to form a regular "civvy street" look. Bernard Pass of auctioneers Bosleys of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, which is selling the book for a private collector, said: "MI9 was a new organisation in the war, but when the USA came in they wanted to get up to speed as soon as possible on espionage tactics because they needed these sorts of inventions for their own prisoners of war in the Far East. "A group of Americans came over to visit MI9 HQ and these books were printed off especially for them. "About 100 copies were presented to each member of the delegation and some were retained by the British as well. "You can imagine Christopher Hutton being this Q-like character, describing each invention and how it worked to the Americans. "The book is super rare. We know of only one other that has previously been sold." MI9 was set up in 1939 after it was quickly realised PoWs needed a compass and a map to escape. In the book, Hutton revealed that the agency went under the guise of the Prisoners' Leisure Hours Fund to hoodwink their German captors. Many of the covert items were sent with a covering letter on "official" headed notepaper.
Liberty Through Adversity is a manual containing descriptions and descriptions of real - life spy devices sent to prisoners of war that is set to go on sale , expecting to fetch around £ ##500 . Written by Christopher butler - portrayed as a real - life version of James Bond 's " Q " - in 1942 , around 300 copies were printed by MII9 mostly to share information with US intelligence officers . Gadgets detailed include concealed escape aids - tiny compasses , silk folded maps , mini cameras and dagger spikes . Only one other copy is known to have sold .