The War Magician: Based on an Extraordinary True Story

I found this book so interesting that after reading it I was prompted to do my own research on Jasper Maskelyne. What I found amazed me! While in London last year I went to the Imperial War Museum where I found pictures of Maskelyne walking through the flames of a burning crashed aircraft. I found letters of commendation from none other than Winston Churchill but most interesting was finding that the bulk of Jasper Maskelyne's war record was labeled "Top Secret" and sealed by the British Government until the year 2046! Although I was initially skeptical of Fishers account I am now convinced that Maskelyne did indeed accomplish the all of the war time illusions detailed in the book. I also learned that many of the camouflage techniques invented by Maskelyne are still in use today and that he is actually the subject of a course taught by a U.S. Military intelligence consultant. I doubt any Hollywood writer could have come up with a character as original and fascinating as Jasper Maskelyne. This book really is one of those where truth is better than fiction.

This book tells about Jasper Maskelyne, the famous British magician, and his efforts during the North African campaign in WW II. It lacks an index and table of contents, but is well written. It takes the technical subject of military camouflage and makes it interesting to the general reader. Magic has been part of warfare since the Trojan Horse. It can explain the Walls of Jericho, and the parting of the Red Sea.It tells how JM matched tricks with the leader of the Dervishes to get safe passage for British troops. How JM stumbled over the means to get desert camouflage paint. To prevent Alexandria Harbor from being bombed, JM moved it! To avoid an attack, dummy tanks, guns, and troops were created as reinforcements to be seen by enemy air reconnaissance. To protect the Suez Canal he used high-intensity rotating searchlights; this was copied by Britain's air defense.JM was asked to give lectures on escaping when captured; he became a member of MI9 (which dealt with escape and evasion). His Magic Gang also created dummy submarines to hide the absence of real ones. He traveled to Malta to help hide real airplanes and create dummies to attract and waste bombs. They developed a way to drop a crate of supplies without using scarce parachutes. When his friend survived a plane crash only to die in the fire, JM created a cream that withstood flames for a few minutes to allow people to escape. When testing out in the desert, JM became lost an nearly died from dehydration.To prepare for the attack from the Alamein Line Gen. Montgomery wanted his forces on the north hidden so the enemy would expect an attack in the south. Since the desert was flat, the camofleurs had an impossible job of deception and misdirection: to put a decoy army in the south and hide a real army in the north. Thousands of tons of supplies had to be hidden in the north while dummy supplies had to be hidden in the south. Pages 278-9 explains how the dummy water pipeline was built. The Battle of El Alamein began as planned. The Magic Gang created a phony sea invasion twenty miles behind enemy lines, which diverted German reserve forces. Chapter 18 tells how German tanks were halted by dummy cardboard tanks and silver painted boards! And the battle ended with Rommell's retreat.Afterwards JM was sent to Canada to establish Station M, which educated and served the OSS and FBI ("Room 3603" references this). The Gestapo placed him on their "Black List". He invented air to ground communication using infrared waves. After the war he migrated to Kenya, and died there.

I had the privilege of portraying the Title Character in the History Channel production of this extraordinary person. This is the unique story of the British Stage Magician, Jasper Maskelyne who, when war broke out, offered his 'special skills' to the War Dept. He promptly enlisted in the British Army and attempted to convince the Generals that his skills as an illusionist could be put to use against the Germans. At first, he was laughed at, "What could we possibly use a magician for?" He was asked. "If I could fool an audience only twenty feet away, I could certainly fool the enemy a mile away or more!" He answered. He was put into Camouflage School, where he succeeded in hiding a Machine-gun Bunker so completely that the Inspecting General couldn't find it (even when he was standing right on top of it). Jasper had made his point! He was sent to North Africa, where he put together a hand-picked team of men. His first job was to hide Alexandria Harbour from the Luftwaffe's nightly bombing raids. With the Magician's ability of 'mis-direction', he and his team created a phony harbour some miles away, which looked so like the original, that the invading bombers dropped their cargo on that instead of the correct target. His next task was to hide the Suez Canal, which by using a series of Anti-Aircraft searchlights combined with a collection of mirrors, Jasper and his team caused a 'blinding effect', which confused the Luftwaffe Pilots so, that they couldn't see the target to bomb it. He then put his 'skills' to disguising British tanks to look like harmless trucks and vice-versa. Rommel placed his main forces to oppose, what he thought was a strong force of British tanks, which in reality, were only trucks disguised as tanks. Meanwhile the real British tank force (disguised as trucks) were about to attack many miles away, against a now, very small opposing force. It was due, in no small part, to the stage illusionist, Jasper Maskelyne, that the British 8th Army won the battle of El Alamein, which spelled the end of the Afrika Korps' and General Field Marshall Rommel's aspirations in North Africa. This book is now being planned as an up-coming movie, starring Tom Cruise in the lead role!

The War Magician by David Fisher is a brilliant and intriguing book that explains the "art" of war. The "magic gang" is a group of mostly non-combatants in WWII that had a major effect on the outcome of the War in Africa. They outsmarted Field Marshall Rommel, changed trucks into tanks and tanks into trucks. They created their own navy and helped in the defense and support of Malta. The human element and compassion shown in this book is both touching and inspiring. I used to have 2 paperbacks and 1 hard back copy of the book but I never got the paperbacks returned to me after loaning them out! People have always responded positively after reading my copy (which I no longer loan out!). Buy this book it is a definite keeper!

Whether you are a magician or not, you'll love this book. The subjects of the book not only contributed to camoflage techniques, but it also explains how they "moved" the port city of Alexandria to hide it from Axis bombers. Forget smart bombs and laser weapons, here are some real wonder 'weapons'