The Magician of Stalag Luft III (Part 1)
In my longest blog so far, the compelling story of John Casson, magician, navy pilot, and Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war. His part in The Great Escape and how magic and performing helped him and others survive captivity ...
Early life
Born in 1909, John Casson was the eldest son of Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike. His father was an English actor and theatre director, who earned a Military Cross in World War One. Sybil Thorndike was a legendary English actress. Both parents enjoyed tremendous success as dramatic actors, with Lewis knighted and Sybil becoming a dame for their services to the arts. During World War Two, Lewis Casson served as president of the British Actors' Equity Association and drama director for the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (C.E.M.A., later to become the Arts Council). In sum, John Casson came from strong acting stock.
But, he showed no interest in acting or performing until, aged 20, when his uncle taught him a few simple magic tricks one evening. John was intrigued:
"The very next morning I went down with German measles and had nothing to do for the next two weeks but lie in bed and practise. When I came out of quarantine I was quite an accomplished conjurer and went off and had half a dozen lessons from a man in the conjuring department at Gamages. From then on, I had my own performing skills [and my poor family] all had to put up with 'taking a card' for weeks and weeks. To give them their due they stood up to it very well and even appeared to enjoy it."
While he enjoyed his new-found hobby, John chose military service for his career.
Lieutenant Commander John Casson (early 1940s)
(Source: Public domain)
In the Navy (and The Magic Circle)
Aged 13, John Casson was dispatched by his parents to complete his education on the merchant navy training ship H.M.S. Worcester. With such a grounding in life at sea, it was unsurprising that John went on to join the Royal Navy as a career sailor. In 1927, he became a midshipman on H.M.S Erebus, and on promotion to sub-lieutenant joined the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London in January 1930. After completing officer training, John was assigned to H.M.S Velox, a V-class destroyer. After only a few months on the Velox, John applied to the Admiralty to join the fledgling Fleet Air Arm. He started pilot training at R.A.F. Leuchars in January 1932, qualifying as a naval pilot by the end of the year, having mastered such skills as formation flying, deck-landing and dive-bombing. In early 1933, John joined a fleet-fighter squadron and in April sailed with them on the aircraft-carrier H.M.S. Eagle, for two years' service fighting pirates and other duties in the China region.
While visiting Hong Kong with the Eagle, John met his future wife, Patricia Chestermaster, who he married in June 1935 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, when they both returned to the U.K.
Lieutenant John Casson R.N. and Patricia Casson (nee Chestermaster)
(Source: International News)
By this time, Casson had become quite proficient at magic and joined The Magic Circle, London's prestigious magical society (in April 1933, just before he sailed for China). He remained a member for many years, though his attendance at London-based meetings was limited by his military commitments. Nevertheless, he kept up his interest in magic and found it a useful skill in the Navy:
"Now I had a performing act that was as popular a turn in the wardroom mess as anywhere else and I made shameless use of it over the next decade. If I had not left the navy and had been lucky enough to become an admiral I am sure it would have been the result of my conjuring rather than my seamanship."
The Magic Circle logo
(Source: The Magic Circle)
Various naval assignments kept Casson busy in the late 1930s, along with bringing up a son and two daughters. In 1937, he was posted to the newly-commissioned H.M.S. Glasgow, a light cruiser. The next year he deployed with that ship to Scapa Flow, to be 'on standby' for the Munich crisis. When Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Germany having signed the Munich Agreement, war was averted - for now - and the Glasgow returned back to base.
In July 1939, Casson was serving on H.M.S. Vindictive, a heavy cruiser employed as a training ship. Suddenly, all leave was cancelled and he was ordered to join H.M.S. Southampton. On 1 September, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September and the next morning, in his Walrus single-engine amphibious biplane, Lieutenant John Casson was catapulted off the Southampton for one of the first air reconnaissance missions of World War Two.
H.M.S. Southampton
(Source: Public domain)
Battle of the River Forth
The start of the war came quickly for the Southampton. On the 5 September, she intercepted the German merchant ship Johannes Molkenbuhr off Stadtlandet, Norway, but her crew scuttled the ship before she could be captured. For the rest of the autumn, the Southampton was involved in the blockade of Germany with the rest of the Home Fleet.
A few months later, on 16 October, while Southampton was docked at Rosyth, Scotland, she was struck by a 500kg bomb in a German air raid. The bomb caused minor structural damage but the ship was repaired quickly and brought back into service by the end of 1939. The raid, by a dozen dive-bombers, - later known as the Battle of the River Forth - was the first German bombing raid of World War Two. It was also the first time that R.A.F. planes shot down a German aircraft in the skies over Britain. For John Casson, the war was becoming very real.
Battle of the Forth (artist's impression)
(Source: Edinburgh Evening News)
Early 1940 was spent on a rota of eight-day long patrols between Iceland and Greenland on the Southampton, followed by shore-based periods where Casson used his Walrus to look out for submarines round the north of Scotland. This was a critical role, for by blocking German shipping from getting in and out of the North Sea, Germany’s access to essential supplies was denied.
Operation Alphabet
On 6 April, Germany invaded the neutral Norway. One of Hitler's primary aims was to capture the port of Narvik, in the northwest of the country. From there, his naval forces could seek to control the North Atlantic and he could guarantee the supply of raw materials needed for the critical production of steel. By mid-April, Allied troops - mainly British, French and Polish - had landed at Narvik and several other ports, to help the Norwegians repel the German invasion. But, when the Germans invaded France in mid-May, the Allies decided to evacuate Norway. Operation Alphabet - the evacuation - was ordered on 24 May.
While the evacuation was ongoing, in early June, newly-promoted Lieutenant-Commander John Casson took over command of 803 Naval Air Squadron, a fighter-dive-bomber squadron of twelve Blackburn Skua aircraft stationed at Donibristle, near Fife in Scotland.
Blackburn Skua
(Source: Public domain)
"Alas, my first command was to be a very short command. I took my squadron on to the deck of the Ark Royal ten days later to the west of the Orkneys and we set off for the vicinity of Narvik, where, with Ark Royal in 'the long grass' a hundred miles to the north of Norway, we gave some sort of air cover for the evacuation of Narvik over the next few days. Then the whole convoy of six or so merchant ships, containing 24,000 of our soldiers, the Ark, the Glorious, Southampton and three destroyers set off south for Scapa."
Black Thursday, 14 June 1940
The events that followed, on 13-14 June, 1940 came to be known as Black Thursday, one of the most disastrous days in the Fleet Air Arm's history. In just one attack, only seven of fifteen dive-bombers made it back to the Ark Royal.
"The Glorious had been running short of oil and was finding her own way home when she ran into the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, who sank her [and her two escorting destroyers] in five minutes. Three days later nine of my squadron and six of another were sent in to dive-bomb the two German battleships in Trondheim."
Keen to neutralise one of the German destroyers that had sunk H.M.S. Glorious, where 1,207 men lost their lives, naval commanders ordered a dive-bomb attack on the Scharnhorst which was in harbour in Trondheim. But, the plan was rash and flawed. Cabinet Office minutes from 10th June state that "the Prime Minister expressed grave doubts as to the wisdom of the operation… It would be a gallant operation, but one which, in his opinion, might prove far too costly".
German battleship Scharnhorst
(Source: Creative Commons licence)
Five minutes after midnight on 13 June, the fifteen Skuas took off from Ark Royal and climbed to 12,000ft. It was full daylight by the time the squadrons took off, as there was no darkness in the region in the mid-summer.
Skuas lined up on H.M.S. Ark Royal before the Scharnhorst attack
(Source: Naval Air History)
The fifteen Skuas crossed the Norwegian coast in brilliant sunshine, fifty miles from the target, heading along Trondheim Fjord (Norway's third largest) to Trondheim harbour, where the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were stationed.
"It was going to be the sort of day when flying would be sheer bliss, except that the one thing we all wanted was a nice overcast day," said Casson. "The enemy would see us coming with all the time they wanted to get ready for us".
Worse still, the Trondheim area was heavily defended by German anti-aircraft guns and there were two enemy fighter airfields nearby.
After two hours of flying, the Scharnhorst was spotted and the squadron's adopted their attack formation. In front, was 803 Squadron, led by Casson, in three flights of three. Following in two flights of three, was 800 Squadron, led by Captain Partridge.
Casson led his squadron into the dive from 5,000ft from the direction of the battlecruiser’s bow, into a storm of anti-aircraft fire.
"At 2.15 a.m. in broad midnight-sun daylight on 14th June I led my nine boys down behind the other in a dive at the Scharnhorst."
Skua with H.M.S. Ark Royal in the foreground (artist's impression)
(Source: Naval Air History)
"For a moment I thought I was seeing 'liver spots',” said Casson. "It was tracer flak. It was exactly like flying in a hailstorm with the projectiles flying up".
Approaching the Scharnhorst, he dropped his bomb (a near miss) and peeled away, to clear space for the rest of his squadron to attack. But...
"After clearing the heavy flak, I was just beginning to think I'd got away with it, and hoping that the other eight behind me would be as fortunate, when I ran into bad trouble with a Messerschmitt 109."
Casson dived down to the level of the fjord in the hope that he could outsmart his opponent and became engaged in "a mad running fight low down in and out of the mountains of the fjord".
He threw the aircraft all over the sky in such violent attempts to evade that his observer in the back cockpit, Lieutenant Peter E. Fanshawe, eventually said, "Could you steady up for a minute, while I have a shot at him?". Casson replied, "I know how I can fly, but I don't know how you can shoot."
After fifteen minutes of a spirited but fruitless attempt to escape from the Me-Bf109, their opponent put a bullet into Fanshawe's shoulder and another into the fuel tank. Fearing that the Skua was about to catch fire, Casson looked for somewhere safe to land and eyed the fjord.
Miraculously and testament his superb flying skills, while travelling at a speed of 120 knots (almost 140 miles an hour), Casson managed to level the Skua and make a forced landing on the surface of the Trondheimsfjord.
The victorious Messerschmitt was (probably) piloted by Ofw. Erwin Sawallisch, of the JG77 Luftwaffe fighter wing based in Trondheim. Ironically, given Casson's interest in card tricks, the JG77's nickname was the 'Ace of Hearts'.
Freeing themselves from the aircraft, Casson and Fanshawe jumped into the ice-cold water. Unable to retrieve the Skua's emergency dinghy, they swam towards land. A Norwegian with a rowing boat came out to pick them up and took them to hospital, where Fanshawe had his bullet extracted. Soon after, German troops arrived and they were taken prisoner.
For them, the war was over ... or was it?
Trondheim, Norway
(Source: FreeCountryMaps.com)
Quoted text is taken from 'Lewis & Sybil - A memoir by John Casson' (John Casson, 1972), 'The Blackburn Skua and Roc' (Matthew Willis, 2007), and the Aeroplane article (Vol. 35, No. 8) 'Into the Fjord of Death' (Matthew Willis and Simon Partridge, August 2007).
Related article: Part 2 of this blog tells the story of John Casson's capture and his time at Dulag Luft (Oberursel), where he learns how to send coded letters to M.I.9, before he moves to Stalag Luft III. Blog link.
Related article: Part 3 of this blog tells the story of John Casson's time at Stalag Luft III, where he takes over camp entertainment and provides a distraction for preparations for the Great Escape. Blog link.
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Written by the Magic at War team, The Colditz Conjurer is a remarkable tale of perseverance, courage and cunning in the face of adversity. It features over 55 original photographs and maps. 126 pages.
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