Magic at War

In this blog, Walt Williams, a non-magician serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is shot down over Germany. Captured and sent to Stalag Luft 17B, he makes a secret radio to keep his fellows POWs informed about the world outside the wire. Later, he discovers a magic book in the camp library, which inspires him to become a magician after the war, an interest in which he achieves notable success.  In July 1942, not long after America entered World War Two, Walter F. Williams, Jr. (1922 - 2013), joined the U.S. Army Air Corps.  After completing 14-months of training to qualify as an enlisted (or non-commissioned) aircrew-man for B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, he  shipped over to England to join the fight against Germany and the Axis Powers. Assigned to the 324th Squadron of the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy), in the Eighth Air Force, Williams was part of a 10-man B-17 crew. His initial few months of bombing missions proceeded without significant incidents. Then, on 31st December...

In this final part of a two-part blog, I look at Vincent 'Bush' Parker’s exploits as a prisoner-of-war at Colditz. After a magic apprenticeship to an illusionist, and an escaping apprenticeship gained from his nine escape attempts at Dulag Luft (Oberursel), Stalag Luft I and Stalag Luft III POW camps, it's now time for Parker to combine these two aspects of his life, for the ultimate challenge of escaping from Colditz Castle... Oflag IVC (Colditz)   Parker transferred to Oflag IVC (Colditz) in early May 1942. He was now Flight Lieutenant Parker, having been promoted the month before. Oflag IVC was housed in Colditz Castle in rural Saxony, Germany. Built in the Renaissance period, the castle was set-up as a high security prisoner-of-war camp in 1940. Serial escapers were sent there, but it also housed high-profile prisoners, such as relatives of the British royal family or of Allied government members, captured enemy agents, and other such people. Perched on top of a rock ...