'Bush' Parker: The Escapist (Part 2)
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 and with thick stone walls and vigilant guards, the Germans considered it impregnable. Yet, there were more escapes from Colditz, than from any other officers' POW camp in Germany.
Colditz Castle prisoner-of-war camp
(Source: Public domain)
Escape 10 (exploration)
'Bush' Parker's first escape attempt from Colditz, started in mid-May 1942, just a few weeks after he arrived there. He joined forces with five of the existing prisoners and started making an exploratory hole in the roof of the attic above the British quarters, to see whether they could access a part of the castle from which they could escape. But, on 9 June 1942, their 'stooges' didn't act quickly enough as a group of German 'ferrets' approached the area and swooped without warning. The escape team was caught in the act.
Escape 11 (identity swap)
A month or so after the attic incident, on 15 July 1942, Parker swapped identities with a British orderly who was being transferred out of Colditz. Australian POW historian, Colin Burgess, explains what happened next:
"Sergeant Gollan had only been at Colditz for ten days and was being transferred elsewhere with some other orderlies, but an identify check soon revealed the ruse. An alert German officer armed with identity cards quickly recognised Bush as one of the newer officer inmates, and he was taken into custody."
For his efforts, Parker was given 21 days in the cells. While serving this sentence, he tried to bribe one of the guards to obtain some tools. His attempt was reported and ten days were added to his sentence.
Flight Lieutenant 'Bush' Parker (middle row, second from left)
with other Australian POWs at Colditz, 29 February 1944
(Source: Public domain)
Escape 12 (tunnel)
In spring 1943, Parker was involved in his sixth tunnel escape attempt, having previously dug two at Dulag Luft (Oberursel), two at Stalag Luft I and one at Stalag Luft III. Helping him on this occasion were Flight Lieutenant Norman 'Bricky' Forbes and Lieutenant David Wheeler. The tunnel, known as the 'Revier' tunnel, was dug from under the floor of the POW's sickbay (German: 'das Krakenrevier') heading out to the castle's western terrace and garden. Unfortunately, around 4am on 1 May 1943, a guard patrol heard suspicious noises and decided to investigate. Parker was caught working on the tunnel. After a search of the sickbay, the guards also found seven bags of rubble and tools. More time in the 'cooler' followed for the failed escaper.
Colditz Castle map (c1944)
(Source: Public domain)
Escape 13 (rope)
Parker told the story of his thirteenth escape attempt in his post-liberation report:
"During [26] March 1944, Lieutenant Commander Mike Harvey R.N. and I got out the bars of a window in the third storey near the German quarters and climbed down a rope in the twenty seconds during which the guard was out of sight around a corner. We hid in a cellar in the German quarters, from where there was a passage leading outside the camp according to information received. This was proved to be false."
Annoyingly for Parker and Harvey, after their heroic abseil, the room they had broken into didn't lead anywhere. It was, in fact, an air raid shelter for the German guards. With nowhere to go, they quickly burned their escape documents - probably fake ID cards and paper money - and were forced to give themselves up. Security officer Reinhold Eggers, recalled opening the door and seeing the pair dressed in German Army dungarees. They were awarded 14 days in the cells for their efforts.
(Following this failed escape, the Germans discovered that Mike Harvey was a 'ghost', who had been hiding from them within the castle for almost a year.)
Flight Lieutenant 'Bush' Parker with other POWs at Colditz
(front row, third from right)
(standing to the right of Giles Romilly, Winston Churchill's nephew)
(Source: Public domain)
Other Escapes
Thirteen escape attempts from four different camps is an impressive record. Yet, Parker was probably involved in many others which failed early on, or didn't leave the planning board. Some accounts recall that Parker cut a hole through a wall to the German quarters, but it was discovered. And, that while in the cells for one of his attempts, he tried to cut through the bars of his cell's window. Plus, Parker may have helped an attempt jointly-led by Mike Harvey, to reopen a previously discovered French tunnel in the chapel, in mid-July 1943. Parker was also likely involved in supporting efforts to construct the famous Colditz 'Cock' glider, built in one of the castle's attics during late 1944 / early 1945.
Magic for a captive audience
Aside from escaping, 'Bush' found plenty of time to develop his magic skills and enjoyed having a captive audience to perform for. His light-hearted side as a cardsharp and sleight-of-hand magician were often talked about by Colditz veterans, with several mentioning these in their post-war POW accounts.
In Tunnelling Into Colditz (1986), Jim Rogers wrote:
"In my view, Bush was one of the great men of Colditz. He was a most gifted conjurer and used to give us regular shows. He had a trick where he would hold a match upright on his sleeve and when he let it go it used to jump a couple of feet in the air. I never discovered how this worked. His sleight of hand and card tricks were most adroit."
Canadian R.A.F. Flight Lieutenant Don 'Weasel' Donaldson added:
"Bush [was] a sleight-of-hand artist. Whenever a few of us would get together for a bull session, he would go into his act. One of his favourite tricks was to pull a cigarette from someone's ear. As cigarettes were very scarce it was considered clever to find one in the conventional way, let alone in the ear of one of the audience!"
Australian Army Lieutenant Jack Champ recalled:
"The way he rigged a pack of cards during the shuffle was completely undetectable. He seemed to be able to create whatever hands he wished at will. But ... despite these skills, Bush never cheated anybody when money was concerned."
And, British Army Captain, Pat Reid - one of only six British officers to make a 'home run' from Colditz Castle - wrote:
"Bush was an amateur card sharper of the highest professional standing!"
Parker's magic, according to these accounts, was mostly informal close-up magic, card tricks and sleight-of-hand. Playing cards were ubiquitous in POW camps, with supplies of these and other recreational items (including magic trick sets and instruction books) sent into the camps via the Joint War Organisation Indoor Recreations Section. Later in the war, playing cards were craftily designed to hide secret escape maps.
British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John playing cards supplied to prisoners of war
(Source: Red Cross)
As well as informal magic performances, Parker may also have performed magic in the various revues and shows put on in the camp theatre; some of which were used as cover for escape activity.
Theatre scene still from The Colditz Story (1955)
(Source: British Lion Films)
Lock picking
While magic skills boosted the morale of his fellow captives, they also had a much more practical application. Just as Houdini claimed that "No lock can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom", 'Bush' Parker claimed to be able to open any lock in the castle.
He’d previously escaped from Stalag Luft III by picking a lock to a cell door and managed to get to the Polish border before he was recaptured.
Don Donaldson was present on the very first occasion that Parker tried to pick the lock of one of the castle's thick steel doors:
"The scene was just like you have seen in the movies; three desperate men up in a dusty attic with very poor light, all concentrating on that door. A tube of toothpaste was the only equipment Bush had. With his ear pressed against the door he cautiously worked the lock dials. When a tumbler lifted he injected toothpaste to hold it in the open position. Finally he manoeuvred all the tumblers the right way, and the door swung open. Within a week Bush could master a lock in thirty seconds without using the toothpaste."
As time went on, Parker made keys for padlocks out of coal shovel metal and keys for door locks from bed iron. This practical use of escapology to the prisoner-of-war context was substantial. He probably learned the basics of lock picking during his pre-war apprenticeship as a magician’s assistant. Being able to open doors the Germans considered secure, enabled the POWs to prepare for and make escapes, but also to steal much-needed food and other supplies from their captors.
Of Parker's skills, another inmate, Jerry Wood, wrote in Detour (1946):
"His facility at picking locks had to be seen to be believed. He would get through any door irrespective of where it was or how heavily it some to be guarded. It was only necessary to divert the sentry's attention momentarily for Bush to noiselessly unlock the door and slip through."
William Morison, in Flaks and Ferrets: One Way to Colditz (1995), also recalled Parker's talents, but explains that the Germans worked out what was going on and stepped up security:
"The doors in the castle had of course been fitted with locks since time immemorial, but they were primitive things and easily picked, or opened with a 'skeleton' key. The arch lock-manipulator was Bush Parker and the master of sleight-of-hand. The ordinary locks yielded to his sensitive fingers as readily as did a pack of cards, and it didn't take the Goons [German guards] long to realise that they needed better defences against the likes of him. So on all the important doors they installed cruciform locks (similar to a Yale lock), made by Zeiss Ikon, but with tumblers on three sides instead of one. On the face of it they were unbeatable, as no lock picks could possibly be inserted to hold all the numbers in the open position at the same time. However, many desirable things lay behind the locked doors and a determined 'Kriegie' was not to be so easily thwarted."
Improvised lock picks used in Colditz Castle
(Source: Escape from the Swastika, Marshall Cavendish Limited)
These new locks could have thwarted Parker, but working with Dutch Captain Damian Joan van Doorninck (who made a special micrometre gauge which could measure the inside components of a lock), he eventually discovered a way of making cruciform keys from coat hooks and other assorted metals. Significantly, Parker mastered the parcel office’s cruciform lock. This enabled the POWs to get access to incoming 'comfort' parcels and letters from home, before the Colditz guards examined them. Some of these parcels contained escape aids, such as maps, compasses and even radio parts, sent by M.I.9 in London. Slipping these uncensored packages out of the parcel office was critical to the Allied effort to escape from Colditz. It allowed bulk contraband to be sent out from the U.K. on an unimaginable scale.
At one time or another, Parker's skills were needed on nearly all escape attempts. He was not the only Allied POW who could pick locks. But, when other nationalities were moved out of the castle in May 1943, leaving only British and American POWs, Parker became the lead lock-picker. In 1945, he reflected on his contribution:
"I came to know the whole castle so well that whenever escapes were planned I took the personnel concerned into the attics, cellar, or wherever they wanted to go to study the possibilities, and also for the actual attempts. I was kept very busy on this job as the Germans were continually changing the locks... Finally I had over a hundred keys with which I unlocked every door in the castle when we were liberated."
Without doubt, Houdini's maxim "No lock can hold me," could truly be applied to 'Bush' Parker's time at Colditz.
Flight Lieutenant 'Bush' Parker with other POWs at Colditz
(front row, third from left)
(sitting to the left of Group Captain Douglas Bader)
(Source: Public domain)
As well as making 'skeleton’ keys, Bush Parker made escape compasses (as he had done at Stalag Luft I) and other nefarious aids, such as wire cutters, which he manufactured using bed iron and gramophone springs.
Parker's other notable contribution to camp life was as one of the three self-appointed 'Directors of the British Distillery Monopoly'. This was a trio of friends who manufactured alcohol - of a sort - from various food sources they could get their hands on, such as potatoes and dried sugar beet pulp.
The man
"Bush has a marvellous disposition, always smiling and cheerful and ready for anything", said Jim Rogers.
Don 'Weasel' Donaldson was one of Parker's closest friends in Colditz. He wrote:
"When I first saw him I thought how strikingly handsome he was in spite of his unkempt state. He was a rugged individual, ... His good looks and loud way of talking made him outstanding in a crowd. Bush liked to talk and seized every opportunity to be the orator. He desperately needed companionship and was constantly seeking it. There was something about Bush that could turn you off if you didn't delve beneath the surface of his hard exterior. He was ruthless, often thoughtless, in many of his actions, and yet he would never knowingly hurt a soul - not even a German. He was extremely confident in his abilities."
British Army Captain Pat Reid, who lived with Parker for eight months, recalled that:
"Bush was a colourful character... [He] was well knit and strong, a good athlete and an outstanding stool-ball player. Though not more than five feet seven inches tall, he was handsome with the features of a young Adonis and a winning smile... He had a charming manner which must have made him the complete lady killer in those far off days when Bush was a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot."
Summing up, Donaldson added:
"He was an outstanding hero among his fellow prisoners. His people and his country can be justly proud of him."
Freedom
Despite his many attempts, 'Bush' Parker never managed to escape his German captors. He remained a POW for four-and-a-half years, three of them in Colditz. On 15-16 April 1945, Oflag IVC was liberated by U.S. forces advancing towards Berlin. Finally, he achieved the freedom he so desired.
Flying Lieutenant Vincent 'Bush' Parker at Colditz (c1944)
(Source: Public domain)
After the war
After returning to the U.K. and undergoing rest and rehabilitation, Bush stayed in the R.A.F., keen to return to the skies. He retrained as a pilot and was assigned to No. 56 Operational Training Unit based at R.A.F. Milfield in Northumberland, England.
On 29 January 1946, 27-year old Flight Lieutenant Vincent Parker took to the skies for the final time. Witnesses record seeing his Hawker Tempest V aircraft, slowly roll and then dive into the ground six miles from the airfield. He died instantly. An inquest recorded the crash as a tragic accident.
For his war service, 'Bush' Parker was awarded the War Medal 1939 to 1945 and the 1939-1945 Star (with the Battle of Britain Clasp). Also, on 13 June 1946, in recognition of his escape activities while a prisoner of war, Parker was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches on the orders of King George VI.
Publication of Flight Lieutenant Parker's Mentioned in Despatches award
(Source: The London Gazette)
Conclusion
Writing about Vincent 'Bush' Parker's contribution to life at Colditz and the business of escaping, Colin Burgess gave this assessment:
"Without doubt, [he was] the most enigmatic and tenacious of the Australian officers to set foot in the legendary castle prison known as Oflag IVC, Colditz ... Bush was a spirited young man of considerable mechanical talent, ingenuity and courage ... [Along with] his consummate skills as a conjurer ... [Bush] was a truly amazing character. [He] played a leading role in almost all of the British escape attempts from Germany's so-called 'escape-proof' prison. His patient expertise in mastering even the most difficult of locks proved invaluable in giving passage where it was previously denied and access where it was meant to be impossible."
'Bush' Parker's decision to leave Australia to travel to Great Britain, to join the R.A.F. and fight for his country, through to the dogged persistence he displayed in trying to escape captivity, and his subsequent decision to remain in the R.A.F. after the war and return to flying, were evidence of a driven man who lived life to the full.
“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild." (Stephen King)
Related article: 'Never in the field of human conflict...: a magician is one of the few!', a blog about magician-Spitfire pilot, Pilot Officer Vincent 'Bush' Parker and his role in the Battle of Britain. Blog link
Related article: 'Bush' Parker: The Escapist' (Part 1) tells the story of Vincent 'Bush' Parker's capture by the Germans and his early escape attempts before he arrives at Oflag IVC Colditz. Blog link
Related article: 'The Magician of Stalag Luft III' (Parts 1-3) tell the story of Lieutenant Commander John Casson's naval aviator, magician, prisoner-of-war in Stalag Luft III. Blog link
Recommended further reading: 'The Diggers of Colditz: The classic Australian POW story about escape from the impossible' by Colin Burgess (which includes a chapter on 'Bush' Parker).
Research supported by The Good Magic Award 2021 from The Good Thinking Society
*** AVAILABLE NOW ***
A school-boy magician from the Australian outback, ‘Bush’ left home to become an assistant to a master illusionist. With World War Two looming, he gave up this promising career to train as a Spitfire pilot.
One of Churchill’s ‘Few,’ he fought in the Battle of Britain until he was shot down in a dramatic dogfight. As a prisoner-of-war in Germany, Vince Parker earned a reputation as a persistent escaper. He ended up in the infamous Colditz Castle, a high-security fortress from which the Germans thought escape was impossible.
In the footlights of the castle’s theatre, this charismatic officer used his magic skills to boost the morale of his fellow prisoners. But, behind locked doors, he applied the secrets of stage magic and escapology to the real-life challenge of getting back home.
A remarkable tale of perseverance, courage and cunning in the face of adversity, The Colditz Conjurer features over 55 original photographs and maps. 126 pages.
“He was an outstanding hero among his fellow prisoners.”
- Don Donaldson, British POW in Colditz
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