Magic at War

In late 1942, Lieutenant (later Major) Jasper Maskelyne, a famous stage magician serving  with the  British Army in North Africa, joined the regional branch of MI9. This was a secret military intelligence department set-up to help service personnel evade capture and, if captured, to  escape . MI9’s formal aims were to aid escapers by providing them with tools and training to escape; to train potential evaders to evade; to encourage secret routes along which either could travel; and to glean such intelligence as was in prisoner of war camps, or from escapers or evaders who made it home. Against these aims, Jasper played a key role. He trained frontline personnel on how to evade capture and to escape captivity, and he designed and issued escape and evasion devices to military personnel.   A signed photo of Major Jasper Maskelyne, Royal Engineers (Source: Author ’s  collection) Jasper was the ideal lecturer on this secretive topic. Lecturing to large groups of serv...

During wartime, cinema remained an extremely popular pastime. In Britain alone, between 25 and 30 million cinema tickets were sold each week.  Movies provided war-weary audiences an escape from the turbulence and sacrifice of war, while also providing an opportunity for nations to boost morale, through government-funded propaganda films.  The epic American film  Gone With The Wind  (1940) was the smash hit of the war, but British films such as  In Which We Serve  (1942) and  Millions Like Us  (1943) were also highly successful.     Magic-related plots, scenes, or magician characters were a steady feature in films released during World War Two. Here's a selection : The Magician's Daughter (1938). Playing in British cinemas in the summer of 1939, as war was breaking out across Europe, The Magician's Daughter is a 'movie short' made by MGM Pictures.  Billed as a "miniatu re musical" the title character falls in love with a magaz...

Jasper Maskelyne, famed early Twentieth Century magician and illusionist, is often referred to as the 'War Magician'.  This nickname originates, mostly, from David Fisher's 1983 book, aptly titled, The War Magician: The man who conjured victory in the desert . Fisher tells the story of Maskelyne's background as a stage magician and his exploits during World War Two, when he joined the British Army intent on using magic to defeat Hitler. Unfortunately, the book - while an interesting read - is highly fictionalised, despite the author's assertion that " everything Jasper Maskelyne is credited with doing he actually accomplished ".  Had he attempted a factual account of Maskelyne's contribution to the war effort, Fisher wouldn't have been helped by his source material.  Much of Fisher's story is based on Maskelyne's book Magic - Top Secret (1949) (ghost written by F. S. Stuart), which itself exaggerated the facts, claimed accomplishments whic...