Magic at War

In Part 2 of this blog about Liverpool-based magician ‘Eric’ Ryder, we learn how he used his magic skills to boost morale in Stalag VIII-B prisoner-of-war camp. ‘In the bag’  All Halifax L9566’s crew members survived their forced landing in the early morning of 11 September 1941, but they were quickly captured by German forces.  Sergeant ‘Eric’ Ryder and  his colleagues were first sent to  Dulag Luft (Oberursel) , an interrogation and processing camp for captured air crew near Frankfurt.  One of the first individuals Ryder met in this camp was Lieutenant Commander John Casson from the Royal Navy ’ s Fleet Air Arm. While most prisoners only spent a few days or weeks in the Dulag Luft , Casson was a member of the permanent staff. Along with twenty others, he ran the camp inside the wire, helping new prisoners settle in, and liaising  with the German commandant and his staff. Casson was caught in Norway in June 1940. Coincidentally, Casson was a keen amat...

Hidden away in the magic column of a 1942 edition of The World’s Fair (a newspaper for entertainers) is this single sentence:  “From The Mahatma Circular, we learn that a member of MAHATMA CIRCLE OF MAGICIANS, Sergeant Charles Ryder, 947433, is a prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-B, Germany (P.O. War No. 9592).” This is a tantalising fleck of information for a blog focused on magicians in World War Two. I pulled on that thread and weaved together the additional information I found into the blog below…  The Mahatma Circle of Magicians was a magic society based in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1915, in the second year of World War One, it was a breakaway club from the Northern Magical Society.  From 1915 to 1955, the society’s official in-house magazine was The Mahatma Circular . Evidently, The World’s Fair had picked up the news about Ryder in the Circular and repeated it.  Early Twentieth Century copies of  The Mahatma Circular (Source: The Magic Circle) Pre-War...

Part 3 of a three-part blog telling 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. In this part, Casson's arrives at Stalag Luft III, where he becomes a leading producer of camp entertainment, continues sending coded messages to M.I.9 and supports The Great Escape. The Stalag Luft III commandant provides an additional introduction to this blog, with this quote: “The [POWs] were always pitting their brains against our camp systems, more or less on the lines of each man being an individual magician working out a trick to escape. This meant that in the camps we were faced with a lot of brainy young conjurors who had plenty of time in which to work out their various tricks against us…”  Showtime   In early April 1942, Lieutenant Commander John Casson was transferred to Stalag Luft III, a newly built  Luftwaffe -sponsore...