Magic at War

*** COMING SOON - FROM THE MAGIC AT WAR TEAM *** The Colditz Conjurer  tells the amazing true story of Flight Lieutenant Vincent ‘Bush’ Parker. 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 ...

In another escape-themed blog, I look at the wartime exploits of Vincent 'Bush' Parker. A schoolboy magician and former assistant to an illusionist, Parker was a Battle of Britain pilot. After getting shot down over the English Channel and taken captive, he became a prisoner-of-war in Germany. A persistent and audacious escaper, Parker spent time in various POW camps, until he ended up in Oflag IVC, Colditz. There, his magic skills boosted morale and played a key role in many escape attempts. See my blog, 'Never in the field of human conflict...": a magician is one of the few' , to read more about 'Bush' Parker's background as a magician and his time with the R.A.F. before he was captured. 'In the bag' Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the 15 August 1940 as  "one of the greatest days in history" ,  as it proved to be the most decisive day in the Battle of Britain. Unfortunately, for  Pilot Officer Vincent Parker, it  was also ...

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...