The War Magician

Rating:
Summary: Master of Make-Believe
Review: Fisher's account is semi-fictional ....
I have actually researched the real background behind Jasper Maskelyne's war-time career and have corresponded with his son, Alistair who lives in Queensland, Australia.
I published a lengthy series of articles in the Australian Geniis Magic Journal in the mid-90's debunking Fisher's fanciful account.
Alas, Maskelyne was not involved in any significant camouflage work in the summer of 1940; his role in the protection of the port of Alexandria('41?) and the Suez Canal ('42) have both been exaggerated. Even his alleged involvement in the deception plan at El Alamein is open to question.
David Fisher has produced a mercenary work of dubious historical value. Readers are welcome to contact me for the alternative version. ....

Rating:
Summary: An amazing story where truth is better than fiction!
Review: I found this book so interesting that after reading it I was prompted to do my own research on Jasper Maskelyne. What I found amazed me! While in London last year I went to the Imperial War Museum where I found pictures of Maskelyne walking through the flames of a burning crashed aircraft. I found letters of commendation from none other than Winston Churchill but most interesting was finding that the bulk of Jasper Maskelyne's war record was labeled "Top Secret" and sealed by the British Government until the year 2046! Although I was initially skeptical of Fishers account I am now convinced that Maskelyne did indeed accomplish the all of the war time illusions detailed in the book. I also learned that many of the camouflage techniques invented by Maskelyne are still in use today and that he is actually the subject of a course taught by a U.S. Military intelligence consultant.
I doubt any Hollywood writer could have come up with a character as original and fascinating as Jasper Maskelyne. This book really is one of those where truth is better than fiction.

Rating:
Summary: When is the movie coming out???
Review: I had the privilege of portraying the Title Character in the History Channel production of this extraordinary person. This is the unique story of the British Stage Magician, Jasper Maskelyne who, when war broke out, offered his 'special skills' to the War Dept. He promptly enlisted in the British Army and attempted to convince the Generals that his skills as an illusionist could be put to use against the Germans. At first, he was laughed at, "What could we possibly use a magician for?" He was asked. "If I could fool an audience only twenty feet away, I could certainly fool the enemy a mile away or more!" He answered. He was put into Camouflage School, where he succeeded in hiding a Machine-gun Bunker so completely that the Inspecting General couldn't find it (even when he was standing right on top of it). Jasper had made his point! He was sent to North Africa, where he put together a hand-picked team of men. His first job was to hide Alexandria Harbour from the Luftwaffe's nightly bombing raids. With the Magician's ability of 'mis-direction', he and his team created a phony harbour some miles away, which looked so like the original, that the invading bombers dropped their cargo on that instead of the correct target. His next task was to hide the Suez Canal, which by using a series of Anti-Aircraft searchlights combined with a collection of mirrors, Jasper and his team caused a 'blinding effect', which confused the Luftwaffe Pilots so, that they couldn't see the target to bomb it. He then put his 'skills' to disguising British tanks to look like harmless trucks and vice-versa. Rommel placed his main forces to oppose, what he thought was a strong force of British tanks, which in reality, were only trucks disguised as tanks. Meanwhile the real British tank force (disguised as trucks) were about to attack many miles away, against a now, very small opposing force. It was due, in no small part, to the stage illusionist, Jasper Maskelyne, that the British 8th Army won the battle of El Alamein, which spelled the end of the Afrika Korps' and General Field Marshall Rommel's aspirations in North Africa.
This book is now being planned as an up-coming movie, starring Tom Cruise in the lead role!

Rating:
Summary: Rubbish
Review: I have done a great deal of research into the life of Jasper Maskelyne, including his wartime activities in Egypt. I have travelled to the sites concerned and I have interviewed members of Jasper Maskelyne's family to establish the truth, and I have also investigated official British government records. From this I can say that David Fisher's account of Maskelyne's wartime achievements is a novelist's fabrication -- as history and biography it is rubbish. There is an interesting story to be told, but you will not find it in the pages of The War Magician.

Rating:
Summary: WOW- what a great story!
Review: I read in a magazine that a film was being made with Tom Cruise based on David Fisher's book "The War Magician". I'd just finished another of Fisher's books, "Hard Evidence-Inside the FBI Crime Lab" and found it not only extremely well written and enjoyable but very informative as well. From what the magazine said the War Magician story sounded so interesting to me that I found myself spending the better part of a week tracking down a copy of the book. Got it, read it, and flat out loved it!

(Seems there are a lot of bitter wanna be writers on this site that like to bash successful authors in a pathetic effort to elevate their own works. Latimer and Stokes for example seem to be motivated by simple envy. Seems Stokes has written his own WWII book but can't get it published and Latimer trashes two other books but elevates his own to rediculous heights, cloaked as a review no less. Anyway, enough about them.)

The War Magician tells the story of Jasper Maskelyne, a truly unique man, a visionary and most likely a genius. A stage magician who believed that his talents could be used to trick the enemy and win a war. No wonder the brass thought he was nuts! He lacked the stiff attitude of a proper british soldier, he was a charismatic showman and he was the epitome of someone who thought outside the box. He had an enormous ego but also a huge inferiority complex, having lived his whole life under the shadow of his famous father and grandfather.
The story works on two levels. One is his personal emotional journey and transformation and the other is his success in developing new and creative weapons of illusion. Is everything in the book true? My question would be, if not, if Jasper Maskelyne didn't do any of the things Fisher attributes to him, then why is his official war record still sealed by the government until the year 2046? Maybe the British army was embarrassed that one outsider could be more effective than a legion of trained military professionals? It certainly wouldn't be the first time. The War Magician transcends the typical WWII stories and takes the reader into a behind the scenes battle of egos, false pride and ultimately the nature of heroism. The book is out of print and hard to find but if you can get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it. I also think it's going to make a fantastic movie!



Rating:
Summary: Maskelyne's war records
Review: Jasper Maskelyne's war records have already been released!
His son, Alistair, has a copy. They contain no earth shattering revelations, apart from transfer dates.
I've looked at them.
By the way, I contacted the Imperial War Museum (London) who said that there was no exhibition on Maskelyne in 2003 or at the other IWM sites. So can the previous reviewer clarify this?
My alternative research on Jasper Maskelyne has been highly praised by key magic historians , but viewers can make their own mind up by checking out the website at:
www.maskelynemagic.com
David Fisher and Paramount Studios have sold us a dummy.
Richard Stokes

Rating:
Summary: Author's Deception
Review: The War Magician by David Fisher claims to be a true account of the exploits of the illusionist Jasper Maskelyne during the Second World War. In fact the book is an invention, not remotely based on fact, and instead is an attempt to gull the credulous and make money in the process without the slightest concern for the truth of history. I have examined the records at the National Archives at Kew in London, where nothing supports Fisher's story; nor do the records at the Imperial War Museum. For that matter, the word in magic circles here in Britain is that David Fisher's book is so bad, his film treatment so feeble, that Peter Weir, who was asked to direct the film of the book for Paramount, has refused to do so, and the project has been dropped. That is how bad David Fisher's The War Magician is. It is junk for the gullible and feeble minded; it is a travesty of history. It is a lie.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most captivating books I have ever read
Review: The War Magician by David Fisher is a brilliant and intriguing book that explains the "art" of war. The "magic gang" is a group of mostly non-combatants in WWII that had a major effect on the outcome of the War in Africa. They outsmarted Field Marshall Rommel, changed trucks into tanks and tanks into trucks. They created their own navy and helped in the defense and support of Malta. The human element and compassion shown in this book is both touching and inspiring. I used to have 2 paperbacks and 1 hard back copy of the book but I never got the paperbacks returned to me after loaning them out! People have always responded positively after reading my copy (which I no longer loan out!). Buy this book it is a definite keeper!

Rating:
Summary: A fine illuision
Review: This book obviously appealed to some readers, although they don't seem too discerning about whether it's true or not. But as Richard Stokes points out, it is an illusion the hero of the book would be proud of, based as it is on a vainglorious and self-serving memoir rather than fact. Maskelyne was absolutely NOT the 'genius' behind British deception efforts: that was an obscure colonel of Royal Artillery called Dudley Clarke, as a cursory examination of papers at the Public Records Office in Kew reveals. For the true story, far better to read David Mure's 'Master of Deception' should you be able to track it down, look out for Nick Rankin's forthcoming biography of Clarke, or even check out my own 'Deception in War'.

That we've got people below saying they can't wait for the film is really sad. History matters: what really happened matters; yet some people would prefer to see a totally perverted, fanciful pile of tosh starring Tom Cruise than learn the truth. My prediction is the film will not only be complete and utter rubbish, like 'Pearl Harbor' or 'U-571', but just like this book it will be a travesty of fact.

Rating:
Summary: The Grand Illusion
Review: This book tells about Jasper Maskelyne, the famous British magician, and his efforts during the North African campaign in WW II. It lacks an index and table of contents, but is well written. It takes the technical subject of military camouflage and makes it interesting to the general reader. Magic has been part of warfare since the Trojan Horse. It can explain the Walls of Jericho, and the parting of the Red Sea.

It tells how JM matched tricks with the leader of the Dervishes to get safe passage for British troops. How JM stumbled over the means to get desert camouflage paint. To prevent Alexandria Harbor from being bombed, JM moved it! To avoid an attack, dummy tanks, guns, and troops were created as reinforcements to be seen by enemy air reconnaissance. To protect the Suez Canal he used high-intensity rotating searchlights; this was copied by Britain's air defense.

JM was asked to give lectures on escaping when captured; he became a member of MI9 (which dealt with escape and evasion). His Magic Gang also created dummy submarines to hide the absence of real ones. He traveled to Malta to help hide real airplanes and create dummies to attract and waste bombs. They developed a way to drop a crate of supplies without using scarce parachutes. When his friend survived a plane crash only to die in the fire, JM created a cream that withstood flames for a few minutes to allow people to escape. When testing out in the desert, JM became lost an nearly died from dehydration.

To prepare for the attack from the Alamein Line Gen. Montgomery wanted his forces on the north hidden so the enemy would expect an attack in the south. Since the desert was flat, the camofleurs had an impossible job of deception and misdirection: to put a decoy army in the south and hide a real army in the north. Thousands of tons of supplies had to be hidden in the north while dummy supplies had to be hidden in the south. Pages 278-9 explains how the dummy water pipeline was built. The Battle of El Alamein began as planned. The Magic Gang created a phony sea invasion twenty miles behind enemy lines, which diverted German reserve forces. Chapter 18 tells how German tanks were halted by dummy cardboard tanks and silver painted boards! And the battle ended with Rommell's retreat.

Afterwards JM was sent to Canada to establish Station M, which educated and served the OSS and FBI ("Room 3603" references this). The Gestapo placed him on their "Black List". He invented air to ground communication using infrared waves. After the war he migrated to Kenya, and died there.