Based on an extraordinary true story and soon to be a major film
produced by and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, The War Magician is the
remarkable tale of the man who used the powers of illusion to fight the
Nazis--and created the most remarkable feat of legerdemain since the
Trojan Horse.
How an Illusionist Changed the Course of World War II
When England went to war against Hitler in 1939, it mobilized its entire
military and industrial resources. But there was no place in that vast
army for legendary stage magician Jasper Maskelyne, whose family was
renowned for creating modern theatrical illusions. Maskelyne was
determined to fight the Nazis using his only weapon: he intended to
apply the techniques of popular magic to the battlefield. Initially
ignored and ridiculed by the staid military leadership, he eventually
cajoled his way into the Camouflage Section and was sent to the western
desert, where he created a new type of warfare.
With his small group of artists, the Magic Gang, Maskelyne designed and
developed ingenious weapons, then tricked the Desert Fox, General
Rommel, and his fabled Afrika Korps into believing there were tanks and
battleships where there were none, concealed the Suez Canal, and even
successfully "moved" Alexandria harbor.
But it required all his skills to pull off perhaps the largest and most
complex magic trick in history. As General Bernard Montgomery told
Maskelyne on the eve of the Battle of El Alamein, "The entire war will
turn on what happens here. What I am about to ask you to do is
impossible. It can't be done, but it must be done. I hope you've brought
your magic wand with you."
This is the fact-based story of the illusion that won the war in the
desert.
