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Part Three
"The elementary principle of all deception is to attract the enemy's attention to what you wish him to see and to distract his attention from what you do not wish him to see. It is by these methods that the skilful conjuror obtains his results." Memo to Chiefs of Staff, 1940 from General Wavell, Middle East Commander (1939-41)
As foreshadowed in the previous article, the two main accounts of Jasper Maskelyne's wartime career — "Magic-Top Secret" and David Fisher's "The War Magician" — are tainted documents. How then can we proceed with a proper assessment of Maskelyne's contribution to deception operations in World War Two? Firstly, there is an obvious but productive approach which has been surprisingly neglected by previous writers : by carefully comparing the two accounts for discrepancies, omissions and contradictions it is possible to glean important clues as to the historical authenticity of particular episodes in Maskelyne's career. The fact that there are two different accounts initially presents problems but also provides useful internal clues as to truthfulness and accuracy. Where possible, events that have been independently recorded elsewhere by other writers and historians can also be used as a means of verifying or refuting the competing accounts. A second approach is to trace and analyse independent sources which mention Jasper Maskelyne. These provide further information that can be tested against the other two accounts. Admittedly, direct references to Maskelyne in the war literature are rare and prone to error but may provide valuable additional clues. A third related approach is to track down and analyse the contribution of significant characters such as Dudley Clarke whose name appears in both accounts. Other recent sources such as "Trojan Horses", compiled by M. Young and R. Stamp, provide valuable reminiscences of people who directly participated in the deception war. As the field of enquiry widens, organisations such as MI-9 and its American equivalent MIS-X need to be explored. Two contemporaries of Maskelyne who are not mentioned in "Magic-Top Secret" or "The War Magician"— but should have been — are Clayton Hutton and Charles Fraser- Smith. Their significance will be detailed in a later article. Last but not least, Alistair Maskelyne's direct comments and responses to my queries have been extremely useful. His version will also be subjected to cross-examination. Where possible, I shall endeavour to provide independent confirmation. So far, his comments have been shown to be valid. Please see the 'Responses' section at the end of this article. In order to appreciate and properly assess Jasper Maskelyne's wartime career, one is inevitably drawn into the maelstrom of World War Two studies. Obviously, the important role of Ultra intelligence will be acknowledged. The North African campaigns still generate controversy. Montgomery's and Rommel's reputation as military commanders have been reassessed in the light of this latest research. Over the length of these articles, a more sophisticated version of the desert campaign will be offered which renders Fisher's account of the military operations obsolete. A fuller documentation of tactical and strategic deception as waged by the Allies has now been made available. However, the actual effectiveness of individual deception plans will be carefully reviewed. Did these Allied operations actually affect the decisions made by the German High Command? Even if a particular deception plan was deemed 'successful' did it have any real influence on the outcome of a battle? And did the deception war shape the final outcome of the Second World War or was this already determined in advance by the respective military strengths and productive capacity of the antagonists? By combining all these lines of enquiry, I believe it is possible to construct a more accurate, albeit incomplete , picture of Jasper Maskelyne and his wartime activities. Many of the claims made by David Fisher that were reproduced in John Booth's article will need to be drastically revised. The magical duel with the Imam; the dramatic search for an enemy radio transmitter hidden in King Farouk's palace; the construction of a decoy site to protect Alexandria from aerial attack; the 'vanishing' of the Suez Canal; the perilous 'lost in the desert' episode — these crucial ingredients of the Maskelyne myth will be subjected to critical bombardment. Even the effectiveness of the famous deception plan for El Alamein will be questioned. An interesting pattern will gradually emerge: Fisher , while inflating Maskelyne's contribution, minimises or overlooks the contribution of others. On the surface, he skilfully weaves Maskelyne's activities into the seesawing African campaign, but a closer investigation reveals that Fisher takes liberties with the chronology and manipulates the cast of characters so as to bolster Maskelyne's claims as a war magician. Above all, Fisher fails to analyse objectively the effectiveness of Maskelyne's camouflage schemes. Not only are there frequent factual errors, but Fisher presents outlandish tales without independent corroboration. By the end of these articles, you may well reach the conclusion that "The War Magician" is an unscrupulous distortion of the record; and that the author David Fisher, motivated by mercenary reasons and intent on packaging a great story, played fast and loose with his 'sources'. If the standards of the scientific community were applied, David Fisher as an author might have to answer charges of fraud and fabrication. ___________________________________________________________________________ Let us now continue this investigation by placing Maskelyne into the military context of his day. General Wavell's quotation at the beginning of this article reflects an imaginative approach to modern warfare which appears to have been adopted at an early stage by the British High Command in World War Two. Given that armed forces are notorious for being uncreative and ill-prepared for novel methods of warfare, it is remarkable that the British actually developed and implemented sophisticated strategic deception plans. Furthermore, it is surely a paradox of World War Two that Nazi Germany so highly skilled in misinformation and diplomatic deception on the eve of major conflicts and so capable of astonishing tactical surprise in full scale military operations nevertheless failed to develop long-term deception plans. The British, though often caught off-guard by early German military incursions, proved more adept at long-term deception and misinformation. In an important sense, the British had to be more successful in this arena as a consequence of the military mess after Dunkirk. Necessity, I might clumsily add, is the mother of deception. In the wake of humiliating and rapid defeat, with men and equipment in short supply, military commanders must resort to deception if only to win time. This is hardly a novel insight. After all, even Clausewitz, the influential German nineteenth century theorist , wrote that " the weaker the forces that are at the disposal of the supreme commander, the more appealing the use of cunning becomes." Why didn't the Germans pay more attention to the words of their great military writer ? A frequent line of argument is as follows: the German High Command, imbued with confidence after initial success and believing its forces were superior in training and organisation , expected to be victorious on the battlefield. The Nazi ideology predicted that might would triumph, that racially inferior enemies would be vanquished, and that defeat and failure were not to be countenanced. There is a kernel of truth to this argument, although it tends to be presented on weak intuitive grounds rather than being supported by internal evidence from the way Germany actually conducted military campaigns. In practice, Nazi Germany did employ elaborate tactical deception. The Ardennes offensive of May 1940, which led to the defeat of France in six weeks, and the early phases of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 (the surprise invasion of the Soviet Union) are perhaps the two most outstanding examples.
BRUTE FORCE It is hard to quantify how costly this neglect of strategic deception would eventually prove to be to Germany. To say it lost the war might be an overstatement. It will be argued that strategic and tactical deception enabled the Allies to end the war sooner and with less casualties, but that the final outcome was based on the hard logistics of total war. The side which produces the most number of guns, ships, planes and tanks and introduces the most number of trained soldiers into battle must inevitably win. This unromantic, production-line view of warfare will be dubbed the 'brute force' theory . The most persuasive advocate of this theory is John Ellis in his provocative book 'Brute Force:Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War. The alternative romantic view will be dubbed the 'Thermopylae theory' , i.e. the few against the many. This mythical view of combat is commonly held in our culture, related perhaps to the view that the righteous minority will forestall and eventually triumph over an evil majority. The Battle of Britain beautifully incorporates such a myth — that the valiant few , with right on their side, can defeat the invading barbarous hordes. An intermediate view will also be considered which incorporates the concept of historical contingency. Stephen Gould , the biologist, developed this notion in his book "Wonderful Life". He believed that if the tape of history could be replayed "with just a few small and judicious changes (plus their cascade of consequences) " then " a different outcome, including the opposite resolution," could occur "with equal relentlessness past a certain point". This theory should appeal to those who like to consider hypothetical situations — the great 'what ifs' of history. Alternative or counterfactual history surfaces in notable docu-thrillers such as Len Deighton's "SS-GB" or more recently Robert Harris' intriguing "Fatherland". It should be noted that deception played a role in several important military engagements in World War One. The details are beyond the scope of this series but here briefly are two important examples taken from each side: • on the eve of Ludendorff's offensive in May 1918, the Germans implemented an elaborate deception plan involving the secret redeployment and concentration of forces on the Western front. The Germans caught the Allies off-guard and achieved significant gains which almost won the war. (Source: The Kaiser's Battle by Martin Middlebrook. Part of the scheme involved the release of an observation balloonwhich accidentally-on-purpose drifted over enemy lines carrying fake documents that indicated that an attack would be launched from a different area of the front.) • the British commander Allenby employed a deception plan against the Turks in his 1917 campaign. His methods were to influence Wavell in the Middle East in 1940. Wavell actually served under Allenby in Palestine and learned firsthand the ways to mislead the enemy. Wavell's flexible and enlightened attitude to practitioners of deception and illusion meant that in the Second World War Maskelyne and others were allowed to prosper and develop their talents. In the next article I will discuss Jasper Maskelyne's attempts to enlist in the British Army in 1940, his selection for special training at Farnham, and his transfer to Egypt in early 1941.
Responses In the previous article , I included quotations from Alistair Maskelyne who claimed that his father's books "White Magic" and "Magic-Top Secret'" were unreliable ghost-written memoirs. Alistair also revealed that the magic dynasty of Maskelynes was not strictly descended from the famous Maskelyne lineage. In the Victorian era, an inheritance claim over the Basset Down estate was thrown out of court. Last week, I received an encouraging letter from Professor Dawes , magical archivist and author of the Great Illusionists. He writes: "Over the years I had become increasingly sceptical about some of the material in White Magic and Magic Top Secret and this was further fuelled and aggravated by the David Fisher book. I am, therefore, not entirely surprised to learn that both were written by an imaginative journalist. I wonder if this person was the Arthur Groom who 'edited' Jasper Maskelyne's 'Maskelyne Book of Magic' published by Harrap in 1936? " Professor Dawes then adds that "Maskelyne's Book of Magic'", published in the same year as "White Magic", "proved to be an embarrassment, however, because it was in part plagiarised from Will Goldston's books and Jasper had to make a public apology early in 1938." To be honest, I had never heard of this book, let alone the subsequent problem of plagiarism. Brian McCullagh provided me with a copy of Jasper's apology printed in the March 1938 issue of the Goldston Magic Quarterly which I have reconstructed below: APOLOGY To Mr. Will Goldston, I am extremely sorry that in the production of MASKELYNE'S BOOK OF MAGIC a quantity of the material contained in books written by you, was, without my knowledge, copied almost verbatim, and in no case any acknowledgment given to you. I very much regret the infringement of your rights and the injustice which has been done to you. 1, therefore, welcome the opportunity of publishing this apology in the Press at my expense. Jasper Maskelyne.
It is possible that the editor , Arthur Groom, is the ghost writer of the other two books , and I have forwarded this name to Alistair Maskelyne, in case he might recognise it. Professor Dawes also enclosed copies of the family trees, the official and unofficial version. The Maskelynes' unique contribution to magic spanned three generations. Remarkably , Jasper's sister, Mary Sterndale Bennett (Alistair's aunt) is still alive and lives in Horsham, England. She is the sole surviving sibling. Clive died in the 1920s. Noel died in 1976. (Author's note: I wrote this article in 1993. Mary died in 2000. ) These records seem to confirm Alistair Maskelyne's remark that the family genealogy is questionable. In his letter, Professor Dawes writes: "You will note the two dotted lines leading from William and Edmund to (A.N. Other Maskelyne) who then links to J.N.'s father. One would have expected old J.N. at least to have known his grandfather's name! The other pedigree I am enclosing is from Mary Arnold-Foster's book Basset Down - An Old Country House. At the time I wrote The Great Illusionists I didn't have the family tree and, although dubious, I gave the Magic Maskelynes the benefit of the doubt and went along with the Astronomer Royal ancestry." ___________________________________________________________________________ Because of the interest shown in this dubious link with the genuine 'Maskelyne' family , let me add the following lines written by Alistair Maskelyne in his first letter: "I am the first born of two children, father Jasper Maskelyne and mother Evelyn Enid Mary Maskelyne ( nee Home Douglas). The interesting thing about these facts is that neither family on both my fathers and mothers side rightfully used the names under which they were married: my father had claims to the Maskelyne family estate "Basset Down", in Wiltshire. As a small boy I was taken to see the old mansion (long since burned down and given over to industrial use) which both my father and my mother were convinced was theirs by right. On my mothers side, the name of Home Douglas was assumed by her father, whose family name was Klopp, just prior to the outbreak of the first world war. Done for obvious reasons. He was a successful civil engineer in Edwardian England , and did not wish to have racial prejudice added to his other problems: an expensive mistress in London and a large legitimate family in the country. When , again as a small boy , I was shown books of press cuttings from the era of the 1880's , with dramatic accounts of my paternal great grand father's court case to regain rights to "Basset Down" I could only puzzle why he wasted so much money in such a, to me, useless pursuit." ___________________________________________________________________________ On a separate topic, Professor Dawes also writes that he once met Dudley Clarke's younger brother, T.E.B. "Tibby" Clarke, who worked as a scriptwriter for the Ealing Studios in the 1940s-'50s. "Tibby told me that Dudley's wartime exploits would make a marvellous book that he wished to write but the War Ministry would not permit its publication on security grounds. Dudley had died in 1974 and sadly Tibby died in 1989 without being able to achieve his wish. From our standpoint, in relation to Maskelyne, it is particularly unfortunate for it would have provided a definitive account of what the illusionist really did do in the Western Desert." Dudley Clarke, mentioned earlier, was the legendary head of 'A' force, a specialist team formed by General Wavell in late 1940 to develop deception operations against the Axis forces. Clarke soon became the leading co-ordinator of strategic deception in the Mediterranean and other war theatres. He allegedly recruited Maskleyne for MI-9, a secret organisation which specialised in escape and evasion techniques. These significant episodes in Jasper Maskelyne's career will be discussed in a later article. Actually, Dudley Clarke's wartime work has been patchily reconstructed by David Mure in his books "Practise to Deceive" and "Master of Deception". Furthermore, Clarke's deception role has at last been recorded and recognised by the revised official history. However, Professor Dawes comment is pertinent. Clarke's own memoirs would have been invaluable. ___________________________________________________________________________ Brian McCullagh forwarded me an old editorial from Goodliffe's abracadabra dated November 1973. The writer dismissed Maskelyne's "Magic Top-Secret" as a " fantasy " : "Wags have said from time-to-time, after seeing American movies, that they lead one to believe that Eroll Flynn won the war single-handed; after reading Jasper's book, one gets the impression that his camouflage notions did the same. He, or his ghost-writer, drew extensively on the imagination..." This indicates that a few people within the magic community were justifiably suspicious of the tales told in "Magic-Top Secret", but the general reader would not have been aware of such criticisms. I would guess that , over time, those with a keen interest in the history of magic began to accept the authenticity of the printed version. Mainstream historians then erroneously assumed that the material was essentially trustworthy and accurate. Even Sir Michael Howard CBE, official war historian, Regius Professor of Modern History Oxford (1980-89), and holder of a prestigious chair of Military and Naval History at Yale (!) mistakenly assumed that "Magic-Top Secret" was a valid account. In his acclaimed book "Strategic Deception in the Second World War" (1990) he adds a prominent footnote recommending the purported war memoirs of Jasper Maskelyne: "For the numerous and valuable contributions made to visual deception by Major Maskelyne see his book Magic - Top Secret (London 1949)." Aside from this unfortunate oversight, I should add that Michael Howard's book, constructed from official documents to which he had privileged access, is an important analysis of strategic deception. And the reference to Maskelyne in his main text is concerned with Jasper's involvement in disguising tanks as innocent lorries by covering them with special 'sunshields'. This novel method of camouflage (whether invented by Maskelyne or not) will be discussed in a later article.
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Footnote: The late Arthur Groom specialised in children's books. For example, he wrote "Scouting in Europe"in 1938. From 1949 to 1952 he penned numerous Buffalo Bill Wild West Annuals for the English market. His books are collector's items within the rather arcane world of out-of-print long-forgotten juvenile fiction. I have not been able to establish any link between this author and the anonymous ghost-writer who allegedly produced both 'White Magic' and 'Magic - Top Secret'. | ||||
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