Fee Fi Faux Forces

Tonight while scanning the news I came across a photo in the news photo gallery of Reuters that showed an innovative solution to reduce speeding. Mexico's Federal Highway Police are making their highways safer by creating fake speed traps using two-dimentional police car 'billboards' on the highway. They intermix real speed traps with the replicas to save money.

This reminds me of the deceptions used during World War II called Operation Fortitude where inflatable tanks and airplanes were used to confuse enemy forces. Reconnaissance aircraft pilots couldn't tell the fake from the real. This could mis-represent the size of a military force or (as mentioned below) divert the enemy from the actual army.

While searching for a link for inflatable tanks, I came across this story about a British magician, Jasper Maskelyne. During the second World War the military used his master of illusion skills to help defeat the German army in north Africa. Interesting too there is a movie coming out about his story called The War Magician.

Note: While researching the title 'The War Magician' on Amazon I found an out of print book that the movie will be based on. However if you read the customer critiques of the book, it sounds like others were involved in the illusions and Maskelyne has potentially received more credit than he actually contributed - you be the judge)

Comments

[Richard Stokes]

I noticed your info last year on the War Magician.

I've launched a new website on Jasper Maskelyne.
The url address is:
http://www.maskelynemagic.com

I examine in detail David Fisher's error-ridden
concoction, "The War Magician"(1983) and Maskelyne's
own tainted ghost-written memoirs, "Magic Top
Secret(1949).
I also interview in depth Alistair Maskelyne, Jasper's
son who lives in Queensland, Australia. He worked with
his father for a short period after the war.

David Fisher is about to re-release the War Magician
in hardback this month.
And Paramount and Tom Cruise still claim they are
planning to make a movie about Jasper based on
Fisher's account.
But reliable sources, Alistair Maskelyne and his
wife,Bettina, tell me that Peter Weir, the director,
has read my material in its original printed form and
has now pulled out of the project.

Yours sincerely

Richard Stokes