By February 1942 it became clear that this command was not successful, and so he was "transferred to welfare"-in other words, to entertaining soldiers with magic tricks. He was made head of the subsidiary "Camouflage Experimental Section" at Abbassia. Maskelyne was then briefly a member of Geoffrey Barkas's camouflage unit at Helwan, near Cairo, which was set up in November 1941. These included tools hidden in cricket bats, saw blades inside combs, and small maps on objects such as playing cards. He created small devices intended to assist soldiers to escape if captured and lectured on escape techniques. īrigadier Dudley Clarke, the head of the 'A' Force deception department, recruited Maskelyne to work for MI9 in Cairo. The camoufleur Julian Trevelyan commented that he "entertained us with his tricks in the evenings" at Farnham, but that Maskelyne was "rather unsuccessful" at actually camouflaging "concrete pill-boxes". He found the training boring, asserting in his book that "a lifetime of hiding things on the stage" had taught him more about camouflage "than rabbits and tigers will ever know".
Maskelyne was trained at the Camouflage Development and Training Centre at Farnham Castle in 1940. According to one story, he convinced skeptical officers including inspector of training Viscount Gort by camouflaging a machine gun position in plain sight and creating the illusion of the German warship Graf Spee on the Thames using mirrors and a model. Maskelyne joined the Royal Engineers when the Second World War broke out, thinking that his skills could be used in camouflage.
Maskelyne entertains Indian Army officers and civilian VIP's being at Mena House in Cairo, 19 April 1942.
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