Jasper Maskelyne was a famous British stage magician who served in the Royal Engineers camouflage unit in North Africa. According to his own accounts and his popular post-war book, he used theatrical illusion techniques on a massive military scale: hiding the Suez Canal from German bombers using rotating lights, creating a phantom harbor in Maryut Bay, and making tanks look like trucks (and vice versa) for the Battle of El Alamein.
The reality is more nuanced. Military historians have found that while camouflage and deception were extensively used in North Africa (particularly the brilliant Operation Bertram before El Alamein, which did fool Rommel about the direction of the British attack), these operations were primarily planned by professional military officers and camouflage experts, not Maskelyne alone.
Maskelyne undoubtedly contributed to the camouflage effort, but likely exaggerated his personal role considerably. The story illustrates an interesting aspect of wartime mythology: the idea of a magician fighting a war with illusions was so compelling that it took on a life of its own, and separating fact from self-promotion remains difficult.