Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park

Book Overview

Familiar to anyone versed in the history of World War II or interested in the study of modern intelligence work, Bletchley Park was arguably the most successful intelligence operation in world history, the top secret workplace of the remarkable people who cracked Germany's vaunted Enigma Code. Almost to the end of the war, the Germans had firm faith in the Enigma ciphering machine, but in fact the codebreakers were deciphering nearly 4,000 German...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019285304X
• ISBN13: 9780192853042
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Essential Reading

I'm one of those who believe that BP literally won the war. If you apply the principle of Ockham's Razor it's evident to me that everything hinged on the Battle of the Atlantic, which the Nazis came very close to winning, and would have won if BP hadn't been reading their communications. If Hitler had succeeded in stopping the convoys to Britain and Murmansk, he would have had things "all wrapped up." (with England and Russia no longer in the war). This is by way of saying that I highly recommend "Codebreakers" as an excellent collection of essays about some of the events and personalities of Bletchley Park, about an era that is fading from living memory.

The Old Vets Gather for a Last Hurrah

When the gag order was finally lifted circa 1970 on the Bletchley Park operations, a lot of scientific, historical, and technical histories appeared. And there was a great hue and cry among military and political historians that the whole history of the British and American war against Hitlerian Germany would have to be rewritten. Well, much of that has been proven to be just hyperbole but it is generally agreed that the war was shortened by about two years. But the closer the Allies got to Germany the less role Bletchley played for the German forces used landlines for most strategic communications from mid 1944 on. Also they had another machine known as FISH which was not as easily read as Enigma. This book is a collection of personal narratives of life at Bletchley and how tedious most of the work there was, no matter how essential. Harry Hinsley, one of the authors, was a "whiz kid" recruited directly from university and after the war became a professor without ever completing his studies. Over the years he has written the monumental multivolume official history of British intelligence operations in WW II and many historical papers. Alan Stripp, was one of the original operatives and served for many years.

Love Cryptography? Read this.

This is a great history of the work that went on at Bletchley Park during WWII. The work that led up to breaking the Enigma machines, the people who made it possible (Turing etc) are all described in detail - great informational book for anyone interested in the history of codebreaking.

Required Reading

Having read Codebreakers and studied BP's work, I must call this book required reading for anyone interested in the most secret aspects of WW2. The first hand accounts allow you to experience the atmosphere of comaraderie under intense pressure. More importantly, these mini-memoirs demonstrate the monumental intellectual efforts needed to break, daily, dozens of different Enigma ciphers. The "dry, uninteresting administrative work" was the cornerstone upon which Ultra was built: without definitive indexes and dictionaries how were the decrypts to be interpreted and put into the proper context? Without the bureaucratic machinery in place to deliver the vital intelligence to leaders and commands, what use would it be? Bletchley Park was not about flying spies into enemy territory. The un-sung heroism of those working behind the scenes lay in a subtler realm, but the codebreakers did manage to shorten the war by several months at least. Readers, be thankful for the glimpse into genuine genius: sparkling mathematical genius (like Turing or Welchman) as well as the other intellectual giants of the "dry administrative" field (like Sir F.H.Hinsley).

Essential reading to anyone interested in WWII Intelligence.

Fascinating eyewitness accounts from 29 individuals who were involved in the Bletchley Park code breaking efforts. These accounts range from somewhat technical accounts of code breaking by mathematicians and chess players, strategic analysis of "Ultra" and its effects on the outcome of the war to a report of working conditions by one of the many "Wrens" who had the mind numbing job of tending the code-breaking machinery. Absolutely essential reading to anyone interested in World War II Intelligence or Cryptography. -- Jim Bumgardner