Enigma: The Battle for the Code
by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hugh Sebag-MontefioreEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-02-12
ISBN: 0471490350
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Wiley
Book Reviews of Enigma: The Battle for the Code
Book Review: Superb report on the Enigma machine, its codes and the cost of obtaining them
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a great interest in the Battle of the Atlantic part of World War Two. My expectation was that this book would shed important light on how that part of the war was fought and I was not disappointed. The book is very richly researched with a full and easy to follow footnote section at the back. For those who are interested in following the complexities on how the Enigma machines worked there are fascinating chapters at the end of the book where one can read at length and in depth.
Several things struck me about this book. One was how irregular, sporadic and fragmented were the efforts of the math whizzes at Bletchley Park. This was not their fault but was a product both of how complex the puzzle was to unwrap (before the age of computers)and how difficult each new twist and turn of changes to the wheels in the machine were to unravel. On top of this there were several types of Enigma languages to consider. One for the Army and a more complex one for the German Navy. There were sub codes that the weather stations would use and others that the Officers of certain rank would use. Another fact that was of interest was the often odd way that the code breakers went about recruiting brilliant and young people into a program that was super secret. We also learn that a few very capable women were involved.....what is clear is that because of the extreme nature of the needs (to break the codes as fast as possible) the "old boys" club attitudes towards excluding women or men with many years of experience was thrown out in favor of accepting anyone who could help and was not a security risk.
That last point has a reference to the very tragic story of the best of the brightest, Alan Turing. He WAS considered a security risk and not because he was very eccentric. He was thought of as a danger because he was a somewhat open homosexual. I know, to our minds in the 21'st century it sounds absurd, but his fate after the war was extraordinarily cruel and unjust. I won't ruin the story because it should be read; but I will say that the injustice done to him was an ugly throwback to the Victorian Era sexual ethos that destroyed the likes of Oscar Wilde.
A big surprise for me was learning that the code breakers had to make the same type of terrible decision to withhold releasing code intercepts to their own Navy out of a fear of another successful sorti or diversion for the Navy. The fear was that too many successes back to back would tip the German High Command off to the fact that their codes had been breached. This, it was feared, would motivate the Germans to complicate the codes even more, thus putting the Brits right back into the dark again. What this meant in the real world is that on certain occassions, the British Navy either was attacked and some of its sailors lost or else in a mirror way, some U-boats or other German ships were allowed to get away, all again to protect that secret. This is a parallel conundrum that Churchill had to face when deciding whether he should evacuate Coventry. He knew that the Luftwaffe was coming and would decimate the city. Should he evacuate the citizens and thus alert the Germans that they had prior knowledge? He chose to not evacutate them and many died as a result. A terrible choice to make and the Bletchley Park people, working with Churchill, made similar choices. This was really chilling to read.
There are other stories here in the book that talk about how the Polish teams were the first to crack early variations of Enigma even before the expected war broke out. We learn of spies and the price they paid for their craft. We learn of how very dangerous it was for the Allied sailors when they attempted to climb down into a U-boat that had been captured. The book is full of so many stories that you do not loose your interest from beginning to the end. A really great example of thorough, insightful and penetrating research. I loved it.
Summary of Enigma: The Battle for the Code
ACCLAIM FOR ENIGMA?CRACKING STUFF?VIVID AND HITHERTO UNKNOWN DETAILS.? ?Sunday Times (London)
?IN A CROWD OF BOOKS DEALING WITH THE ALLIED BREAKING OF THE WORLD WAR II CIPHER MACHINE ENIGMA, HUGH SEBAG-MONTEFIORE HAS SCORED A SCOOP.? ?Washington Post
Winston Churchill called the cracking of the German Enigma Code ?the secret weapon that won the war.? Now, for the first time, noted British journalist Hugh-Sebag-Montefiore reveals the complete story of the breaking of the code by the Allies?the breaking that played a crucial role in the outcome of World War II.
This fascinating account relates the never-before-told, hair-raising stories of the heroic British and American sailors, spies, and secret agents who faced death in order to capture vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi officials. Sebag-Montefiore also relates new details about the genesis of the code, little-known facts about how the Poles first cracked the Luftwaffe?s version of the code (and then passed it along to the British), and the feverish activities at Bletchley Park, Based in part on documents recently unearthed from American and British archives?including previously confidential government files?and in part on unforgettable, firsthand accounts of surviving witnesses, Enigma unearths the stunning truth about the brilliant piece of decryption that changed history.
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