xii, 403 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : 24 cm

"It is now well known that the breaking of the German Enigma code played a crucial part in the outcome of the Second World War. Churchill referred to the Bletchley Park code-breakers as the geese who layed golden eggs and never cackled." "But breaking Enigma was not just about brilliant mathematicians and professors at Bletchley Park. Bletchley's codebreaking stars such as Alan Turning and Harry Hinsley certainly made an outstanding contribution. But a much wider group was also involved: men such as Hans Thilo Schmidt, the German who gave the Allies their first clues on how to break Enigma, and Lieutenant Tony Fasson, who captured Enigma codebooks from a German U-boat - one of many heroic but hitherto unknown British and American sailors without whose bravery Enigma would never have been broken." "To break Enigma, and particularly the all-important Naval Enigma code, the codebreakers had to rely on the daring exploits of secret agents and spies, naval officers and ordinary seamen who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives snatching the Enigma codebooks from under the noses of Nazi officials and from sinking German ships and submarines." "Using new material from British and American archives, and interviews with some of the last surviving witnesses to the Enigma saga, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore can at last tell the true story of how the Naval Enigma code was broken."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references (pages 390-392) and index

"Breaking of the German Enigma code played a crucial part in the outcome of the Second World War ... But breaking Enigma was not just about brilliant mathematicians and professors at Bletchley Park ... a much wider group was also involved ... To break Enigma, and particularly the all-important Naval Enigma code, the codebreakers had to rely on the daring exploits of secret agents and spies, naval officers and ordinary seamen who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives snatching the Enigma codebooks from under the noses of Nazi officials and from sinking German ships and submarines" -- Jacket

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews