Brute Force (book)

Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War (published 1990) is a book by historian John Ellis which concludes that the Allied Forces won World War II not by the skill of their leaders, war planners and commanders in the field, but by brute force (which he describes as advantages in firepower and logistics).

Ellis describes what he feels are poor decisions by the Allied High Command with regards to such things as employment of weapons systems or misuses of their overwhelming advantage in manpower. Among his criticisms are the use of armor in North Africa, the Soviet Union's use of manpower, wasteful bombing strategies (RAF Marshal Sir Arthur Harris' area bombing in particular), and the failure to target Japanese shipping lanes. He also points out the similarities between World War II generals like Bernard Law Montgomery and World War I generals like Douglas Haig (in particular, the cautious method both men used to plan battles). The book is noted for its extensive use of statistical background information.

Brute force

Brute force may refer to:

In media and entertainment:

Brute Force (musician)

Stephen Friedland (born September 29, 1940), known as Brute Force ® , is an American singer and songwriter. He wrote and performed with The Tokens in the 1960s and wrote songs for Peggy March, Del Shannon, The Chiffons and The Cyrkle, and others.

He wrote and recorded the LP I, Brute Force – Confections of Love for Columbia Records in 1967. One song on the album, "No Olympian Height", was covered by The Other Voices (produced by Ellie Greenwich and Mike Rashkow) and released on Atlantic Records in 1968. He also recorded and released the album Extemporaneous on BT Puppy Records in 1970. Original copies of this album are scarce and it is now a very collectible disc.

In July 1968 he and friend, Ben Schlossberg Jr., participated in an expedition to swim from Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska to Siberia, 50 miles across the Bering Strait. They made it halfway, stopping between Big Diomede and Little Diomede Islands.( Life Magazine, September 1968. The Scene/Wales, Alaska, Cold Swim From Here to Tuesday, by John Frook)

Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard

Brute Force (2005, Copernicus Books) is a book by Matt Curtin about cryptography.

In this book, the author accounts his involvement in the DESCHALL Project, mobilizing thousands of personal computers in 1997 in order to meet the challenge to crack a single message encrypted with DES.

This was and remains one of the largest collaborations of any kind on a single project in history.

The message was unencrypted on June 18 and was found to be "Strong cryptography makes the world a safer place."

This is also the message of Matt's book. He uses a personal account and a compelling story to reveal to the uninitiated reader some insight into a topic of growing importance which is known for being quite complicated both technically and politically.

See also