Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939–1943

by David Kahn

Among the famous battles of World War II, the longest and most critical was the Battle of the Atlantic--the struggle between the American convoys bringing supplies to Britain and the German U-boats bent on severing that lifeline. No matter where else on earth conflicts raged, leaders on both sides understood that whoever won the Battle of the Atlantic would win the war. From the start, Germany had the advantage with the diabolically devised encryption machine known as Enigma. Breaking the Enigma codes became the singleminded obsession of a brilliant band of mathematicians, chess champions, and linguists who labored on behalf of the Allied cause behind closed doors at an English estate called Bletchley Park. In this book, cryptologist David Kahn recounts the story of the dramatic race between codemakers and codebreakers, focusing on the personalities involved, describing the at-sea captures of encryption keys that led to the Allied breakthrough, and depicting the enormous impact this information had on the most cataclysmic war in history. B&W photos.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Espionage, War, Military History, Military Fiction

418 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

A specialist on the history of cryptography and military intelligence, David Kahn worked as a reporter and op-ed editor for Newsday until his retirement in 1998, and was selected in 1995 as scholar-in-residence at the National Security Agency. Kahn earned a D.Phil in modern German history from Oxford University in 1974 under the supervision of the then-Regius professor of modern history, Hugh Trevor-Roper.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] · Rating 1 out of 5]

1-Star - "I Did Not Like It"
Seizing the Enigma - by David Kahn
Audiobook - 13:32 Hours - Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
Listened to: 03:22 Hours - Balance 10:10 Hours
It's no use! I cannot tolerate this any longer. The audio was produced in 1990 for cassettes.
The narrator's voice is pleasant, but his preferred reading style is not and I was distracted by continuous background noises of the microphone and/or his table being bumped!
DNF - Returned to Audible today.

From Reading Activity — May 30, 2021 12:15AM
Terence M is 11% done
Seizing the Enigma - by David Kahn
Audiobook - 13:32 Hours - Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
Listened to: 01:24 Hours - Balance 12:08 Hours
Much and all as I love books about Enigma, the first hour and half have been replete with overwhelming minutiae ... it seems that every single crew member of the Royal Navy and the German Navy has been described in excruciating detail ... it's too early for despair, but ...

[Richard Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive treatment of the subject I've seen. It focuses on the Battle of the Atlantic, which is undeniably the most important impact of this intelligence coup, but is otherwise fairly comprehensive. It starts with the code breaking of WWI, and the precedent of the code yield from wreck of the Magdeberg, and runs through the end of WWII, including vital contributions of Polish code breakers and French Intelligence, as well as American contributions and cooperation. It gives much clearer descriptions of a number of things, including a step-by-step setup of the machine, the continuous improvements by Germany and their effect on the allies. It describes additional levels of encryption used, and means taken to shorten messages (for speed, and to lessen chances of decryption) as well of subdivision of nets to reduce chances of decryption. It describes German enquiries into possible compromise and most importantly, successful seizures of keys, map grids and code wheels at sea. I came away with a vastly better understanding of the whole affair. There may be books as good, but I doubt that there are any better.

[Des · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is enjoyable and provides engaging insights into breaking the German U-boat codes.
Early chapters focus on the Enigma machine and how it was developed for its purpose, the code breakers of the interwar period and the scenarios of such endeavours.
The author goes to considerable length to put such events in a historical context, making it more readable and offering up his excellent analysis.
The conclusion reached is that the allies gained considerably from the early efforts of code-breaking, particularly those of the Polish military and intelligence about Enigma.
The narrative contains lots of detailed information about code breaking and technical explanations of how the German military implemented its code systems.
I found the discussion extremely interesting but I could not claim to fully understand the material presented.
The text is good historical storytelling relating to the wartime efforts to break the German naval codes and the efforts that were put into capturing Enigma’s intelligence sources.
The narrative was fascinating without being a triumphal war story. The conclusion was rather fascinating and well presented.
This is good war history that is very well written and easy to read.

[Lady Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

For reasons that I do not understand, I have always been fascinated by Bletchley Park and the race to break Enigma, the Nazi naval code. This book is an excellent discussion of the Battle of the Atlantic and the four-year project to crack the supposedly unbreakable Enigma.

There is a lot of detail that I could not follow, namely the explanations of how the British (building on stunning initial work done by Polish codebreakers before the war began) worked step by step to break the code and by the way, invent one of the first modern computers. This was done by men and women who were simply geniuses, especially compared to your humble reviewer. Unsurprisingly, the British were aided in their work by the Nazi's hubris. The Nazis were so convinced that Enigma could not be broken that they allowed lapses in security to go uncorrected. Even after the Royal Navy captured an Enigma machine, the Nazis would not believe it. It simply was not possible, in their mindset. (C.f., Titanic, sinking of)

My befuddlement with the nuts and bolts of code-breaking did not detract from my enjoyment of the story. The narrator did though. Once I figured out to raise the speed to 1.1x, it got better.

I am no expert on World War II, but there are some aspects of it that I do find interesting, and this book was a wonderful introduction to one of the most stunning code-breaking efforts in history.

Seizing the Enigma is free via the Audible Plus catalog.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

During World War II the Battle of the Atlantic was the longest and most critical to the outcome of the war. In the earlier years of the war the German U-Boats were stalking and sinking cargo ships trying to resupply England faster than the allies were able to build them. Pinpointing U-Boat locations was difficult, at best. They were in communication with the German high command to report ship sightings and locations. But these communications were encrypted using a very complex machine with codes that were changed often. Seizing The Enigma: The Race To Break The German U-boat Codes, 1939-1943 by David Kahn describes this machine in a fair amount of detail. As an engineer I found this description interesting but certainly would not be constructing my own machine any time soon. This was helpful in appreciating the efforts of the code breakers to figure out the key to Enigma. Help came whenever a U-Boat or enemy ship equipped with Enigma were captured, sometimes including the master code books before the crew could destroy them. This was a fascinating read about the monumental efforts to solve the codes and use them to locate U-Boats on patrol. This was the major turning point that allowed the allies to go from being hunted to being the hunters once they could locate and neutralize the German submarines and their crews faster than they could be replaced. The technical descriptions of how the codes were created by the Enigma were probably not that helpful to most readers but the main story of success is worth it.

[William Walker]

Great book, excellent history of WWII, focusing on the electro-mechanical-socio-political Battle of the Atlantic.

"We had a more pressing need than you." The Polish cryptanalysts' response to the British and French's astonishment at the Poles' incredible solutions to the German's Enigma machine.

[Dennis Mews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bletchley Park and all that

The book went into considerable technicalities which I skimmed a little bit. The overall momentum of the book was compelling, however, and I found it difficult to put down.

[Richard Marney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book for serious students of military history and WW II in particular. Much of the detail flew by me (too many UBoat numbers, tons of merchant shipping sunk, etc.) yet on the whole casual readers like me can grasp the importance of Ultra in the allied war effort and the challenges to hide the use of the Enigma from the Nazis. The author argues that the breaking of German codes did not win the war by itself but certainly shortened the length of the campaign to rid the world of the most evil regime in modern history.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The codebreaking exploits of the brilliant minds assembled at Bletchley Park in WWII are a fascinating topic that I'm always interested in reading about. Newer, more engaging books on the subject have been published since this one came out in 1991, but this was nevertheless a quite interesting read - though the narrator of the audio version certainly seemed to be trying his best to put me to sleep regardless...

[Jarrod · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the intelligence portion of how the battle of the Atlantic was won and how Bletchly Park rode their knowledge to break the German codes. There is great detail here especially with the math and routines of logic used to break the codes and put them to use. Really loved the thought process detail and learning more about how Turing's brilliance won the fight in intelligence.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing, I love reading about history and had thought that this book would be very intriguing and compelling to say the least. I was way off the mark on this one. I'm not sure if it was the author's writing style or what the problem was but I just thought it was very dry. It was certainly informative, however I really struggled to finish it which I found to be highly unusual given my interest in history of all sorts.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

worth it. Covers raiding German ships and stealing keys and enigma machine parts as well as the genious breakthroughs in codebreaking tedious codebreaking back at Bletchley Park (B.P.).

This delivers many interesting computer security tidbits. For example, the codebreakers at B.P. found that some messages were sent out both under the enigma cipher and under a more easily breakable maritime cipher. The plaintext that resulted from the maritime cipher helped them derive the keys for the enigma. At times, they wanted to trigger the transmission of these doubled up messages (called kisses at B.P.) so they would have the British navy do things like lay mines that they knew would trigger the doubled transmissions.

Will remind everyone of Cryptonomicon.

[Patrick Belair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. It has alot of detail to digest.Turns out this chapter on the war was so important that most people don't realize.Could we have won with out cracking the enigma, it surely would have been alot more difficult.All history and ww2 buffs should check out this book, you won't be disappointed.

[Ferguson Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love historical events like this.
Boats and historical events are what make me love reading. Could you please share the sequel books of your series?

In fact, even though I started reading very late, I'm getting more and more immersed every day.

It is a great chance to read the books of important authors. I know that. I'm looking forward to your new books.

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[Luke Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now you'd think book about stealing German Enigma machines, cracking the Nazi's code, defeating the Third Reich would be kind of exciting right? And if we were talking about movies like U-571 or The Imitation Game I'd probably agree with you. This book.... not so much. Yes, it is a very thorough and well researched book but I had to struggle to get through it there was so many information that I didn't find relevant that it was pretty tough. Part of the reason for that is there's no "main character" if you will. Sure there's people in it but it's maybe a spy for a chapter, then it moves on to a British Sea Lord or somebody, then it's Alan Turing. But in each of these cases about the only description we get about the people themselves is their hair color. I kinda felt bad for Turing since the only description of him we really get is a list of his quirks and a few foibles. The author does have the tact to leave out his homosexuality but hardly anything is said about his strengths. As you may have assumed I am an American and this book is very British and thus the author and I have differing views on the war. The Americans don't show up until chapter 19 if I recall correctly and aren't given much acknowledgement until the conclusion where the author basically says how important reading the Enigma messages were to winning the war, and yet the war would no doubt be won anyway because America was building more ships than the German's could destroy. I would disagree. I would say it was the American fighting spirit that fought the Nazi's out of Africa and through Europe (while at the same time island hopping through the Pacific fighting the Japanese) that won the war. The author seems to forget about Dunkirk and how close England came to being invaded. According to the author another main factor in Germany's defeat was because America and England believed in the rule of law, and everyone in Hitler's army was just trying to get in his good graces.

Other parts I didn't enjoy about the book was how the author talked about the British had boats named for all the lands and peoples they controlled under their Empire. Yes this is true historically but what a dick move on the part Brits. Yes it would be several generations before Apartheid but this book was published in 1991 I believe, which is after and the author isn't going to say anything about it? This was a whole fleet of ships named for the peoples they were oppressing around the world. I also found it downright sexist the way the author quotes a man who worked with the W.A.V.E.S. and is quoted as saying he worked with a lot of pretty girls and a lot of fancy machines. Let us not forget W.A.V.E.S. is an acronym for Women "Allowed" for Volunteered Emergency Service. The author seems to have very little concept that women wanted to do their part and were often lonely during the war because the men in their lives were away fighting.

So even despite all the interesting facts and pages of information it's that kind of egotism and arrogance that made this book so hard for me.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of the famous German Enigma code machine, as used by the Third Reich before and during the Second World War. Kahn relates the history of the machine as well as techniques and trends in cryptology--codes and codebreaking--starting around the turn of the 20th century. The story follows a several groups of cryptologists and mathematicians who were up against the most advanced cipher creator in history up to that point.

In the past, secret codes had been constructed using more or less simple word and letter replacement techniques. An elementary example of a coding technique would be to assign each letter in the alphabet to some other letter (A= R, B = M, C = E, and so on). A message could then be enciphered using this alternate alphabet, called a cipher key, and deciphered using the same key by the message recipient. This method had many flaws, however, and was easily cracked using rudimentary statistical and linguistic techniques. Even more advanced ways of coding messages still fell back on this basic premise. The Enigma machine, however, used a combination of mechanical and electrical elements to create ciphers that were, ostensibly, unbreakable. These elements have been calculated to provide a military-grade Enigma machine, as used on German U-boats in WW2, with about 156 quintillion possible code cipher combinations. That is what Polish and British (and to a lesser extent American) cryptologists were up against as they sought to break German codes during the war. The story of how they both failed and succeeded, and the accompanying tales including battles, high-stakes raids, military and political hubris, and determination makes for a rewarding read.

The book is extremely detailed and well-researched. The mathematical parts, and the technical descriptions of the working of the machine, is difficult for a layperson like me to follow, but still highly interesting. One of the highlights of my reading so far this year.

[Blake Brashear · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look into the world of codes and code breaking. Mostly focused on the submarine warfare of the Atlantic and the allies efforts to break the enigma. A couple of times the enigma as actually captured, but without additional key paperwork. they were essentially useless, as the allies had already replicated the circuitry of the enigma. There was a significant amount of technical detail in this book. Since I listened to the audiobook, this title may be better suited in written format if it has technical drawings or diagrams to better understand the inner workings of the enigma and various other machines involved in the codebreaking. Overall an interesting view into the British efforts to break the codes of the German war machine. I found this a good compliment to Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War IICode Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II if one is interesting in the cryptology efforts during WWII. That book mentioned the enigma, but was mostly focused on the US' efforts to crack the Japanese code and the battle of the Pacific. Very much similar in the allies efforts. If you've read one, the other is also worth reading.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that combines many of my interests. WWII, Bletchley Park, cryptography and submarine warfare.

The are many books on the cracking of the German enigma code but we forget that the code could only be broken by brute force which was automated and assisted by intelligence that had been gathered from captured German ships and submarines. This book details how German code books and rotor setting books were captured.

If you are only interested in cryptography there are lots of lessons to be learnt from this book especially of the danger of reusing keys and mistakes where messages transmitted multiple times by different methods and repetitive messages who’s content could be guessed.

If you are interested of the work of Bletchley Park code breakers there is a lot of interesting details about the organisation of the work and the personalities who worked there.

An interesting detail often overlooked was that the British naval codes were being routinely read by the Germans and often many of the same mistakes that were made on the German side which lead the codes to be broken were repeated by the British.

[Bruce Cline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seizing the Enigma, The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939-1943, by David Kahn (2012, 11.5 hrs audiobook). Containing more detail about Enigma (the German ingenious cryptography machine) than I’ve previously read, I gained a much better understanding of the multi-year, multi-national effort to crack German naval codes. The effort was monumental and stunning in complexity. I’d always thought the capture of an enigma machine from a U-Boat in 1941 was critical to this effort, but that does not seem to be the case. The Polish army had an enigma machine in the late 1930s, and eventually shared it. While hardware was important, the individual and collective brainpower of cryptologists when added to captured machines and code books made the difference. And, the fact that Germany believed their system was impregnable, despite suspicion and some evidence to the contrary, doomed them. Interestingly, the author refuted others’ claims that breaking the U-Boat codes was the most critical element of winning the war of the Atlantic. He does agree that it probably saved lives and costly time, but believes the Allies would have prevailed regardless. Loved the book.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting

I have wanted to know more about Enigma and cracking the codes during WWII, but this book was not what I expected. Like most things, there is a lot more to the story than appears at first glance! I expected for the focus to be in Bletchley Park, where all the codebreakers were… instead, it was mostly set at sea, aboard ships and submarines. It was through these battles that the Allies were able to literally seize an Enigma machine, and ultimately all the related devices and keys needed to operate them. It went beyond equipment, as they tried to turn up code books and important papers in office quarters, and even the pockets of newly captured prisoners of war. This was all the stuff Bletchley needed to do their work. As a result, there was more about battles than usually interests me, so my wind would wander, and I missed some details. The narration wasn’t terrible, but I wish it had kept my attention more. Plenty of detail here for those who want to understand the actual devices and codes.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

During World War II the Battle of the Atlantic between U Boats and cargo ships was the longest and most critical to the outcome of the war. In the earlier years of the war the German U-Boats were stalking and sinking cargo ships trying to resupply England faster than the allies were able to build them and it was imperative that the Allis break the German code to turn that tide.

This is the story of the race between Polish, French and British codebreakers to solve the German Enigma code. It focusing on the personalities involved and their efforts starting in the 1920's that led to the Allied breakthrough ending with the impact this information had on the Battle of the Atlantic.

There is a lot of technical details regarding the operations of the enigma machine. There is a greater focus upon these technical aspects of both machines and individual efforts than on how breaking the code helped win the Battle of the Atlantic.

[Rusty Kehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sequence

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the progression of events in the deciphering of Enigma. Before reading of the book I was unaware of the capturing of the weather ships, brilliant insight on this action. I would have gladly given this book 5 stars except for one issue. I found that I was at a loss when it came to how Enigma worked and the early verbal description only confused me more. I would have preferred that the information within the Appendix would have been presented first or interwoven within the book; or perhaps, a note to reference a particular location. Part of the issue may be that my book is digital. However, that issue did not dampen my appreciation for the information shared, there was no doubt a great deal of information that went into preparing this book. Thank you, Mr. Kahn.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I am constantly surprised about things I didn’t know. You don’t hear much about the battle of the Atlantic, but apparently that was most important to win if we were to win the war. The Germans had a stranglehold on shipping and supplies, so nothing was getting through.

I had no idea they were so close to North America that some ships were even destroyed in the St. Lawrence River. What a story! What bravery and derring do. We could all be speaking German now if not for these brave, intelligent, and spunky men and women who worked hard to break the codes, had hunches, paid attention, attacked subs and got the equipment and secret keys and codes at peril to their lives.

WWII buffs...you should definitely read

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best book I've read on the code breakers of World War 2 as it directly relates the impact of their work to U boat destruction and the increase in cargo across the Atlantic. This brings the book alive compared to others I have read on the subject. It also describes the seizure of vitally important code books from Nazi weather ships in the North Sea and from captured German submarines. Some of these seizures required great courage on the part of the British sailors who went on board the sinking sub to gather code books and where possible the Enigma code machine including in one instance where the two British Naval Officers didn't get out in time and went down into the depths of the Atlantic with sinking sub.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this but the many explanations of exactly how the Enigma variations worked are extremely technical and dense. The story is fascinating but the use of so much technical data and detail made it hard to concentrate on the events.
There are some very good parts of the book and Mr. Kahn's research and grasp of the subject are incomparable. (He is considered a - if not the - leading cryptography historian.) His descriptions of the major players, their individual personalities and the effects of those personalities on decisions were excellent.
If you have a somewhat mathematical mind and are able to visualize how the inner workings of machines work, you might fare far better than I.
(Disclaimer: David Kahn is my second cousin.)

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reporting of history.

An excellent reporting of history. I knew of the Enigma and Allied successes in breaking the German and Japanese codes. I did not understand the mechanizations of Enigma or the strategies used to break the codes. I found this interesting, but got bogged down some by rotors, voltage connections, and such. I do believe breaking the German and Japanese codes helped the Allies win WWII, but it’s importance does not compare with American manufacturing might, Russian doggedness, and British naval power. The strategies and equipment used by the code breakers were the genesis of computers and computer programming. That is perhaps their greatest contribution.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely good historical account of how the enigma machine came to be and how the code was broken over the time it was used. I was empressed on the way the writer captured the factual and historical information in such a way as to capture my attention. He even had me on 'the edge of my seat' in one of the later chapters, at least as much as a historical book could. Kahn also evenly brings in the contributions that many women had in helping break the codes, not just as one or two mentions, but a continuous showing of individuals, which is impressive during this era of history. Overall, a great read for those into cryptanalysis, WWII or submarine warefare.

[Cole Lancaster · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've discovered reading war books helps me fall asleep. They aren't too absorbing like a thriller that I stay up late reading, and they aren't too dense that I forget everything I read as I progressively tire. This book belonged to my Grandfather's library. I feel the second half needs a revamping. At first the stories about stealing enigma codes engage. After about 20 it drags on a bit. Having said that, the book is interesting for the historical detail. It is also interesting to see the hubris of man. It seemed everyone had broken each others codes at some point. Each inquiry resulted in the conclusion, "No one could break OUR codes!"

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read several books on Enigma, but I added this one because I thought from the title that there would be more about the actual seizing of the Enigma device and codes from the U-110, but that proved not to be true. It was as if there was a major lead-up to it, it happened, and then poof, they went on to other things. I guess in the end, it wasn't as big as they had hoped. The trouble is I am not good at understanding all the finer points at how the device worked. I realize it was a brilliant piece of work by many, but at this point I am slightly disappointed. I thought I would add to my knowledge, but I didn't really. 3.5 stars rounded up.

[Philippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book which unfortunately due to the volume of detail had me glossing over parts of it. I did find the writing a little confusing too due to the constant back and forth in the timeline as the author endeavoured to explain the various methods used to decipher the various codes employed leading up to and including the Second World War. He comments that the breaking of the codes used by the Germans in their Enigma machines resulted in the war being shortened by perhaps two years and saving many lives, both Allied and German but that the Allies would have won the war regardless. Certainly worth reading if you have an interest in codes and mathematics!