Code Breakers

by Craig Collie

At the height of World War II in the Pacific, two secret organisations existed in Australia to break Japan's military codes. They were peopled by brilliant and idiosyncratic cryptographers, including some with achievements in mathematics and the Classics and others who had lived or grown up in Japan. These men patiently and carefully unravelled the codes in Japanese signals, ultimately playing a crucial role in the battles of Midway and the Coral Sea, as well as Macarthur's push into the Philippines. An intercept station in the Queensland bush brought about the end of Admiral Yamamoto.

But this is more than a story of codes. It is an extraordinary exploration of a unique group of men and their intense personal rivalries and loathing, of white-anting and taking credit for others' achievements. It is also the story of a fierce inter-national and inter-service political battle for control of war-changing intelligence between a group of cryptographers based at the Monterey apartment block in Melbourne's Albert Park and General MacArthur's counter group that eventually established its headquarters in suburban Brisbane. What happened between these two groups would have consequences for intelligence services in the years to follow.

Code Breakers brings this surprising and very secret world and the men who operated in it to rich life for the first time.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Australia

407 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 29, 2017

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review originally published at Book of Bogan.

Code Breakers by Craig Collie is the story of the Australian efforts in World War 2 to spy on the Japanese military through the use of radio interception and code-breaking. Working alongside, and not infrequently, in opposition to, the Americans and British who were making similar efforts at places such as Bletchley Park.

I am fascinated that even after more than 70 years, there are still new stories emerging from the shadows of secrecy which covered a lot of this kind of work. There have been numerous books written, and movies made about the work at Bletchley Park, but I was unaware of the role that Australia had in intercepting and breaking the codes which contributed so heavily to winning the war. A large portion of the book takes place in my home town of Brisbane, but like many stories, it seems to have fallen by the wayside over the years.

Code Breakers is not a technical manual on code breaking, by any means, and does not allow itself to be bogged down in the nitty gritty of mathematics. Instead, it is the story of the people who were doing the work, in Australia, and on the ground in various jungles of the South Pacific - and various other countries. While reading the story of the competitive nature of the units who were working on the codes, it is somewhat astounding that anyone managed to do anything constructive. Whether it was inter-service rivalry between the army and the navy, or between the various allied countries, everyone wanted to claim credit, and no one wanted to share their toys with the other children.

This is a very readable book, and should be of interest to anyone with an interest in the history of code breaking, or Australia's involvement in the Second World War. I am looking forward to reading more books by this author.

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fascinating learning the truth behind events whose falsehoods still live in the public consciousness despite the veil of secrecy being lifted.

These moments of insight were interspersed between accounts of events that read more like an obituary to the code breakers; or simply an entry on a punchcard, citing people and places with no real story development.

With this focus on people and places, it was inevitably a challenge at times to remember who was who − it was only upon finishing the book that I encountered the pages with photos of the people and places mentioned. Consequently, this has a good chance of being the last book I read on Kindle. There were sometimes maps of the battles, but flicking back and forth multiple pages on the Kindle is not as practical as it is for paper.

The book would interest those who are suspicious that the role of spies and code-breakers in modern history hasn't been given sufficient credit.

[Mark Clarkson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a fascinating look at whzt went on in the background before and during WW2. It's been a while since I have read a book that I just had to finish

[Geoff Cumberbeach · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fly-on-the-wall book, opening up what happened in Australia during WWII, especially concentrating on the code breaking of Japanese messages during the war in the Pacific.
While on a trip to the UK, I finished Alan Turing's biography and I visited Bletchley Park. It was fascinating to walk through history and view the exhibits. It really brought it alive.
I had no idea that a similar code breaking effort had happened right here in Australia. 'Code Breakers' has been in my 'to read' pile since it came out. Then a friend at U3A (University of the 3rd Age) commented there was a WWII museum in Brisbane. A visit to the 'MacArthur Museum', started me on another adventure into history. Now I have completed 'Code Breakers', I have a more complete picture of WWII happenings in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Pacific.
It is an easy book to read book describing warts and all. It was illuminating hearing the infighting, the competition within and between groups. It takes astute leaders to decide what action to take with incomplete and conflicting information.
We even have an Australian hero, Eric Nave, he had a background in the navy, knowledge of Japanese and skill on code breaking. In Collie's words "Newcomers to the Bureau marvelled at Nave's instinct for codes and his knack for inferring message content from partial decrypts."
An excellent, illuminating book, thank you Craig Collie.

[Nishant Pappireddi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on all Allied codebreaking efforts against Japan.