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Enigma - Battle For The Code
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—a breakthrough 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. The author 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, where the day-to-day grind to decode Enigma went on. Based in part on documents from British and American archives that have only recently been unearthed or made available, and in part on unforgettable firsthand accounts of surviving witnesses, Enigma tells the stunning truth about the brilliant piece of decryption that changed history.Hugh Sebag-Montefiore is an attorney and journalist who has written for numerous British newspapers. His family owned Bletchley Park before it was sold to the British government in 1937. He is the author of Fight to the Last Man.
422 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2000
173 people are currently reading
1475 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
13 books43 followersHugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and historian. He has written for the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Independent on Sunday, and Mail On Sunday. His first book Kings On The Catwalk: The Louis Vuitton and Moët-Hennessy Affair was published in 1992.
Bletchley Park, the backdrop to much of the action in his first history book Enigma: The Battle For The Code (published in 2000), used to be owned by Hugh’s great great grandfather, Sir Herbert Leon. Hugh’s father, Stephen, used to stay at Bletchley Park every Christmas, at a time when the house was humming with servants, and when the garden was tended by no less than forty gardeners. During the run up to the 70th anniversary of the capture of the Enigma codebooks from German U-boat U-110, Hugh was commissioned by Bletchley Park to supply the text and photos for an exhibition describing the capture.
The location for the climax of his next book, Dunkirk: Fight To The Last Man (published in 2006), also summoned up forgotten memories within Hugh’s family. His cousin Denzil Sebag-Montefiore lost his precious ivory backed hair brushes engraved, with his initials, which had to be thrown into the sea at Dunkirk, along with other heavy items in his backpack, so that he would be more buoyant. He eventually made it back to England, after being heaved into one of the boats ferrying British soldiers out to the larger ships waiting off shore. Another cousin, Basil Jaffé, passed the time waiting to be rescued from the shallows near one of the Dunkirk beaches by reading his miniature edition of Shakespeare’s plays.
Hugh’s next book will tell the story of another great British military enterprise: the 1916 Battle of the Somme. It is to be published by Penguin in July 2016, at the beginning of the Somme centenary.
From http://www.hughsebagmontefiore.com/th...
Bletchley Park, the backdrop to much of the action in his first history book Enigma: The Battle For The Code (published in 2000), used to be owned by Hugh’s great great grandfather, Sir Herbert Leon. Hugh’s father, Stephen, used to stay at Bletchley Park every Christmas, at a time when the house was humming with servants, and when the garden was tended by no less than forty gardeners. During the run up to the 70th anniversary of the capture of the Enigma codebooks from German U-boat U-110, Hugh was commissioned by Bletchley Park to supply the text and photos for an exhibition describing the capture.
The location for the climax of his next book, Dunkirk: Fight To The Last Man (published in 2006), also summoned up forgotten memories within Hugh’s family. His cousin Denzil Sebag-Montefiore lost his precious ivory backed hair brushes engraved, with his initials, which had to be thrown into the sea at Dunkirk, along with other heavy items in his backpack, so that he would be more buoyant. He eventually made it back to England, after being heaved into one of the boats ferrying British soldiers out to the larger ships waiting off shore. Another cousin, Basil Jaffé, passed the time waiting to be rescued from the shallows near one of the Dunkirk beaches by reading his miniature edition of Shakespeare’s plays.
Hugh’s next book will tell the story of another great British military enterprise: the 1916 Battle of the Somme. It is to be published by Penguin in July 2016, at the beginning of the Somme centenary.
From http://www.hughsebagmontefiore.com/th...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
January 5, 2013
Gripping.
High seas derring-do.
Counter-espionage.
North Atlantic U-boat wolfpacks.
bombes, cillis, Banburisms, cribs, bigram tables, rodding, Verfahrenkenngruppe.
Top Secret.
Dolphin and Shark Nets.
Depth charges.
Machine-gun the conning towers.
Manly.
Forced boarding parties.
Cryptology geniuses.
Disappearing codebook ink.
Winston Churchill.
The Enigma Machine.
Gripping.
This is how you write non-fiction. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, Enigma: The Battle for the Code
During WWII my grandfather was playing professional baseball for the Washington Senators, turned away from the Army in 1939 because he was deaf in one ear. My other grandfather was an assistant production foreman at a small textile manufacturing plant in rural Kentucky, one old Ford truck in the entire family. My more distant relatives were farmers and small shop keepers, seamstresses and construction laborers. They mostly missed WWII (except on the home front). Instead, we took our hits in the wars in Korea and Vietnam, and more recently--currently--in Iraq and Afghanistan.
My family lost no one in WWII. So is that why I find the history so compelling, as if I had to learn about WWII because we didn’t make the human sacrifice? No. It’s because it was the last global military war where multiple, national uniformed combatants met on battlefields and mostly followed the Laws of Armed Conflict. (Not to be confused with the flippant attribution of the word ‘War,’ as in the Global War on Terrorism, or Cyberwar, Information Warfare, the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, etc.) WWII was epic; it was coruscating; it was national mobilization; it was rubber and copper drives; it occurred on land, in air, and on the sea in equal installments; it happened north of the Arctic, under the Atlantic, in Burma’s jungles, and on the North African desert. There were masters of the Panzer, the Spitfire, and the U-boat, each with a name and tactics and a legacy that resonate today. It was a unified global experience.
Enigma: The Battle for the Code takes a pause from the European battlespace to investigate Allied naval codebreaking, one of so many unheralded civilian components that played a critical supporting role to Allied combatant maneuver on the surface. The book specifically chronicles the decrypting of German U-boat Enigma, from the early 1930’s to Allies feet-dry at Omaha beach. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore synthesizes the best and most pertinent alchemy from the several books about the Enigma Machine written since the codebreaking techniques and human story were first revealed in the 1980’s. He especially details the pre-Weimar Enigma settings broken by the Polish since 1932, and how that small, genius team set the stage for a hard-won, but eventual process that allowed the Bletchley Park contingent to break code, down from a month, to a week, and eventually to the same day U-boats were receiving kill orders from Higher Headquarters. The drama builds through 1942 as the Allies were losing up to 500,000 tonnes of shipping per month, defenseless against the swarming Nazi wolfpack. Enigma code morphed over time. Additionally, German U-boat commanders had the Special Naval Offizier Enigma wheel & plugboard settings, which was basically a trillion-to-one code within a trillion-to-one code. The Allies were making little headway until they, ahem, went on the offense...
The best part of this book, however, is in the Appendix. It’s the single best Appendix I’ve ever seen in a book about war. The Appendix receives 5 solid stars. In six parts, it outlines with illustrations the actual techniques that reverse-engineered the Enigma Machine, and it does so in such fine detail that the armchair cryptologist and mathematician in all of us will slather over the words and graphs. That a group of recent college math grads could be sequestered in a Top Secret compound in a beautiful, rural, British hamlet and break the impossible Enigma code using chalk, paper, scissors, and a few electricity machines--and that the code was deciphered and passed on a hot line directly to Winston Churchill--and that, until the code was broken, the Allies almost ceased the desperately-needed North Atlantic supply route from America--THAT is the unsung keystone to the Allies victory in Europe! In fact, it now appears that the date of Operation Overlord, 6 June 1944, was contingent, among other factors, on the emergency debrief of a double-agent working Enigma and Special Op’d out of occupied France. The debrief occurred 4 June, and green light given on 5 June. The debrief had to determine if Enigma passed Overlord launch times to the U-boats. How’s that for a nugget of world history?
And then the rest of the book is peppered with stories (and the rare, declassified pictures) of the dashing British seaman who dared to jump aboard German U-boats driven to the surface by depth charges. Jumping onto the conning towers at night in rough seas and high gale to fight their way into booby-trapped submarines to grab the cribs, bigram tables, and Enigma machines before they were destroyed...before they were themselves destroyed! Under persecution of death, all things Enigma were to be destroyed by the U-boat crew in case of possible boarding by the enemy. It was a clutch race to destroy The Machine or capture The Machine. Many men died grappling along surfaced U-boats in order to get the Bletchley Park team the absolutely essential--and equally elusive--clues to last month’s codes, just to have a chance to reverse engineer this month’s code. The men who were still clawing in the claustrophobic dark, as the coping of the conning towers peacefully slipped below the surface--the U-boat immediately rushing full of cold Atlantic waters--died an unbelievably lonely death, and their families were made aware that their loved ones were merely ‘BY NAVAL ORDER. TRANSMIT. LOST AT SEA. STOP.’
This book is a great angle to the WWII saga. The writing is an engaging page-turner. It’s written like fiction. The book stays with you--probably a characteristic that is often overlooked when rating books.
High seas derring-do.
Counter-espionage.
North Atlantic U-boat wolfpacks.
bombes, cillis, Banburisms, cribs, bigram tables, rodding, Verfahrenkenngruppe.
Top Secret.
Dolphin and Shark Nets.
Depth charges.
Machine-gun the conning towers.
Manly.
Forced boarding parties.
Cryptology geniuses.
Disappearing codebook ink.
Winston Churchill.
The Enigma Machine.
Gripping.
This is how you write non-fiction. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, Enigma: The Battle for the Code
During WWII my grandfather was playing professional baseball for the Washington Senators, turned away from the Army in 1939 because he was deaf in one ear. My other grandfather was an assistant production foreman at a small textile manufacturing plant in rural Kentucky, one old Ford truck in the entire family. My more distant relatives were farmers and small shop keepers, seamstresses and construction laborers. They mostly missed WWII (except on the home front). Instead, we took our hits in the wars in Korea and Vietnam, and more recently--currently--in Iraq and Afghanistan.
My family lost no one in WWII. So is that why I find the history so compelling, as if I had to learn about WWII because we didn’t make the human sacrifice? No. It’s because it was the last global military war where multiple, national uniformed combatants met on battlefields and mostly followed the Laws of Armed Conflict. (Not to be confused with the flippant attribution of the word ‘War,’ as in the Global War on Terrorism, or Cyberwar, Information Warfare, the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, etc.) WWII was epic; it was coruscating; it was national mobilization; it was rubber and copper drives; it occurred on land, in air, and on the sea in equal installments; it happened north of the Arctic, under the Atlantic, in Burma’s jungles, and on the North African desert. There were masters of the Panzer, the Spitfire, and the U-boat, each with a name and tactics and a legacy that resonate today. It was a unified global experience.
Enigma: The Battle for the Code takes a pause from the European battlespace to investigate Allied naval codebreaking, one of so many unheralded civilian components that played a critical supporting role to Allied combatant maneuver on the surface. The book specifically chronicles the decrypting of German U-boat Enigma, from the early 1930’s to Allies feet-dry at Omaha beach. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore synthesizes the best and most pertinent alchemy from the several books about the Enigma Machine written since the codebreaking techniques and human story were first revealed in the 1980’s. He especially details the pre-Weimar Enigma settings broken by the Polish since 1932, and how that small, genius team set the stage for a hard-won, but eventual process that allowed the Bletchley Park contingent to break code, down from a month, to a week, and eventually to the same day U-boats were receiving kill orders from Higher Headquarters. The drama builds through 1942 as the Allies were losing up to 500,000 tonnes of shipping per month, defenseless against the swarming Nazi wolfpack. Enigma code morphed over time. Additionally, German U-boat commanders had the Special Naval Offizier Enigma wheel & plugboard settings, which was basically a trillion-to-one code within a trillion-to-one code. The Allies were making little headway until they, ahem, went on the offense...
The best part of this book, however, is in the Appendix. It’s the single best Appendix I’ve ever seen in a book about war. The Appendix receives 5 solid stars. In six parts, it outlines with illustrations the actual techniques that reverse-engineered the Enigma Machine, and it does so in such fine detail that the armchair cryptologist and mathematician in all of us will slather over the words and graphs. That a group of recent college math grads could be sequestered in a Top Secret compound in a beautiful, rural, British hamlet and break the impossible Enigma code using chalk, paper, scissors, and a few electricity machines--and that the code was deciphered and passed on a hot line directly to Winston Churchill--and that, until the code was broken, the Allies almost ceased the desperately-needed North Atlantic supply route from America--THAT is the unsung keystone to the Allies victory in Europe! In fact, it now appears that the date of Operation Overlord, 6 June 1944, was contingent, among other factors, on the emergency debrief of a double-agent working Enigma and Special Op’d out of occupied France. The debrief occurred 4 June, and green light given on 5 June. The debrief had to determine if Enigma passed Overlord launch times to the U-boats. How’s that for a nugget of world history?
And then the rest of the book is peppered with stories (and the rare, declassified pictures) of the dashing British seaman who dared to jump aboard German U-boats driven to the surface by depth charges. Jumping onto the conning towers at night in rough seas and high gale to fight their way into booby-trapped submarines to grab the cribs, bigram tables, and Enigma machines before they were destroyed...before they were themselves destroyed! Under persecution of death, all things Enigma were to be destroyed by the U-boat crew in case of possible boarding by the enemy. It was a clutch race to destroy The Machine or capture The Machine. Many men died grappling along surfaced U-boats in order to get the Bletchley Park team the absolutely essential--and equally elusive--clues to last month’s codes, just to have a chance to reverse engineer this month’s code. The men who were still clawing in the claustrophobic dark, as the coping of the conning towers peacefully slipped below the surface--the U-boat immediately rushing full of cold Atlantic waters--died an unbelievably lonely death, and their families were made aware that their loved ones were merely ‘BY NAVAL ORDER. TRANSMIT. LOST AT SEA. STOP.’
This book is a great angle to the WWII saga. The writing is an engaging page-turner. It’s written like fiction. The book stays with you--probably a characteristic that is often overlooked when rating books.
November 17, 2016
I have read everything I can lay my hands on about the cracking of the Enigma code, and this is the most comprehensive and detailed account. It puts all the more personal accounts in a proper perspective, and lays to rest some common myths. But it is not as "entertaining" as some of the other accounts.
November 14, 2015
The story of the breaking of the Enigma code in World War 2 is a fascinating one. It is filled with brilliance, daring, danger and betrayal. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore has written an exemplary history, combining extensive archival research with gripping prose. Churchill was as aware as anyone of the importance of the success, or failure, of codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park. He described those who worked there as “The goose that laid the golden egg and never cackled”. Secrecy was of the essence. Sebag-Montefiore describes the challenges of utilising the intelligence gained from breaking German military coded messages, whilst ensuring that the German’s never found out, thus ending this advantage.
Several times doubt was cast on the security of Germany’s ciphers. The book focusses particularly on the doubts of Admiral Donitz, head of the German Navy who seems to have been the most security conscious high commander. Several times he requested investigations, and the updated edition of the book uses new evidence to cast particular attention on a 1943 investigation which once again reassured the Germans of the safety of the code, as usual on spurious grounds.
The core of the book however focuses on how Britain ended up being able to break the code. Sebag-Montefiore justly praises the work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers, acknowledging the well known Alan Turing but also examining the contributions of other codebreakers such as Dilly Knox, Gordon Welchman and Harry Hinsley. The book contains some excellent descriptions of the codebreaking process, including a number of appendices describing in more detail such idiosyncratic practices as bombes, cillis, rodding and banburismus.
One of his main themes though is how the all important (and most difficult) naval codes would probably never have been broken just through the brilliance of the mathematicians at Bletchley Park. Frank Birch, head of the German section recounted how in late 1940 Turing and Twinn approached him in dispair of breaking the naval code. “The burden of their song was the importance of a pinch. Did the authorities realise that since the Germans did the dirt on their machine on 1 June there was very little hope if any of their deciphering current, or even approximating current, enigma for months and months and months – if ever?”
Sebag-Montefiore describes the missions to carry out ‘a pinch’ of German coding equipment and materials dramatically, with vivid scenes of desperate attempts to recover books from trawlers and U-Boats. He also provides a gripping passage on the drama of convoy PQ17, a tragic victim of slow codebreaking and difficult decisions.
Another fascinating story is that of the pre-war efforts of the French and Poles, including a dangerous espionage game with Hans Thilo Schmidt, who worked in the German cryptography office. His is an exciting and tragic story of a character who can either be looked at as a hero for the allies, or a money-motivated traitor. Either way his contributions were important for the pre-war codebreaking efforts of all parties in various ways. His information was initially useful for the Poles, who went on to complete some extraordinary work breaking Enigma in the pre-war years.
The story of “Ultra” and the breaking of Enigma is exciting, multifaceted and an important aspect of the victory over the Germans. As Sebag-Montefiore points out it was not a central or perfect factor. Success at codebreaking came and went, was not always timely and was always contingent on there being sufficient military force to exploit the knowledge. It is an important story though, and this book certainly gives it justice.
Several times doubt was cast on the security of Germany’s ciphers. The book focusses particularly on the doubts of Admiral Donitz, head of the German Navy who seems to have been the most security conscious high commander. Several times he requested investigations, and the updated edition of the book uses new evidence to cast particular attention on a 1943 investigation which once again reassured the Germans of the safety of the code, as usual on spurious grounds.
The core of the book however focuses on how Britain ended up being able to break the code. Sebag-Montefiore justly praises the work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers, acknowledging the well known Alan Turing but also examining the contributions of other codebreakers such as Dilly Knox, Gordon Welchman and Harry Hinsley. The book contains some excellent descriptions of the codebreaking process, including a number of appendices describing in more detail such idiosyncratic practices as bombes, cillis, rodding and banburismus.
One of his main themes though is how the all important (and most difficult) naval codes would probably never have been broken just through the brilliance of the mathematicians at Bletchley Park. Frank Birch, head of the German section recounted how in late 1940 Turing and Twinn approached him in dispair of breaking the naval code. “The burden of their song was the importance of a pinch. Did the authorities realise that since the Germans did the dirt on their machine on 1 June there was very little hope if any of their deciphering current, or even approximating current, enigma for months and months and months – if ever?”
Sebag-Montefiore describes the missions to carry out ‘a pinch’ of German coding equipment and materials dramatically, with vivid scenes of desperate attempts to recover books from trawlers and U-Boats. He also provides a gripping passage on the drama of convoy PQ17, a tragic victim of slow codebreaking and difficult decisions.
Another fascinating story is that of the pre-war efforts of the French and Poles, including a dangerous espionage game with Hans Thilo Schmidt, who worked in the German cryptography office. His is an exciting and tragic story of a character who can either be looked at as a hero for the allies, or a money-motivated traitor. Either way his contributions were important for the pre-war codebreaking efforts of all parties in various ways. His information was initially useful for the Poles, who went on to complete some extraordinary work breaking Enigma in the pre-war years.
The story of “Ultra” and the breaking of Enigma is exciting, multifaceted and an important aspect of the victory over the Germans. As Sebag-Montefiore points out it was not a central or perfect factor. Success at codebreaking came and went, was not always timely and was always contingent on there being sufficient military force to exploit the knowledge. It is an important story though, and this book certainly gives it justice.
February 13, 2015
Lots of good historical detail. Ultimately depends on the reader knowing more detail about WWII itself and the significance of individual battle exploits. Interesting in small doses but as a continuous narrative not as well done.
January 28, 2014
In World War 2 the Germans used a coding machine called Enigma to encrypt their messages in order that the Allies would not be able to read them. This coding technique had been introduced to the German armed forces in 1931 and from that time both Poland and France had agents endeavouring to break the code. This book works chronologically through the main characters who were involved with a variety of attempts, schemes, ideas, spying and espionage techniques from that time until the end of World War 2. Much of the focus is on the British utilising a setting called Betchley Park where some brilliant young mathematicians created schemes for attempting decryption of the Enigma messages. The Germans had coding books which had rules about changing settings on the Enigma machines periodically, so for the British it was critical to obtain copies of these code books. The German submarines (U2 boats) became the target for the Allies, because if they could capture a submarine before it sank, they could snatch the code books and an Enigma machine from the submarine and thereby have the latest codes available to them. Then by intercepting the German messages, the convoys transporting vital equipment and food from North America to England would be able to avoid the U2 submarines, which in 1942 were sinking huge numbers of Allied freighters which put English supplies and the ability to fight the Germans in jeopardy.
"Enigma" details many of these incidents, the cat and mouse trials and tribulations, the matters of luck and failure, the effects on all concerned, the involvement of the US forces after 1941 in assisting with breaking the codes. Further to this complexity was the fact that the German Army had another variety of Enigma coding, and the the German Air Force had a third alternative.
I found it a fascinating investigation of a critical component of opposing armed forces trying to outwit each other, for the Germans were just as intent on breaking the Allied forces encryption methods. Sometimes the details were very complex but it did not require a masters degree in mathematics to gain an overall picture of all that was involved in encryption and decryption. A very worthwhile read for those with an interest in World War 2.
"Enigma" details many of these incidents, the cat and mouse trials and tribulations, the matters of luck and failure, the effects on all concerned, the involvement of the US forces after 1941 in assisting with breaking the codes. Further to this complexity was the fact that the German Army had another variety of Enigma coding, and the the German Air Force had a third alternative.
I found it a fascinating investigation of a critical component of opposing armed forces trying to outwit each other, for the Germans were just as intent on breaking the Allied forces encryption methods. Sometimes the details were very complex but it did not require a masters degree in mathematics to gain an overall picture of all that was involved in encryption and decryption. A very worthwhile read for those with an interest in World War 2.
July 23, 2018
Detailed to the point of fault; the book is obviously well researched but bogged down by facts that at best seem unnecessary and repetitive, and do not add to the overall or even chapter narrative, making the book corporate report dry, sprinkled with highlights
May 26, 2019
A tedious, incoherent, illogical book – to put it mildly. One star if it wasn’t for the author’s research. Avoid this one and get your information on Enigma somewhere else.
Read
September 20, 2025I’m not going to give this a rating, I’m not the person to be doing that. This was very text-book like for me, but I expected that. I wanted to learn more about specific parts of how the enigma code was broken after Matthew and I went to Bletchley park. I definitely achieved that and was happy with this, even if it took me a year and a half.
September 19, 2013
Engrossing, detailed account of the effort to crack the code that the German military used during WW2. The technological work it took is centerstage, but the human cost in achieving and maintaining the work is also revealed.
"Maintaining" is a key word here: like many who have heard of the sucess at cracking Enigma, I assumed there was only one such code and that the code - once cracked - remained so. In fact there were several such codes. And because the Germans altered them, there were "blackout" periods during which little or nothing could be read,until the code was cracked anew.
Although the British traditionally get all the credit for the Enigma success, Polish cryptologists were the first to accomplish it. The date of their efforts to do so is sobering: 1931. Fully 8 years before the outbreak of WWW2, the Poles grimly understood the need to know what the German military was planning.
The edition I read (The Folio Society) included an extensive appendix in which the inner workings of the actual Enigma machines are fully explained, with accompanying diagrams. Maybe it is in all editions; maybe not.
It is fiendishly satisfying to learn that the Air Force Enigma code was broken largely due to mistakes by the Germans. And that, although the German high command had many opportunities to realize their code had been broken, they always pondered the possibility - and then dismissed it!
"Maintaining" is a key word here: like many who have heard of the sucess at cracking Enigma, I assumed there was only one such code and that the code - once cracked - remained so. In fact there were several such codes. And because the Germans altered them, there were "blackout" periods during which little or nothing could be read,until the code was cracked anew.
Although the British traditionally get all the credit for the Enigma success, Polish cryptologists were the first to accomplish it. The date of their efforts to do so is sobering: 1931. Fully 8 years before the outbreak of WWW2, the Poles grimly understood the need to know what the German military was planning.
The edition I read (The Folio Society) included an extensive appendix in which the inner workings of the actual Enigma machines are fully explained, with accompanying diagrams. Maybe it is in all editions; maybe not.
It is fiendishly satisfying to learn that the Air Force Enigma code was broken largely due to mistakes by the Germans. And that, although the German high command had many opportunities to realize their code had been broken, they always pondered the possibility - and then dismissed it!
April 9, 2016
This was a fascinating and at times a difficult read. Fascinating of course because of all the real-life events, efforts made to gather code machines and code files, and the endless work required by so many people of all abilities during WW2. It was difficult to read about the heroes at sea, lives lost, by Naval and Merchant vessels, due the constant and significant threat from German U-boats, without deep sadness. I also had difficulty getting my head around some of the technicalities involved in the operation and deciphering of the Enigma machines. Often I had to stop reading due to the exhaustion of trying to understand what I had just read.
Despite all of these difficulties I was left with feelings of tremendous admiration and wonder. The incredible dedication required by so many clever code-crackers, who had often been plucked from relatively "ordinary" lives and jobs, left me numb with amazement and, I suppose, a sort of belated gratitude for their contribution to ending the War earlier than seemed likely in 1943.
Highly recommended.
Despite all of these difficulties I was left with feelings of tremendous admiration and wonder. The incredible dedication required by so many clever code-crackers, who had often been plucked from relatively "ordinary" lives and jobs, left me numb with amazement and, I suppose, a sort of belated gratitude for their contribution to ending the War earlier than seemed likely in 1943.
Highly recommended.
April 10, 2017
Just could not get into it, which surprised me. May try it again someday when life is a bit less hectic and I can give this book the close attention it deserves.
My life has settled down somewhat so I was able to resume reading this book and I'm glad I did. A very worthwhile book that shows just how hard the Allies had to work, and keep working at constantly, to break the Enigma codes. Breaking the codes was an ongoing feat, not the one-time Eureka! moment many of us think it was. I still have only the most rudimentary understanding of how the machine worked and the steps gone through to decipher the coded messages completely baffle me. But you don't have to be able to capture enemy codebooks from sinking submarines, build an Enigma machine or decode messages to be amazed and impressed by the feats of the people who did that work. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
My life has settled down somewhat so I was able to resume reading this book and I'm glad I did. A very worthwhile book that shows just how hard the Allies had to work, and keep working at constantly, to break the Enigma codes. Breaking the codes was an ongoing feat, not the one-time Eureka! moment many of us think it was. I still have only the most rudimentary understanding of how the machine worked and the steps gone through to decipher the coded messages completely baffle me. But you don't have to be able to capture enemy codebooks from sinking submarines, build an Enigma machine or decode messages to be amazed and impressed by the feats of the people who did that work. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
April 22, 2015
Interesting book about how the British were able to figure out the German codes during the War. I skipped the detailed mathematical explanations of how they did it, though, which was mostly at the end, in the Appendixes.
I found out Alan Turing did a lot, but he worked with much decoding already done by a Polish team earlier, and had help from others too. The vanquished U-Boats and the rescuing of their codebooks, and other stories, such as the espionage in France were interesting too. This book gives a more complete story than the movie, The Imitation Game, which was very oversimplified.
I found out Alan Turing did a lot, but he worked with much decoding already done by a Polish team earlier, and had help from others too. The vanquished U-Boats and the rescuing of their codebooks, and other stories, such as the espionage in France were interesting too. This book gives a more complete story than the movie, The Imitation Game, which was very oversimplified.
October 30, 2015
This is a good look into a side of the war not often seen, and it's well-constructed for the most part. Niggles here and there that distract, but that seems to be normal these days. Sad face. Anyway, I thought I was a total history nerd, I thought I was a cryptography enthusiast, and then I read this book. There's a bunch of info in here I can't understand; I'm not sure if it's because of how it's presented or if my nerd credentials simply aren't up to spec. This is a cerebral read. A bit dry at times. The appendices only serve to ratchet that vibe up to eleven.
July 9, 2022
A detailed and well-researched account of the breaking of Germany’s Enigma code. Beginning with Polish and French efforts in the early 1930s and continuing through the end of World War II, the decrypting of German transmissions was a decisive contribution to winning the war, especially the naval battles against German U-boats, which is the focus of this outstanding history.
April 23, 2011
A long and very detail oriented history of the British efforts to break the naval enigma. A bit too detail oriented for my tastes. Appendices about the machines used to break the codes were a solid addition, though.
October 29, 2014
I enjoyed it but it wasn't the thriller it was advertised to be. If you're into war history or crypto history it is certainly the most detailed and up-to-date book on the breaking of the Enigma cipher.
April 19, 2018
Very thorough, with lots of additional information in the appendix, and for the most part very engaging. It adds a great deal of detail to the stories and films we recently read and seen.
July 29, 2025
This is a history book about how the Allied forces in WWII managed to break the German code that they would generate using “enigma” machines.
Did you watch a movie on the subject and think that Alan Turing single handedly broke the code? Or saw oversimplified tropes of German messaging (like ending the messages with the same heil Hitler declaration) and thought that’s how it got broken?
The truth is a bit more complicated than that. Turing had a few hundred colleagues working with him. There wasn’t arrogant declarations at the end of each message but there were sometimes patterns. Want to read the real story? This is a good history book on the subject.
I read the 70th Anniversary Edition and if you read this or a modern edition, the first appendixes explain exactly how the code breaking works, and if you aren’t interested, keep flipping through as there are several postscripts at the end that are interesting, including how Germany failed to recognize that the Enigma code was broken.
As a history book you could consider it 4 stars - I still grade based on enjoying the reading and it has some dry spots so 3 stars for me.
Did you watch a movie on the subject and think that Alan Turing single handedly broke the code? Or saw oversimplified tropes of German messaging (like ending the messages with the same heil Hitler declaration) and thought that’s how it got broken?
The truth is a bit more complicated than that. Turing had a few hundred colleagues working with him. There wasn’t arrogant declarations at the end of each message but there were sometimes patterns. Want to read the real story? This is a good history book on the subject.
I read the 70th Anniversary Edition and if you read this or a modern edition, the first appendixes explain exactly how the code breaking works, and if you aren’t interested, keep flipping through as there are several postscripts at the end that are interesting, including how Germany failed to recognize that the Enigma code was broken.
As a history book you could consider it 4 stars - I still grade based on enjoying the reading and it has some dry spots so 3 stars for me.
February 2, 2023
Well written and enjoyable. Action is well told...people involved depicted well. Enjoyed it
February 28, 2022
This is one of the most detailed histories of the Allied code-breakers' work on the German 'Enigma' military codes. The focus is largely on the efforts to break the German Naval Enigma codes: often successful but sometimes unsuccessful with tragic consequences in lives and ships lost to U-Boats.
The book opens with an account of how an official at the pre-war German Defence Ministry betrayed details of their new Enigma enciphering system to the French secret service, for money to fund his extravagant lifestyle. The work of Polish code-breakers in the 1930s is also described, and in detail in an appendix. Some of the technical details will be hard to follow for readers without some understanding of cryptographic Boolean logic. One must concentrate to follow procedures such as 'rodding', 'banburismus', 'bigrams' etc, though appendices give much more explanation than the main text. Apart from these technical details, the book is very readable and interesting.
There are amusing descriptions of the eccentric geniuses at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking centre. The relationship between some of these experts and the Operational Intelligence Centre and Prime Minister Churchill in London are referred to. The Italian marine Enigma codes were being read in 1941 and helped in the destruction of many of their warships at Matapan. The often heroic, and sometimes unsuccessful, efforts to capture German codebooks and Enigma wheels are described, with additional personal accounts from some in an appendix which is new in the '75th Anniversary Edition'. The capture of codes from the U-boat U-559 in 1942 is well known: Royal Navy seamen were able to retrieve much secret material from this submarine which had surfaced after being fatally damaged by depth charges. Lt. Fasson and AB Grazier were inside the submarine, still retrieving items, when it suddenly sank and drowned both of them.
Capture of Kriegsmarine codebooks etc from German surface ships as well as from U-boats was important because their naval Enigma machines and procedures were more complicated than those used by the army and airforce. Without the aid of current codebooks, it took so long to crack the U-boat communications that the results came too late to prevent, for instance, huge losses of Allied ships conveying material from the USA to Britain. The book has harrowing accounts of Allied convoy ships being sunk by the U-boat 'wolf packs' during those periods when the naval codes could not be broken quickly. Although much effort was put into keeping secret the fact that German Enigma messages were often being read by the Allies ('Ultra') there were several incidents when German officials suspected that they might have been cracked. It is surprising that the Nazi High Command continued to believe that their Enigma-coded messages were secure throughout the Second World War.
Apart from some casual mention of 'fish' codes this book does not deal with the breaking of the Lorenz Sägefisch codes by Colossus, the electronic 'computer' that was developed in late 1943 for Bletchley Park.
There are photographs of many of the principal individuals and some incidents. The 2017 reissue ends with over 230 pages of notes, appendices, chronology, bibliography, personal recollections, index, etc. I recommend it.
The book opens with an account of how an official at the pre-war German Defence Ministry betrayed details of their new Enigma enciphering system to the French secret service, for money to fund his extravagant lifestyle. The work of Polish code-breakers in the 1930s is also described, and in detail in an appendix. Some of the technical details will be hard to follow for readers without some understanding of cryptographic Boolean logic. One must concentrate to follow procedures such as 'rodding', 'banburismus', 'bigrams' etc, though appendices give much more explanation than the main text. Apart from these technical details, the book is very readable and interesting.
There are amusing descriptions of the eccentric geniuses at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking centre. The relationship between some of these experts and the Operational Intelligence Centre and Prime Minister Churchill in London are referred to. The Italian marine Enigma codes were being read in 1941 and helped in the destruction of many of their warships at Matapan. The often heroic, and sometimes unsuccessful, efforts to capture German codebooks and Enigma wheels are described, with additional personal accounts from some in an appendix which is new in the '75th Anniversary Edition'. The capture of codes from the U-boat U-559 in 1942 is well known: Royal Navy seamen were able to retrieve much secret material from this submarine which had surfaced after being fatally damaged by depth charges. Lt. Fasson and AB Grazier were inside the submarine, still retrieving items, when it suddenly sank and drowned both of them.
Capture of Kriegsmarine codebooks etc from German surface ships as well as from U-boats was important because their naval Enigma machines and procedures were more complicated than those used by the army and airforce. Without the aid of current codebooks, it took so long to crack the U-boat communications that the results came too late to prevent, for instance, huge losses of Allied ships conveying material from the USA to Britain. The book has harrowing accounts of Allied convoy ships being sunk by the U-boat 'wolf packs' during those periods when the naval codes could not be broken quickly. Although much effort was put into keeping secret the fact that German Enigma messages were often being read by the Allies ('Ultra') there were several incidents when German officials suspected that they might have been cracked. It is surprising that the Nazi High Command continued to believe that their Enigma-coded messages were secure throughout the Second World War.
Apart from some casual mention of 'fish' codes this book does not deal with the breaking of the Lorenz Sägefisch codes by Colossus, the electronic 'computer' that was developed in late 1943 for Bletchley Park.
There are photographs of many of the principal individuals and some incidents. The 2017 reissue ends with over 230 pages of notes, appendices, chronology, bibliography, personal recollections, index, etc. I recommend it.
July 5, 2020
A very detailed and exciting story of spies, cypher breakers. power struggles, and action in the field or more likely at sea. A fascinating story from the early thirties to D Day. This book provides the background to a story that has played out in books and films since the secret was outed in the 1980s Once you appreciate the style of presentation the jumping about becomes clearer although to be one minute reading about Poles trying to escape France to then be in the Atlantic with u=boats and convoys can be a bit disconcerting but in bringing all the threads together it is a complete story and probably the most exceptional story of WW11. The incredible individual stories of people and incidents are well researched and bring excitement to a whole event that shaped a war. This book tells you as much about decoding the enemies messages as how the war at sea was fought.
The full story of the struggle to break the NAZIS naval enigma and highly recommended.
The full story of the struggle to break the NAZIS naval enigma and highly recommended.
February 22, 2020
VERY detailed book on the breaking of the German naval code called enigma. I was look for a higher level overview, and the multiple accounts of U boats and naval skirmishes were hard to keep track of. However, I learned that the German enigma was first read in the late 1930s by codebreakers in Poland, and the movie about this topic starring Benedict Cumberbatch is unrealistic: the code had to be broken multiple times as enigma settings were changed every few months (rather than how the movie portrays building a machine and being able to read the code from then on). The appendices on the mathematics behind the enigma machines were daunting; i did not read them but math whizzes would probably enjoy them.
April 1, 2019
A rigorous and, at times, thoroughly gripping account of the role that code-breaking played in the Second World War. The personalities involved come across as realistic and affectionately portrayed while the scenes involving the capturing of codes or the machinery used to create and break them - the Enigma of the title - are told in such a way that you are on the edge of your seat. Gripping but detailed in such a way that it does become a bit of a chore when the author spends a lot of time comparing different eyewitness accounts or other sources in order to give the most realistic and accurate story possible. Otherwise, a great read.
August 9, 2017
A very good read, informative and clear. So, there's much more to breaking Enigma than a few boffins in Bletchley Park; the book reveals the incredible head-start they were given, and the invaluable help of many brave spies, sailors, soldiers and international colleagues without whom the war would never have shortened. A reminder that all great achievements have teamwork at the core, even if only a few great individuals are ever made to shine. This is a very well researched, highly engaging and thoroughly readable history on the breaking of Enigma, told as an international story.
July 3, 2019
First published in 2000, 'Enigma - The Battle for the Code' tells the story of efforts to crack Germany's coded messages sent via Enigma cypher machines in WW2. It does occasionally go into technical detail of the way in which Enigma and other machines work in a way that I found difficult to follow. However, the storytelling element is excellent, even if not always grammatically correct. I would also observe that the author, as a historian, is not very objective, adopting a pro-allied stance that at times reaches 'flag-waving' level but this does not affect the reading enjoyment.
November 29, 2020
Account of the decryption of wartime dispatches from the German Enigma device in the years leading up to and during WWII. The author had very detailed research including interviews with personnel on both the Allied and German side. The book could have used more editing to trim it down a bit. You can almost visualize the author enthusiastically interviewing people involved, hearing their "war stories" and taking detailed notes. And then including irrelevant details such as what a U-Boat crew had for dinner the night before deployment. Nevertheless, a good read on a fascinating subject.
April 13, 2021
The story is good from the beginning, about spies, secrets and wars, there is a good section at the end that cover the chronology of events, a detailed explanation of how enigma works and an overview of each character of the story. The story itself is good, it tells about the main efforts from a British perspective about the decoding work, the military action in the field to capture enigma material. But there are some parts that it enter in so much unnecessary details that it became a little boring, so I just skipped those parts. In the end I just recommend this book, very good, well written.
April 16, 2022
Presents a different take on the breaking of the enigma cyphers, one that gives equal credit to the sailors that went out on the high seas to capture enigma machines from sinking submarines, to the spies that covered up the traces that could have led the German command to figure out that the code had been broken, and to the codebreakers in Bletchley park that provided the breakthrough. This is maybe a perspective that was better understood in the 70s and 80s, but that has been obscured in recent years by the increase of attention on Alan Turing and the codebreakers.
June 17, 2021
Quite a rollicking read, despite large chunks of technically-detailed paragraphs on the mathematics of breaking Enigma, which I skipped as they went way over my head. This in no way detracted from the rather gripping tales within. I’m jealous of anyone who could follow the intricacies of the actual machinery and number-crunching involved!
Suffice to say, I’m hugely interested in this area of WW2 history, have visited Bletchley Park, and the book is a must for anyone else drawn to the topic.
Suffice to say, I’m hugely interested in this area of WW2 history, have visited Bletchley Park, and the book is a must for anyone else drawn to the topic.
November 4, 2010
Great amd new material pn the subject but so poorly edited and with so many unnecesary tangents I found it very fragmented and tedious.
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