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Battle Of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II
A million pages of new World War II codebreaking records have been released by the U.S. Army and Navy and the British government over the last five years. Now, Battle of Wits presents the history of the war that these documents reveal. From the Battle of Midway until the last German code was broken in January 1945, this is an astonishing epic of a war that was won not simply by brute strength but also by reading the enemy's intentions. The revelations of Stephen Budiansky's dramatic history include how Britain tried to manipulate the American codebreakers and monopolize German Enigma code communications; the first detailed published explanations of how the Japanese codes were broken; and how the American codebreaking machines worked to crack the Japanese, the German, and even the Russian diplomatic codes. This is the story of the Allied codebreakers puzzling through the most difficult codebreaking problems that ever existed. At the same time, the compelling narrative shows the crucial effect codebreaking had on the battlefields by explaining the urgency of stopping the wolf pack U-boat attacks in the North Atlantic, the burning desire in the United States to turn the tide of the war after Pearl Harbor, the importance of halting Rommel's tanks in North Africa, and the necessity of ensuring that the Germans believed the Allies' audacious deception and cover plans for D-Day. Budiansky brings to life the unsung codebreaking heroes of this secret Joseph J. Rochefort, an intense and driven naval officer who ran the codebreaking operation in "The Dungeon," a dank basement at Pearl Harbor, that effectively won the Battle of Midway; Alan Turing, the eccentric father of the computer age, whose brilliant electromechanical calculators broke the German Enigma machine; and Ian Fleming, whose daredevil espionage schemes to recover codebooks resembled the plots of the 007 novels he later wrote. Among the villains, we meet the Nazi Admiral Donitz, who led the submarine wolf packs against Allied shipping in the North Atlantic with horrific casualty rates?until the codebreakers stopped him. Budiansky, a Harvard -- trained mathematician, demonstrates the mathematical insight and creativity of the cryptographers by showing step-by-step precisely how the codes were broken. This technology -- the flow of information, its encryption, and the computational methods of recovering it from the enemy -- had never before been so important to the outcome of a war. Informative diagrams, maps, appendices, and photographs show exactly how, why, and where the secret war was won. Unveiled for the first time, the complete story of codebreaking in World War II has now been told.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
22 people are currently reading
1397 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Budiansky
25 books113 followersHistorian and journalist Stephen Budiansky is the author of twelve books about military history, science, and nature.
His latest book is The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox, which chronicles the struggles of five courageous men in the post-Civil War South as they battled a rising tide of terrorist violence aimed at usurping the newly won rights of the freedmen.
His latest book is The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox, which chronicles the struggles of five courageous men in the post-Civil War South as they battled a rising tide of terrorist violence aimed at usurping the newly won rights of the freedmen.
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July 21, 2024
“With the passing of a half-century it is possible to look back on the accomplishments of code breaking in the Second World War with a more level gaze. As a triumph of the human intellect they were extraordinary. At some critical junctures – Midway, Cape Matapan, Alam el Halfa, the first battles of the Atlantic convoys – the timely reading of enemy dispatches averted disasters that would have been terrible setbacks to the Allied cause. Particularly at sea, where simply knowing where the enemy is amid a vast expanse of water is often more than half the battle, signals intelligence played an unsurpassed role. So, too, in carrying out effective deception, where knowing what the enemy is thinking is practically all the battle. But did code breaking ‘win’ the war, or even shorten the war, as is so often claimed? There the answer is more equivocal…”
- Stephen Budiansky, Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II
Codebreaking is one of those fascinating disciplines that I will never understand, but like studying on a theoretical level. For instance, I will absolutely lose my mind and quit the easiest Sudoku puzzle after five minutes, simply because my brain does not work in way necessary to solve them. Nevertheless, I still enjoy learning about the underlying logic used to construct and deconstruct them.
Of course, codes have been around long before I started fruitlessly banging my head against commercial brainteasers. Indeed, for as long as humans have been communicating, they have also been trying to disguise their communications through codes and ciphers of variable elaborateness. And it stands to reason that not long after the first shifting cypher was chiseled into a cave wall, someone soon came along to crack it.
With the advent of wireless telegraph and the radio, codebreaking went to a whole new level. Instead of having to capture a physical courier holding an actual paper message, it became possible to pluck highly sensitive exchanges right from the sky.
In Battle of Wits, Harvard-trained mathematician Stephen Budiansky explains how the art of cracking codes was deployed during the Second World War. While noting that the results were not exactly decisive, he convincingly demonstrates the remarkable intelligence and ingenuity of the men and women tasked with reading the mail of Germany and Japan.
***
Book subtitles are notoriously misleading. That is certainly true here. Whatever else it is, Battle of Wits is not The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II. In the first place, it is just 337 pages long. You can’t tell the “complete” story of a single peanut in a bowl of nuts sitting atop a dive bar counter in only 337 pages.
Furthermore, this is only really about the Allied efforts, mainly British and American, with some French and Polish help. To be sure, there are some fleeting mentions of Germany’s B-Dienst service, as well as Budiansky’s belief that the Axis lagged in this area of warfare. Still, this is concise, not comprehensive, and very far from complete.
***
Structurally, Battle of Wits begins with lengthy retelling of the clash at Midway in June 1942. More specifically, Budiansky focuses on the role of the United States Navy’s Station HYPO in breaking Japan’s JN-25 code. This is an incredibly familiar story to anyone who has read anything about the Pacific Theater, but it’s an effective way to grab your attention and introduce signals intelligence concepts.
After this rather lengthy prologue, Battle of Wits circles back for a brief history of cryptography, before returning to the Second World War. Budiansky touches on a lot, but is more selective in what he chooses to meditate upon. One of the ongoing storylines follows the arc of American intelligence from its early, underfunded, and borderline pathetic beginnings, to something resembling the vast surveillance apparatus that exists today. Unsurprisingly, we also spent a great deal of time at Bletchley Park, as it grows from an offshoot of England’s “old boy’s club” to a relatively high-functioning stable of brainiacs. Budiansky also directs a bright light on the important – though less known – role played by Polish mathematicians in solving Germany’s Enigma system. For anyone who thinks that U-571 was based on a true story, and that Matthew McConaughey won the war by commandeering a Germany U-boat and escaping with an intact Enigma machine, this section will prove enlightening.
***
Perhaps the thing that stands out most about Battle of Wits is its willingness to delve deeply into the mechanics of codebreaking. For example, there are absorbing passages – which I did not understand, even after close reading – that detail Polish and British attempts to engineer an Enigma machine without having one on hand, based entirely on traffic analysis and pure genius. Throughout, there are diagrams, illustrative examples, and even appendices that provide in-depth explanations about the process. Again – and I cannot stress this enough – I did not get it. Nevertheless, this gave me a thorough appreciation of those who did.
Interspersed with the numerical magic are lively sections that demonstrate how intelligence derived from codebreaking was utilized, such as the fruits from the “Purple” decrypts being used to fruitlessly warn Joseph Stalin about Operation Barbarossa. There are also biographical portraits of the codebreakers themselves – such as Joseph Rochefort and Alan Turing – as well as discussions about various ancillary topics, such as sanitizing decrypts so that they can be effectively used without tipping off the other side that they have been compromised.
***
There is an extremely robust subgenre of Second World War books claiming that this-or-that secret mission, plot, or stratagem actually won the conflict. All of that – obviously – is nonsense. No single thing proved decisive, which makes sense, given that it sprawled across the entire globe, and involved tens of millions of people.
To Budiansky’s credit, he never even hints at preeminence of codebreaking, or suggests that it turned the tide, or tipped the scales. As he rightly notes in his account of Midway – to take one example – the Americans came within a hair’s breadth of losing the battle, despite advanced knowledge of Japanese plans.
Rather than making an unmakeable case, Budiansky revels in the vast and curious intellects of the people who solved the mysteries, unwrapped the riddles, and pierced the enigmas of Axis cryptographers. By the time I finished this, I felt both a little smarter, and a lot dumber.
- Stephen Budiansky, Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II
Codebreaking is one of those fascinating disciplines that I will never understand, but like studying on a theoretical level. For instance, I will absolutely lose my mind and quit the easiest Sudoku puzzle after five minutes, simply because my brain does not work in way necessary to solve them. Nevertheless, I still enjoy learning about the underlying logic used to construct and deconstruct them.
Of course, codes have been around long before I started fruitlessly banging my head against commercial brainteasers. Indeed, for as long as humans have been communicating, they have also been trying to disguise their communications through codes and ciphers of variable elaborateness. And it stands to reason that not long after the first shifting cypher was chiseled into a cave wall, someone soon came along to crack it.
With the advent of wireless telegraph and the radio, codebreaking went to a whole new level. Instead of having to capture a physical courier holding an actual paper message, it became possible to pluck highly sensitive exchanges right from the sky.
In Battle of Wits, Harvard-trained mathematician Stephen Budiansky explains how the art of cracking codes was deployed during the Second World War. While noting that the results were not exactly decisive, he convincingly demonstrates the remarkable intelligence and ingenuity of the men and women tasked with reading the mail of Germany and Japan.
***
Book subtitles are notoriously misleading. That is certainly true here. Whatever else it is, Battle of Wits is not The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II. In the first place, it is just 337 pages long. You can’t tell the “complete” story of a single peanut in a bowl of nuts sitting atop a dive bar counter in only 337 pages.
Furthermore, this is only really about the Allied efforts, mainly British and American, with some French and Polish help. To be sure, there are some fleeting mentions of Germany’s B-Dienst service, as well as Budiansky’s belief that the Axis lagged in this area of warfare. Still, this is concise, not comprehensive, and very far from complete.
***
Structurally, Battle of Wits begins with lengthy retelling of the clash at Midway in June 1942. More specifically, Budiansky focuses on the role of the United States Navy’s Station HYPO in breaking Japan’s JN-25 code. This is an incredibly familiar story to anyone who has read anything about the Pacific Theater, but it’s an effective way to grab your attention and introduce signals intelligence concepts.
After this rather lengthy prologue, Battle of Wits circles back for a brief history of cryptography, before returning to the Second World War. Budiansky touches on a lot, but is more selective in what he chooses to meditate upon. One of the ongoing storylines follows the arc of American intelligence from its early, underfunded, and borderline pathetic beginnings, to something resembling the vast surveillance apparatus that exists today. Unsurprisingly, we also spent a great deal of time at Bletchley Park, as it grows from an offshoot of England’s “old boy’s club” to a relatively high-functioning stable of brainiacs. Budiansky also directs a bright light on the important – though less known – role played by Polish mathematicians in solving Germany’s Enigma system. For anyone who thinks that U-571 was based on a true story, and that Matthew McConaughey won the war by commandeering a Germany U-boat and escaping with an intact Enigma machine, this section will prove enlightening.
***
Perhaps the thing that stands out most about Battle of Wits is its willingness to delve deeply into the mechanics of codebreaking. For example, there are absorbing passages – which I did not understand, even after close reading – that detail Polish and British attempts to engineer an Enigma machine without having one on hand, based entirely on traffic analysis and pure genius. Throughout, there are diagrams, illustrative examples, and even appendices that provide in-depth explanations about the process. Again – and I cannot stress this enough – I did not get it. Nevertheless, this gave me a thorough appreciation of those who did.
Interspersed with the numerical magic are lively sections that demonstrate how intelligence derived from codebreaking was utilized, such as the fruits from the “Purple” decrypts being used to fruitlessly warn Joseph Stalin about Operation Barbarossa. There are also biographical portraits of the codebreakers themselves – such as Joseph Rochefort and Alan Turing – as well as discussions about various ancillary topics, such as sanitizing decrypts so that they can be effectively used without tipping off the other side that they have been compromised.
***
There is an extremely robust subgenre of Second World War books claiming that this-or-that secret mission, plot, or stratagem actually won the conflict. All of that – obviously – is nonsense. No single thing proved decisive, which makes sense, given that it sprawled across the entire globe, and involved tens of millions of people.
To Budiansky’s credit, he never even hints at preeminence of codebreaking, or suggests that it turned the tide, or tipped the scales. As he rightly notes in his account of Midway – to take one example – the Americans came within a hair’s breadth of losing the battle, despite advanced knowledge of Japanese plans.
Rather than making an unmakeable case, Budiansky revels in the vast and curious intellects of the people who solved the mysteries, unwrapped the riddles, and pierced the enigmas of Axis cryptographers. By the time I finished this, I felt both a little smarter, and a lot dumber.
August 9, 2018
Come un romanzo
Non ho un particolare interesse per la Matematica e non ho studi scientifici alle spalle, ma da sempre sono affascinata da tutto ciò che riguarda la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Ecco perché questo libro è finito tra i miei scaffali. Si tratta di una ricostruzione delle attività dei servizi di spionaggio e di controspionaggio nel corso della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, da cui emerge un quadro completo di uno degli aspetti più affascinanti e misteriosi del conflitto.
Molto interessante la parte dedicata a Enigma, la complessa macchina messa a punto dai tedeschi per criptare le proprie comunicazioni. Gli Alleati riuscirono faticosamente a decrittare i messaggi tedeschi, grazie a un po’ di fortuna e molta applicazione, ma anche grazie al genio di Alan Turing (il matematico inglese che nell’occasione costruì i primi computer) e a Ian Fleming, che con alcune trovate degne di un romanzo di James Bond riuscì a recuperare preziosi documenti dei nazisti.
Sul fronte del Pacifico, invece, l’oscuro eroe fu un ufficiale della marina americana, Joseph J. Rochefort: da una buia cantina a Pearl Harbor diresse l’operazione che portò ad intercettare e decifrare una serie di messaggi giapponesi, che si rivelarono decisivi nella vittoria della Battaglia delle Midway.
Numerosi sono gli episodi raccontati da Budiansky in questa ricostruzione (con tanto di diagrammi, immagini, mappe), che si legge davvero come un romanzo ed è accessibile anche da chi non ha specifiche preparazioni tecniche, come me.
Bellissimo!
”Per essere un crittoanalista non è necessario essere pazzi. Ma aiuta”
(Joseph Rochefort)
Aggiungo un breve video che spiega a grandi linee come funziona la macchina Enigma:
https://youtu.be/QmJHXPDj_ZI
Non ho un particolare interesse per la Matematica e non ho studi scientifici alle spalle, ma da sempre sono affascinata da tutto ciò che riguarda la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Ecco perché questo libro è finito tra i miei scaffali. Si tratta di una ricostruzione delle attività dei servizi di spionaggio e di controspionaggio nel corso della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, da cui emerge un quadro completo di uno degli aspetti più affascinanti e misteriosi del conflitto.
Molto interessante la parte dedicata a Enigma, la complessa macchina messa a punto dai tedeschi per criptare le proprie comunicazioni. Gli Alleati riuscirono faticosamente a decrittare i messaggi tedeschi, grazie a un po’ di fortuna e molta applicazione, ma anche grazie al genio di Alan Turing (il matematico inglese che nell’occasione costruì i primi computer) e a Ian Fleming, che con alcune trovate degne di un romanzo di James Bond riuscì a recuperare preziosi documenti dei nazisti.
Sul fronte del Pacifico, invece, l’oscuro eroe fu un ufficiale della marina americana, Joseph J. Rochefort: da una buia cantina a Pearl Harbor diresse l’operazione che portò ad intercettare e decifrare una serie di messaggi giapponesi, che si rivelarono decisivi nella vittoria della Battaglia delle Midway.
Numerosi sono gli episodi raccontati da Budiansky in questa ricostruzione (con tanto di diagrammi, immagini, mappe), che si legge davvero come un romanzo ed è accessibile anche da chi non ha specifiche preparazioni tecniche, come me.
Bellissimo!
”Per essere un crittoanalista non è necessario essere pazzi. Ma aiuta”
(Joseph Rochefort)
Aggiungo un breve video che spiega a grandi linee come funziona la macchina Enigma:
https://youtu.be/QmJHXPDj_ZI
June 18, 2014
Excellent work, and once again, the author does not disappoint. Stephen does a marvelous job of turning history into a thriller. Instead of just focusing on dry facts, he tells a tale about the people involved, about the little details, the little vices, the funny personality flaws, the ugly and weird background stories, all of which add color to what is essentially a lesson in WWII. Plus, you do learn a bunch about cryptography, mathematics, the birth of the modern computer, and more cool and sometimes unbelivable stuff. Alan Turing is there, too. Really awesome.
August 3, 2007
I've read several books about code-breaking during World War II, and I even make a trek up to Bletchley Park while visiting London a few years ago. So I guess you could say I've got an abiding interest in this subject. This is a wonderfully readable and impressive book, encompassing all the major Allied efforts to decode German and Japanese codes. Interestingly, some of this information would probably still be secret had not British Government lifted the Official Secrets Act regarding WWII decoding efforts in 1974 -- they did so only after Americans revealed their part in the effort.
Some books on codebreaking are quite technical, while others focus on the human drama. Budiansky strikes a nice balance between the two, with plenty of fascinating detail on how codebreaking was done, while still making it clear that it was the effort of amazingly dedicated (and often brilliant) men and women. There's a real sense of suspense, too, as the Allied codebreakers had to play a cat-and-mouse game, using the intelligence they'd gathered without revealing their hand. Intelligence gathered by codebreakers was crucial at several key battles, such as the Battle of the Midway.
Another aspect of the book that interested me was how military and political leaders chose to use (or not use) the intelligence that was gathered. There is still great controversy and debate, for example, on how much Allied leaders knew about the extermination of the Jews in Germany, not to mention the claim that Roosevelt knew in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Budiansky presents a well reasoned case that the U.S. command knew of an attack, but not where the attack would be.)
Another book I'd recommend on this subject, though of a narrower focus is Enigma: The Battle for the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.
Some books on codebreaking are quite technical, while others focus on the human drama. Budiansky strikes a nice balance between the two, with plenty of fascinating detail on how codebreaking was done, while still making it clear that it was the effort of amazingly dedicated (and often brilliant) men and women. There's a real sense of suspense, too, as the Allied codebreakers had to play a cat-and-mouse game, using the intelligence they'd gathered without revealing their hand. Intelligence gathered by codebreakers was crucial at several key battles, such as the Battle of the Midway.
Another aspect of the book that interested me was how military and political leaders chose to use (or not use) the intelligence that was gathered. There is still great controversy and debate, for example, on how much Allied leaders knew about the extermination of the Jews in Germany, not to mention the claim that Roosevelt knew in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Budiansky presents a well reasoned case that the U.S. command knew of an attack, but not where the attack would be.)
Another book I'd recommend on this subject, though of a narrower focus is Enigma: The Battle for the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.
September 28, 2015
4.5 stars. This is fascinating. Dense, but quite readable. The sections which earnestly try to explain exactly how the Enigma machine works, complete with wiring diagrams, did not completely succeed for me - nor did all of the explanations of code breaking techniques. (There are appendices with even more detailed information.) But I get the basic idea, which is more than sufficient for me to be impressed with the extraordinary efforts of these men and women.
The organization is perhaps a little weak. The book is not strictly chronological, and it bounces between the American and European (mostly British) efforts. The stories sometime seem like random anecdotes. It’s all so interesting, though, that it’s not too bothersome.
I like the title “Battle of Wits”, but the subtitle is a bit silly, since a 400 page book, no matter how densely written, certainly can’t be the "complete" story of codebreaking in WWII.
The organization is perhaps a little weak. The book is not strictly chronological, and it bounces between the American and European (mostly British) efforts. The stories sometime seem like random anecdotes. It’s all so interesting, though, that it’s not too bothersome.
I like the title “Battle of Wits”, but the subtitle is a bit silly, since a 400 page book, no matter how densely written, certainly can’t be the "complete" story of codebreaking in WWII.
January 18, 2019
A colorful, balanced and comprehensive work.
Despite what the title says, the narrative is mostly focused on US and British efforts against the Germans and Japanese. Budiansky does a great job explaining both how codebreaking worked and how it impacted the big picture; he does cover the diplomatic ciphers but is mostly focused on the military ones. He also covers how the practice advanced in the 1930s, when primitive computers could use brute-force calculations to detect patterns that codemakers overlooked. He also describes how interservice and inter-Allied rivalry could be both trivial and disruptive to codebreaking efforts. Budiansky easily explains the nuances of the story without making the book tedious. He also doesn’t ignore the sorting/correlating mechanics that a lot of accounts skip over.
The narrative is clear and engaging, and Budiansky mostly sticks to the documented facts, without much speculation or sensationalism; his discussion of Ultra and Magic is pretty restrained, and he shows how the Allies still failed to collect on many of important targets. Still, the parts about encryption technology can be a bit short and confusing, and there is little on Germany’s and Japan’s codebreaking efforts. He also could have covered more on the administrative side, like how the Allies prioritized their efforts, or how they disseminated the results.
An accessible, well-researched, well-written work.
Despite what the title says, the narrative is mostly focused on US and British efforts against the Germans and Japanese. Budiansky does a great job explaining both how codebreaking worked and how it impacted the big picture; he does cover the diplomatic ciphers but is mostly focused on the military ones. He also covers how the practice advanced in the 1930s, when primitive computers could use brute-force calculations to detect patterns that codemakers overlooked. He also describes how interservice and inter-Allied rivalry could be both trivial and disruptive to codebreaking efforts. Budiansky easily explains the nuances of the story without making the book tedious. He also doesn’t ignore the sorting/correlating mechanics that a lot of accounts skip over.
The narrative is clear and engaging, and Budiansky mostly sticks to the documented facts, without much speculation or sensationalism; his discussion of Ultra and Magic is pretty restrained, and he shows how the Allies still failed to collect on many of important targets. Still, the parts about encryption technology can be a bit short and confusing, and there is little on Germany’s and Japan’s codebreaking efforts. He also could have covered more on the administrative side, like how the Allies prioritized their efforts, or how they disseminated the results.
An accessible, well-researched, well-written work.
December 23, 2013
I really enjoyed this book, especially the author's descriptions of how human personalities and national characteristics affected codebreaking during the war. The technical descriptions of the machines and code breaking methods used during World War II were a little over my head, however. On recruitment of codebreakers in Great Britain, Budiansky remarks: "An almost infinite tolerance for drudgery and repetitive detail was a requirement for almost every position, but in some cases it seemed that what was required was to combine those qualities with their exact opposites, with a capacity for imaginative, even mad leaps of insight. The ideal cryptanalyst was Beethoven with the soul of an accountant, or vice versa." (p. 135) The Allies were wise in knowing that their own codes might be at risk from Axis codebreakers, but most of the German leadership clung stubbornly to the belief that the Enigma codes were unbreakable, which was untrue. As Budiansky puts it, "In the end, totalitarian nations on the offensive tend to believe their own propaganda of invincibility and national superiority." The NSA, formed by merging the American WWII Army and Navy intelligence services after the war, has been much in the news of late, for spying both on foreign governments and on American citizens. It seems that the American government is now at great risk itself of believing its own "propaganda of invincibility," and would do well to study the lessons of the past. It would be interesting to get Budiansky's view of these recent events, given his expertise in this area.
January 30, 2017
This book was a little bit intimidating to me at first, but I'm so glad I took the time to read and understand it. As the title indicates, it's all about the Allied codebreaking and cryptography operations during WWII. There is some background WWI information, as well as a little bit of touching on what happened to these organizations after WWII (the NSA!). It's a very well written book, and the author does a great job of explaining how these codes and machines worked to a layperson like myself. Two things really stood out to me, though. One was that he commented on how eccentric and potentially physically incapable some of the Bletchley Park codebreakers were, and commented that they likely wouldn't have been able to work on government things in Nazi Germany, and maybe wouldn't have even been allowed to live. I spent some time thinking about how many great minds have probably been lost throughout history because they were "different" than others. Also, the interesting tidbit that some of the "Red Scare" affiliated spies were found out with info obtained by these codebreakers, but that the government didn't want to release the evidence because it was all so secretive. It appeared to a lot of Americans that there really was no evidence and it was a conspiracy, so it has been hard for us to be honest about that period in history. It's a really, really good book and I have to highly recommend this one to anyone who likes both math and history.
May 13, 2008
Absolutely amazing, and absolutely readable, description of codebreaking in World War II. Covers the Bletchley Park story and breaking Enigma, and fixes some previously incorrect beliefs of the general public. Also covers, but in less detail, the breaking of Japanese codes, the Germans breaking Allied codes, etc. It was fun to read about the codebreaking, and how the intelligence was used in the field.
September 4, 2009
I learned an amazing amount of history and science by reading this book. I also interested some students in the subject of codebreaking.
May 28, 2015
This is a story of Polish, British and American cryptanalysis during World War II. Most of the book is dedicated to the celebrated breaking of the Enigma code, achieving a fair balance between the technical description of the codebreaking and the concurrent human drama. What this book tells, and the recent biopic of Alan Turing doesn't, is just how massive the decryption effort was. The film shows one cryptanalytic machine, restored by the museum at Bletchley Park; in fact, there were 142 machines of this model built, about 125 machines of an American model with an electronic stop sensor, and dozens of machines of other models that attacked different variants of the Enigma code used by different branches of the German armed forces. One of them contained 3,500 vacuum tubes; for comparison, ENIAC, the first semi-modern computer, contained 17,000 vacuum tubes. Allied cryptanalysts also made extensive use of IBM punched-card proto-computers, and built computing devices that attacked codes other than Enigma; though the book does not mention it, one of them used DRAM before it was a word!
The big problem with military codebreaking is using the operational intelligence obtained by breaking codes without revealing to the enemy that his codes have been broken. Surely, if a German attack submarine meets a German supply submarine at a prearranged place in North Atlantic at a prearranged time, it is highly suspicious if an American attack submarine is already waiting for them there. The Germans of course considered the possibility that their codes had been broken, but they also considered other possibilities: that the Americans tracked down the submarines by their radar signatures, or by their infrared emissions, or that there was a spy in the German Navy; they couldn't decide one way or the other. Of course, unlike in the film, it wasn't the cryptographers themselves who made the decision, which intelligence to share with soldiers in the field.
There is a popular conception that Bletchley Park won World War II or shortened it by a few years. Its proponents, says this book, ignore the atomic bomb, which was being developed with a view to be used against Germany. It certainly helped win the Battle of the Atlantic, but so did the development of radar, Leigh light, the Hedgehog mortar and other antisubmarine weapons; you can't easily isolate the value of Bletchley Park decrypts from everything else.
This book also deals with the breaking of the German Lorenz cipher, which Adolf Hitler used to communicate with his generals, the Japanese naval code and the Soviet diplomatic code. The first helped prepare for the Normandy landings; the second helped assassinate Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; the third revealed the extent of Soviet espionage against the American atomic bomb program.
The big problem with military codebreaking is using the operational intelligence obtained by breaking codes without revealing to the enemy that his codes have been broken. Surely, if a German attack submarine meets a German supply submarine at a prearranged place in North Atlantic at a prearranged time, it is highly suspicious if an American attack submarine is already waiting for them there. The Germans of course considered the possibility that their codes had been broken, but they also considered other possibilities: that the Americans tracked down the submarines by their radar signatures, or by their infrared emissions, or that there was a spy in the German Navy; they couldn't decide one way or the other. Of course, unlike in the film, it wasn't the cryptographers themselves who made the decision, which intelligence to share with soldiers in the field.
There is a popular conception that Bletchley Park won World War II or shortened it by a few years. Its proponents, says this book, ignore the atomic bomb, which was being developed with a view to be used against Germany. It certainly helped win the Battle of the Atlantic, but so did the development of radar, Leigh light, the Hedgehog mortar and other antisubmarine weapons; you can't easily isolate the value of Bletchley Park decrypts from everything else.
This book also deals with the breaking of the German Lorenz cipher, which Adolf Hitler used to communicate with his generals, the Japanese naval code and the Soviet diplomatic code. The first helped prepare for the Normandy landings; the second helped assassinate Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; the third revealed the extent of Soviet espionage against the American atomic bomb program.
August 24, 2014
This book clearly supposes that the reader has some familiarity with Word War 2, somewhat familiar with currently obsolete tech , and despite it's claims, it's not really complete. It mostly focuses on the US and England's technological efforts to break the radio (or telelgram) transmitted Axis code. It also cuts off right before the Cold War which would be fine, except he spends a chapter teasing the reader about it.
More technological than I would like (You really need physical copies of the machines on both sides to get what he's talking about) and not as complete as I would like, it's still a good read.
More technological than I would like (You really need physical copies of the machines on both sides to get what he's talking about) and not as complete as I would like, it's still a good read.
January 22, 2018
I'm always looking for new books on my favourite non-fiction subject, cryptography, especially history-related ones. That one was recommended to me by my friend Steve Bellovin and it did not disappoint. It gave me new insights into both WWI and WWII events, many of them giving more details or a different view on specific point or character. Like Jason Fagone's book I read last year, it is the perfect complement to David Kahn's classic, The Corebreakers.
The writing is pleasant to read and where it went technical, it was really interesting and deep.
Excellent, recommended to anyone looking for historical retelling of Cryptological stuff :)
The writing is pleasant to read and where it went technical, it was really interesting and deep.
Excellent, recommended to anyone looking for historical retelling of Cryptological stuff :)
June 6, 2010
The fascinating story of cryptography including its history leading up to WWII and the endeavors on both sides of the Atlantic to decipher the enemy's codes. At times the book is a bit technical and intellectual during discussions of the machines and mathematics used to break codes. The technical aspects arebalanced by the detail of the people involved in the efforts.
March 19, 2011
While the details and descriptions of the actual machines and sometimes the code breaking process were a little difficult to plow through at times, I found the human stories fascinating. I also appreciated the different perspective of WWII and even learned some new things about what went on far away from the main theaters of action.
August 28, 2022
I loved the history, the details and I learned a lot about myself reading it. I also developed a stronger appreciation for those who fought the Axis in WWII. Although a little tech-y and hard to fully comprehend at times, it was a phenomenal book.
December 23, 2014
Excellent. I actually understood details of decoding the Enigma messages while I was reading it, though I couldn't explain it now. Also recommended for readers of Sayers' _Have His Carcase_ who want to understand more than the Playfair explanation there.
October 21, 2013
كتاب رائع جداً في فكرته - معقد جداً في تركيبه
بحاجة لتركيز عال، وقراءة متقطعة لساعات طويلة . . !
لا أنصح القراء الهواة بهذا الكتاب أبداً ~ !
September 9, 2016
Detailed, comprehensive, thorough.
September 8, 2025
A solid, well-researched history of the intellectual battle that raged in the shadows of the tanks, the battleships, and the infantry trenches of WWII. This is the story of the cryptanalysts who devoted their lives to breaking the secret codes the concealed the enemy’s starkest secrets. It is a tale of mathematical ingenuity, but also industrial might reminiscent perhaps of the Manhattan Project, as great machines were forged to crack open the Enigma and JN25 ciphers.
The machines were only useful after cryptanalysts first pried them open with mathematical finesse: Pole Marian Rejewski was able to reverse engineer the 1938 Enigma machine--the internal rotor wirings and keyboard connections--be teasing out subtle patterns in the mere 6 letters of the daily message indicator, a code prepended to the encrypted message conveying the Enigma settings necessary for the recipient to decrypt the message. The Enigma was a formidable challenge, essentially a non-repeating polyalphabetic cipher. Then, even as today, the weakness was in the implementation, culture, and procedures. Overconfidence in the strength of their ciphers prevented the Germans from ever seriously entertaining the possibility that their most guarded secrets were an open book. Turing's great successes stemmed largely from the existence of 'cribs', which were known plaintext/ciphertext pairings, often times obtained because the same message would be sent over multiple channels: the unbroken Enigma but also a weaker tactical code that was compromised. Using the cribs, together with a suite of mathematical maneuvers developed at Bletchley, the possible number of daily keys would be reduced to a large but manageable number. Giant batteries of Enigma machines, called bombes by the Brits, would search through and test each of these possible keys. They had to work so fast that the physical electronic connections were strained: metal brushes would bend and contacts would fail. Capacitors would overload and explode. Paper tapes would fly though the machine so fast it would risk combustion. Rapid computation became *the* technological challenge of the day; the Mark II Colossus became the first programmable vacuum tube computer, whose sole focus was on breaking on the German Lorenz cipher.
But once the Brits and Americans were reliably reading daily cables and messages, there was the difficult problem of deciding whether and how to act on the intelligence, lest one show their hand. When Rommel's Afrika Corps was faltering in 1943 and supplies were dwindling, the Brits were reading his dispatches requesting fuel, ammunition, food. The Brits were also reading the Italian Naval codes, and so know which ships were going to replenish Rommel, when, and from where. To disguise this knowledge, out of a dozen or so daily shipments they'd intercept and sink only a handful, few enough to draw up to chance encounter or other surveillance, but they were always sure to pick off Romme's most critical shipments.
And so on. It's a great story.
My main complaint is that Budiansky doesn't always explain the technical side of things with great clarity. He deserves credit for delving into the various cryptanalytic techniques at all, but it's as if he's on the edge of the pool afraid to really jump in. Several times I needed to consult external resources to flesh out details that Budiansky glosses over or simply didn't elaborate on. But one also doesn't want a textbook on WWII crypto filled with equations, and so there is a balancing act, and a tough one at that. This was probably the hardest part in writing this book, and Budiansky didn't quite hit the mark.
Still, it's probably one of the best accounts of this great history, and Budiansky's book sits next to Richard Rhodes' on my shelf, testaments to the power and audacity of the human intellect in the face of annihilation.
The machines were only useful after cryptanalysts first pried them open with mathematical finesse: Pole Marian Rejewski was able to reverse engineer the 1938 Enigma machine--the internal rotor wirings and keyboard connections--be teasing out subtle patterns in the mere 6 letters of the daily message indicator, a code prepended to the encrypted message conveying the Enigma settings necessary for the recipient to decrypt the message. The Enigma was a formidable challenge, essentially a non-repeating polyalphabetic cipher. Then, even as today, the weakness was in the implementation, culture, and procedures. Overconfidence in the strength of their ciphers prevented the Germans from ever seriously entertaining the possibility that their most guarded secrets were an open book. Turing's great successes stemmed largely from the existence of 'cribs', which were known plaintext/ciphertext pairings, often times obtained because the same message would be sent over multiple channels: the unbroken Enigma but also a weaker tactical code that was compromised. Using the cribs, together with a suite of mathematical maneuvers developed at Bletchley, the possible number of daily keys would be reduced to a large but manageable number. Giant batteries of Enigma machines, called bombes by the Brits, would search through and test each of these possible keys. They had to work so fast that the physical electronic connections were strained: metal brushes would bend and contacts would fail. Capacitors would overload and explode. Paper tapes would fly though the machine so fast it would risk combustion. Rapid computation became *the* technological challenge of the day; the Mark II Colossus became the first programmable vacuum tube computer, whose sole focus was on breaking on the German Lorenz cipher.
But once the Brits and Americans were reliably reading daily cables and messages, there was the difficult problem of deciding whether and how to act on the intelligence, lest one show their hand. When Rommel's Afrika Corps was faltering in 1943 and supplies were dwindling, the Brits were reading his dispatches requesting fuel, ammunition, food. The Brits were also reading the Italian Naval codes, and so know which ships were going to replenish Rommel, when, and from where. To disguise this knowledge, out of a dozen or so daily shipments they'd intercept and sink only a handful, few enough to draw up to chance encounter or other surveillance, but they were always sure to pick off Romme's most critical shipments.
And so on. It's a great story.
My main complaint is that Budiansky doesn't always explain the technical side of things with great clarity. He deserves credit for delving into the various cryptanalytic techniques at all, but it's as if he's on the edge of the pool afraid to really jump in. Several times I needed to consult external resources to flesh out details that Budiansky glosses over or simply didn't elaborate on. But one also doesn't want a textbook on WWII crypto filled with equations, and so there is a balancing act, and a tough one at that. This was probably the hardest part in writing this book, and Budiansky didn't quite hit the mark.
Still, it's probably one of the best accounts of this great history, and Budiansky's book sits next to Richard Rhodes' on my shelf, testaments to the power and audacity of the human intellect in the face of annihilation.
January 20, 2025
This is a relatively short book--327 pages, not including the indexes and a very helpful timeline--but it packs a punch. Starting with the roots of what would become modern codebreaking at the end of World War I and the time between the wars, and ending with the Cold War, we're treated to a concise but still detailed history of a time that brought seismic changes to how intelligence was treated in warfare. The first third or so of the book was the hardest for me to truly understand because that was the part that dealt the most with the scientific and mathematical foundations of cryptoanalysis. Computer science and math are very much not my area; I struggled gamely through the diagrams and exponential notations, but I can't say that I ever really grasped those sections. "This appeared impossible but human ingenuity solved it" was enough for me. I can appreciate how difficult it was not because I understood it, but precisely because I had difficulty even fully processing the theory.
Once we moved out of the theoretical underpinnings and into the "human factor," I perked up. Internecine warfare between military branches, personality conflicts, tradition being bent by necessity, this is what I came for. Then we moved from the internal fighting to the external battles with the Axis powers, and I was really in my element. Now I was seeing names I knew--Dönitz, Rommel, Montgomery, Churchill, Patton, MacArthur. Layering sigint (signals intelligence) over what I already knew of battles provided an additional depth of insight that was absolutely incredible.
This is still a story of the triumph of human ingenuity, and it contains the ever-timely reminder that even a handful of individuals can change the course of history. The author also points out the breakthroughs and innovations that were due to two populations no one was looking at for watime success, or anything else--Jews and women. Polish Jews created some of the early successes in codebreaking, before, during and after their country's decimation by the Nazis. Women stepped up to take jobs that were only opened to them because so many men were in the field fighting, and they provided a lot of the backbone of both Bletchley Park and Arlington Hall. So whether your area is math, computers, intelligence, history, or "contributions not just made by straight white men," the author has something for you.
Once we moved out of the theoretical underpinnings and into the "human factor," I perked up. Internecine warfare between military branches, personality conflicts, tradition being bent by necessity, this is what I came for. Then we moved from the internal fighting to the external battles with the Axis powers, and I was really in my element. Now I was seeing names I knew--Dönitz, Rommel, Montgomery, Churchill, Patton, MacArthur. Layering sigint (signals intelligence) over what I already knew of battles provided an additional depth of insight that was absolutely incredible.
This is still a story of the triumph of human ingenuity, and it contains the ever-timely reminder that even a handful of individuals can change the course of history. The author also points out the breakthroughs and innovations that were due to two populations no one was looking at for watime success, or anything else--Jews and women. Polish Jews created some of the early successes in codebreaking, before, during and after their country's decimation by the Nazis. Women stepped up to take jobs that were only opened to them because so many men were in the field fighting, and they provided a lot of the backbone of both Bletchley Park and Arlington Hall. So whether your area is math, computers, intelligence, history, or "contributions not just made by straight white men," the author has something for you.
December 19, 2023
It is somewhat disappointing to me that Budianky’s well-researched work is focused on American and British codebreaking work during WWII, with relatively little said about the opposing code work of the Axis powers.
Nevertheless, Battle of Wits is a personalized and engaging account of the people involved in codebreaking that began, with baby steps, in the years following WWI.
It’s a lot to read, the personalities are dramatically presented, and there is a fair amount of technical stuff, so the book can satisfy both casual readers and the techies.
If you think you know a lot about Enigma and the Japanese code work and all of the half-truths about codebreaking in the second great war, read this book and learn some more.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com
Nevertheless, Battle of Wits is a personalized and engaging account of the people involved in codebreaking that began, with baby steps, in the years following WWI.
It’s a lot to read, the personalities are dramatically presented, and there is a fair amount of technical stuff, so the book can satisfy both casual readers and the techies.
If you think you know a lot about Enigma and the Japanese code work and all of the half-truths about codebreaking in the second great war, read this book and learn some more.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com
January 1, 2021
Finally, more than just Enigma! To be fair, quite a few pages are dedicated to Enigma, but Purple and JN-25 get decent coverage too. Lorenz, the weather cipher, and a few other WWII era ciphers are also covered. The content is necessarily technical, but I can't imagine how to explain the cipher systems any more clearly than Budiansky does. I read Singh's "The Code Book" just before this one. "Battle of Wits" is more technical and detailed, at least partially because it doesn't endeavor to cover a period of time ranging from ancient Sparta to quantum computing. I enjoyed the detail, but be prepared and take your time.
July 2, 2022
Finally finished! The book was quite insightful, but ultimately a long grind to read. It was a bit different from my expectations which was to learn the story of the codebreakers themselves and the information they discovered, which was still covered; but, the primary focus seemed to be on HOW the process of codebreaking worked. In regard to that process of codebreaking, the book is very well written and researched; however, it just gets very technical and difficult to read leisurely for enjoyment.
September 23, 2021
عمل من الطراز الرفيع
المميز فيه هو أن المؤلف يحول التاريخ إلى قصة مشوقة بدلاً من أن يقدمها كحقائق جافة
يضم الكتاب بين دفتيه جميع جهود الحلفاء خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية لفك الشيفرات والرموز الألمانية واليابانية، غالبًا ما يأخذ طابع كتب كهذه شكلًا فنيًا أكثر من كونه دراما أو قصة مشوقة، لكن المؤلف استطاع ان يجمع بين الاثنين بحرفية عالية، وإضافة تشويق عالي يجعل الكتاب غير ممل بالرغم من حجمه
الترجمة جيدة ، والعرض كان متسلسلًا ومنطقي
كتاب جميل وذو طابع وموضوع مختلفين
المميز فيه هو أن المؤلف يحول التاريخ إلى قصة مشوقة بدلاً من أن يقدمها كحقائق جافة
يضم الكتاب بين دفتيه جميع جهود الحلفاء خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية لفك الشيفرات والرموز الألمانية واليابانية، غالبًا ما يأخذ طابع كتب كهذه شكلًا فنيًا أكثر من كونه دراما أو قصة مشوقة، لكن المؤلف استطاع ان يجمع بين الاثنين بحرفية عالية، وإضافة تشويق عالي يجعل الكتاب غير ممل بالرغم من حجمه
الترجمة جيدة ، والعرض كان متسلسلًا ومنطقي
كتاب جميل وذو طابع وموضوع مختلفين
July 18, 2018
i hate when this happens... i would have liked this book so much more 20 years ago. It's very well done, skillfully interleaving the math stuff with narrative. It's just that my brain is shot now, i can't handle all the technical stuff.
Compare to when I read Black Holes and Time Warps 20+ years ago. I could handle the technical stuff. No more.
Compare to when I read Black Holes and Time Warps 20+ years ago. I could handle the technical stuff. No more.
July 6, 2021
An interesting book on some of the lesser known aspects of the US signals intelligence process. In particular one of the collections sites is near me, and I was interested in contacting one of the author's sources but have been unsuccessful in locating that source.
Read the hard bound version which I got for an old officemate.
Read the hard bound version which I got for an old officemate.
October 8, 2022
I always really want to read these books about codes, especially WW2 codes, but somehow I just get stuck. This one is actually pretty well written, and there IS narrative that's compelling, and that pulls the dense code parts along. But in the end... the dense code parts were too baffling to me. I see this as a failing on my part, not on the part of the author.
March 30, 2018
A good if somewhat light looking at code Breaking in World War II. I had such high hopes for this book only to have it disappoint.
By the time I read 41 % of the book I was done. The areseveral appendices that follow but the rest are notes.
By the time I read 41 % of the book I was done. The areseveral appendices that follow but the rest are notes.
June 17, 2018
Probably a fascinating read for the right person (i.e., one unusually interested in the details of codebreaking and cypher technology) but I couldn't get into it, due to Budiansky's extremely scholarly style. Too bad because I do like WWII history, especially the obscure stories.
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