Enigma: The Battle for the Code

• Publisher:   Wiley
• Number Of Pages:   432
• Publication Date:   2001-01-05
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0471407380
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780471407386

"cracking stuff . . . vivid and hitherto unknown details."–Sunday Times (London)

The complete untold story of the cracking of the infamous Nazi code

Most histories of the cracking of the elusive Enigma code focus on the work done by the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, Britain’s famous World War II counterintelligence station. In this fascinating account, however, we are told, for the first time, the hair-raising stories of the heroic British and American sailors, spies, and secret agents who put their lives on the line to provide the codebreakers with the materials they needed. Noted British journalist Hugh Sebag-Montefiore tracked down many of the surviving players in the Enigma drama, and these witnesses–some of them speaking on record for the first time–provide unforgettable firsthand accounts of the courageous men and women who faced death in order to capture vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi officials. In addition to these gripping stories, we learn fascinating new details about the genesis of the code and the feverish activities at Bletchley. Enigma is a spellbinding account of the brilliant feat of decryption that turned the tide of World War II.

There are two themes to this book, the methods used to break the German enigma machine cipher and the capture of code books that aided in this process. As such, the book contains both a lot of technical information on machine ciphering/deciphering and exciting chapters dealing with the capturing of German submarines and some surface ships; both are critical aspects of the story of how the German enigma messages were deciphered. The book focuses almost exclusively on the naval machine, which was both more technically complex and utilized more complex encoding procedures than that of the German Army and Air force machines. The breaking of the naval code was made easier by the ability to capture code books from submarines and small surface ships (weather ships, trawlers, etc.). This, as is discussed in the book, was a two edged sword, as the whole enigma deciphering program might be placed in jeopardy if the Germans learned of these captures. Fortunately, the Germans believed that even such captures would be of only modest value because of the complexity of the machines and the procedures that were employed. At most, it was believed that code books would be of only short-term value, since the machine settings and tables were frequently changed making a stolen code book soon obsolete. The Germans did not realize that Polish and then British mathematicians had uncovered weaknesses in the enigma system, and that these weaknesses allowed the ciphers to be broken even without code books (although at times these code books were invaluable). This book explains how this was done, both in the body of the text and at greater length in a series of appendices. (This aspect of the book is very complex and technical, which some readers might find a bit tedious and off-putting.) The book also tells the exciting stories of very brave British sailors (and some Americans) going down into sinking submarines to retrieve code books and enigma machines, all the while aware that scuttling charges might go off killing them outright or trapping them in a very much more rapidly sinking submarine (from which they would not be able to escape); indeed some did not escape. Some of the book also focuses on spies and counter spies and how a German sold the secret of the enigma machine to the French, how this aided the Polish code breakers before the start of the war, the subsequent German attempts (mostly successful) to capture the French and Polish code breakers, and finally why they did not learn enough from these captures to stop using the enigma machines. As noted, this is largely the story of British code breakers, working on the German naval ciphers. There is some reference to work with the Americans and work on other German ciphers. I recommend Budiansky's Battle of Wits for information on the American collaboration with the British, efforts of the British and Americans to break the German Army and Air force enigma machines and the American work on Japanese codes and ciphers. I recommend this book to those interested in the history of WWII and to those interested in codes and ciphers. Those who just want an exciting story of spies and adventure on the high seas may find the more than half of the book that is very technically oriented to detract from what they are seeking and they therefore might be disappointed. Likewise, those only looking for technical information may find the adventure parts of the book distracting.

Very thorough look at the breaking of the Enigma code...A bit heavy on the actual mechanics of the device itself, which was hard to follow; otherwise an interesting look into history.

A tedious and poorly organised account of a fabulously interesting history. Other reviewers have writen accurately about this book's good qualities but none have told how gripping it could be for a few pages and how absolutely bloodless and irritating it could turn for the next 10, leaving this reader frustrated, wanting the author to finish his present narrative (sometimes of treason and spies) before going onto the next stage of his story. Then there are the many pages of how the enigma machines actually worked. Perhaps code-breakers could follow it, but it was (again to this reader) writing as clear as mud -- descriptive writing so incredibly turgid as to make one read it aloud and laugh.

I recently became interested in the history of World War II. I was looking for a good book about the subject to read and I stumbled upon this one. Also having a degree in computer science and mathematics I decided this was the book for me. I have never read a history book like this before and wasn't really sure how I would like it. So far I have absolutely loved it. You would expect the pacing and dialog to be very slow and boring but that is not the case at all. This book has held my interest thoroughly from the start.

I enjoyed this "chatty" (typically British, public school style) account of how Enigma was broken and constantly re-broken as the Nazi's upgraded their systems over the course of the conflict. Seabag-Montefiore has done his homework providing a well researched account of Bletchleys Park's major contributions at many decisive turning points in WWII. He also shone some light on many of the "front line" Polish and French agents and controllers who provided vital intelligence about the key inner-workings of the actual Enigma "typewriting" machines at the beginning of the war. Following their exploits through to their ends provided a human face to those heroic individuals surviving after occupation. Reasonably footnoted and sprinkled with a number of first-person accounts gained though increasingly rare interviews. Extensive appendices provide a good primer on the main cryptographic problems encountered and the various work-arounds the code-breakers discovered. All in all a well rounded history of the contributions made by British intelligence and others to the defeat of Hitlers mad ambitions.

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