Summary: Lots of good info; some topics missing
Comment: This book is a set of essays by people who actually worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, and describes in some detail what they did. Much of it is dry reading. That's because real cryptology is mostly dry work; months of boredom interrupted by moments of joy or chagrin. For those who care about World War II cryptology this is a "must read," but read either the 1967 or the 1996 edition of David Kahn's "The Codebreakers" first; otherwise, some of this book won't make much sense, for lack of context.
Some of the most interesting work done at Bletchley Park, and some of the most valuable people who worked there, are not mentioned at all in this book; not even a hint. I assume this is because of two problems: the British Official Secrets Act presumably still applies to a good deal of what happened at Bletchley Park, and the topics of inquiry that involved both British and American personnel could hardly be described in detail without the agreement of NSA, which might be hard to come by in some cases. I wish that two friends of mine who worked at Bletchley Park had been able to write memoirs of their work and their interactions with colleagues. But that didn't happen. However, we can hope that the remaining veil of official silence will be lifted some day.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love Cryptography? Read this.
Comment: This is a great history of the work that went on at Bletchley Park during WWII. The work that led up to breaking the Enigma machines, the people who made it possible (Turing etc) are all described in detail - great informational book for anyone interested in the history of codebreaking.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Somewhat boring, but interesting and comprehensive.
Comment: I agree with one of the reviewers that this book is "not what I exactly expected." It is more of a personal account that dramatic reading. However, if you can get through of a lot of the personal stories that you are not interested in, the activity in code breaking is informative. - Not the greatest book of non-fiction, but it could be a 5-star to the Brits involved.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Required Reading
Comment: Having read Codebreakers and studied BP's work, I must call this book required reading for anyone interested in the most secret aspects of WW2.
The first hand accounts allow you to experience the atmosphere of comaraderie under intense pressure. More importantly, these mini-memoirs demonstrate the monumental intellectual efforts needed to break, daily, dozens of different Enigma ciphers.
The "dry, uninteresting administrative work" was the cornerstone upon which Ultra was built: without definitive indexes and dictionaries how were the decrypts to be interpreted and put into the proper context? Without the bureaucratic machinery in place to deliver the vital intelligence to leaders and commands, what use would it be? Bletchley Park was not about flying spies into enemy territory. The un-sung heroism of those working behind the scenes lay in a subtler realm, but the codebreakers did manage to shorten the war by several months at least.
Readers, be thankful for the glimpse into genuine genius: sparkling mathematical genius (like Turing or Welchman) as well as the other intellectual giants of the "dry administrative" field (like Sir F.H.Hinsley).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dry narrative account
Comment: This book was not what I was expecting. It is a dry narrative account of the "Hut" workers at Bletchley Park. I was really interested in how Enigma was broken not in the daily administrative work. It did have really good information on the significance of the contribution of the codebreakers to the Allied victory. But this was just in the introduction