Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park - Softcover

Hinsley, F. H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019285304X ISBN 13: 9780192853042

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 1994

Synopsis

Bletchley Park was arguably the most successful intelligence operation in world history, the top scecret workplace of the remarkable people who cracked Germany's vaunted Enigma Code. Almost to the end of the war, the Germans had firm faith in the Enigma ciphering machine, but in fact the codebreakers were deciphering nearly 4,000 German transmissions daily by 1942. Indeed, Winston Churchill hailed the work of Bletchley Park as the 'secret weapon' that won the war. Only now, nearly half a century since the end of the Second World War, have any of the men and women in this group come forward to tell this remarkable story in their own words - a story that an oath of secrecy long prevented them from revealing. In Codebreakers , F. H. Hinsley and Alan Stripp have gathered together twenty-seven first-hand accounts of the most amazing feats in intelligence history. These engaging memoirs, each written by a different member of the codebreakers team, recount the long hours working in total secrecy and the feelings of camaraderie, tension, excitement, and frustration as these men and women, both British and American, did some of the most important work of the war. This book is intended for readers interested in the Second World War and Intelligence work; historians of the Second World War, cryptography, intelligence.

About this title

Review

it is an exciting story they have to tell. (Tom Greenwell, Yorkshire Post)

... because of its intense secrecy, the work of the men and women at Bletchley received no public recognition for many years after the war, and many of those who made important contributions are no longer alive.This volume of personal recollections by some 30 of the survivors is ... especially welcome. Conditions of life and work at Bletchley, and its principal achievements, are faithfully sampled in Codebreakers, which is worth reading both for its historical interest and for the sidelights it throws on the problems encountered in the rapid assembly and organization of one of the greatest collections of talent that has ever occurred in Western civilization. (Nature)

This unique volume will be of great interest to cryptologists in particular, and intelligence buffs in general. (Surveillant)

While some of the chapters are so technical that Stella Rimmington would struggle to unscramble them, one still gets a strong sense of the excitement and frustrations of a war fought on the airwaves. (Daily Telegraph)

the anecdotal material is fascinating in the insight it gives into everyday life at the institution. (Sunday Times)

Hinsley and Stripp have assembled 30 reminiscers - most geniuses, a few slaves, all highly informative. (Robin Blake, Independent on Sunday)

it is a remarkable tribute to the men and women who worked to crack the Germans' Enigma code. (David Hall,Oxford Times)

The most interesting thing about this collection of essays is the light it throws on the personalities concerned. (Times Higher Education Supplement)

These essays on the diverse activities at Bletchley Park (which remained secret until the 1970s) are enthralling. (The Observer)

What makes Codebreakers so absorbing is that it has been written by the men and women who worked at Bletchley Park, all of whom were forbidden to talk about their work at the time. Codebreakers gives a fascinating insight into their daily lives. (Madeleine Burton, Hitchin Gazette)

Book Description

A top secret Second World War story told from the inside for the first time

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019285304X
• ISBN 13: 9780192853042
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 342