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Title: Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park by F. H. Hinsley, Alan Stripp ISBN: 0-19-280132-5 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Old Vets Gather for a Last Hurrah
Comment: When the gag order was finally lifted circa 1970 on the Bletchley Park operations, a lot of scientific, historical, and technical histories appeared. And there was a great hue and cry among military and political historians that the whole history of the British and American war against Hitlerian Germany would have to be rewritten. Well, much of that has been proven to be just hyperbole but it is generally agreed that the war was shortened by about two years. But the closer the Allies got to Germany the less role Bletchley played for the German forces used landlines for most strategic communications from mid 1944 on. Also they had another machine known as FISH which was not as easily read as Enigma. This book is a collection of personal narratives of life at Bletchley and how tedious most of the work there was, no matter how essential. Harry Hinsley, one of the authors, was a "whiz kid" recruited directly from university and after the war became a professor without ever completing his studies. Over the years he has written the monumental multivolume official history of British intelligence operations in WW II and many historical papers. Alan Stripp, was one of the original operatives and served for many years.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not really what I'd expected
Comment: When I purchased this book I expected a coherent study of what Bletchley Park was like during its WWII heyday. I knew that its contents were derived from the collected input of a number of people who were at Bletchley at that time. It is actually a collection of short essays by these people. Each has a slightly different theme and focus. Some of the essay were quite interesting, but over all, I did not come away with any kind of coherent understanding of how Bletchley Park operated, what it was like to work there, etc. I wish there had been an over-arching narrative to tie the pieces together.
Rating: 3
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.
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Title: Enigma: The Battle for the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore ISBN: 0471407380 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 05 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges, Douglas Hofstadter ISBN: 0802775802 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Enigma by Robert Harris ISBN: 0804115486 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing by Martin Gardner ISBN: 0486247619 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 October, 1984 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh ISBN: 0385495323 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 29 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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