Amazon.com info for 'Enigma: The Battle for the Code'

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Back to reviews and details of Enigma: The Battle for the Code

Amazon.com reviews:

Rating: 3 Summary: Generous overviw, well supported
Comment 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.

Rating: 4 Summary: Good but not great history of cracking the naval enigma
Comment Without a doubt the Allies' cracking the German enigma is one of the greatest, and perhaps the deciding, accomplishment of World War Two. Winston Churchill called the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park the geese who consistently laid golden eggs, without ever cackling.

This history of the battle to break the naval enigma is a good book; thorough, well-researched, not excessively tedious (because the technical details are relegated to appendices.) All the same, I found the book to be akin to reading a corporate history; the capture of U-boats and other boats with code books, the sinking of ships, and betrayal of secrets becomes repetitive. If this really interests you, you'll really like the book. Alas, I think that a good book could have been a great book if it had also gone into further detail than to simply mention that the Germans had also cracked some of the Allies' naval codes.

Crypto and history buffs will enjoy this book; the less enthusiastic will probably find it a slog.

Rating: 4 Summary: Great writing, but limited mainly to Navy Enigma
Comment Mr Sebag-Montefiore is an excellent story teller. It is diffcult to put this book aside.

In contrast to other books on Enigma the technical details of the breaking are given in Appendixes, which makes reading easier. This is a very good idea.

My only qualm is that the story is mainly that of the navy Enigma. Little is devoted to the air force and army Enigma, which is a pity.

Rating: 4 Summary: A blow-by-blow account
Comment The Ultra secret was kept for a long time after WWII. Recently declassified, it was the Allied code name for the Enigma ciphering system used by the Germans to coordinate U-boat attacks, to gather weather reports and intellegence, etc. This book is interesting in that the author gives ample space to the sailors and intellegence officers that gathered hard data, often from sinking U-boats, instead of focussing exclusively on the technical work performed at Bletchley Park. The result is an action-packed account that speeds through the material, while giving the reader a glimpse at the personalities and actions of the people responsible for solving the Enigma.

The book is arranged roughly chronologically, but Sebag-Montefiore divides his chapters into subject areas that span months at a time. This makes for a better flow. Therefore, the book backtracks from time-to-time, but it is never confusing, due to the skill of the author (and his editor). Oft-neglected episodes are included, much to the benefit of the book - because the U.S. and Britain were the two largest Allied powers, many books overlook contributions by other nations. Not so with this book - the Polish codebreakers that originally duplicated the Enigma and broke the peacetime ciphers are given more space than the celebrated Alan Turing. Likewise, the Canadian contribution to convoy duty (and therefore U-boat hunting and intellegence gathering from sinking U-boats) is given its rightful share of space.

The author wisely keeps the pace moving with events and doesn't allow the narrative to bog down in technical descriptions of the deciphering procedures. These procedures are gathered as appendices at the end of the book. The appendices are not great - they are descriptive without going into the mathematical detail, and therefore come across as "hand-waving." Luckily this difficulty does not detract from the main part of the book, so is not a fatal flaw, but those looking for a technical explanation should look elsewhere.

Rating: 4 Summary: The Whole Story
Comment "Enigma" by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore is an up-to-date look at the history of the cracking of the code, from the initial efforts in Poland through the final changes the German's made in May of 1945. The most impressive thing about this book is how comprehensive it is. The author covers all of the aspects of the code-breaking effort. Including some of the technical details involved in breaking the code, the personalities of those involved, the stories of their efforts to capture code books and equipment, and the effects that their efforts had on the war. The book is arranged in chronological order, with appendixes provided to give more of the detail of the technical aspects. The epilogue includes a wrap-up of what happened to the major participants after the war. This is a very worthwhile read for anyone interested in World War II and Enigma.