Capturing Enigma: How HMS "Petard" Seized the German Naval Codes: How HMS "Petard" Seized the German Naval Codes [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

The story of HMS Petard's capture of an enigma machine and related codebooks probably deserves no more than a chapter in a history of World War II. Whilst it is a story of great bravery by a few individuals, it is a lightweight story. Time and again, the author repeats the basic story of the ship, its crew, and their actions. Frankly, there just isn't enough material to fill a book or to hold a reader's interest. Save your money!

It is impossible to overstate the value of the British decryption specialists in the Allied victory in World War II. The project, given the overall codename Ultra, allowed the British to read the secret dispatches the German military was sending out to their forces. By knowing what the Germans were going to do, the British navy and air forces were able to organize and concentrate their limited forces and meet the challenge.

The HMS Petard was a destroyer in the British navy and in October of 1942 it engaged in a battle with the German submarine U-559. When the German crew abandoned the submarine, three British sailors swam over and removed some of the German code books. Two of them went down with the sub. The codebooks allowed the British to break the codes the Germans were using to control their submarines and enabled the British to prevail in the battle of the Atlantic. Like the air battle over Britain, this one was also very close. The British Isles are completely dependent on supplies arriving by ship and if the Germans had been more effective in sinking Allied shipping, the British would have been starved and forced to surrender.

The action of the HMS Petard was so secret that the British navy refused to give the two sailors who gave their lives a suitable military decoration. This was in fear that it would tip the Germans off that their codes had been compromised. Fortunately for the British side, the German High Command never became aware that their codes had been broken.

Given such powerful material, you would expect this to be a very good book. It is not because the author is so repetitive and non-sequential. He jumps back and forth in time and many situations are repeated, albeit in a different guise. He also describes the actions of the Petard throughout the war, which is a tangential subplot off the main plot, namely the value of Ultra. It would have been a better book if the emphasis would have remained focused on Ultra.