- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Channel 4 Books; Reprint. edition (4 Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752221892
- ISBN-13: 978-0752221892
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 14.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
515,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #40 in Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Enigma Code
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
When "Captain Ridley's shooting party" arrived at Bletchley Park in 1939 no-one would have guessed that by 1945 the guests would number nearly 10,000 and that collectively they would have contributed decisively to the Allied war effort. Their role? To decode the Enigma cypher used by the Germans for high-level communications. Their work has already inspired Robert Harris's novel Enigma and now a Channel 4 series has been produced, which this book accompanies.
It is an astonishing story. A melting pot of Oxbridge dons (including Alan Turing, the father of the modern computer), maverick oddballs and more regular citizens worked night and day at Station X, as Bletchley Park was known, to derive intelligence information from German coded messages. Bear in mind that an Enigma machine had a possible 159 million million million different settings and the magnitude of the challenge becomes apparent. That they succeeded, despite military scepticism, supplying information that led to the sinking of the Bismarck, Montgomery's victory in North Africa and the D-Day landings, is testament to an indomitable spirit that wrenched British intelligence into the modern age, replacing false beards and dodgy accents with a technological precision that was to be fundamental as the Second World War segued into the Cold War.
Michael Smith constructs his absorbing narrative around the reminiscences of those who worked and played at Bletchley Park, and their stories add a very human colour to what was a highly cerebral activity, remote as it was from the blood and loss of the battlefield, but with such direct bearing. The code breakers of Station X did not win the war but they undoubtedly shortened it, and the potential lives saved on both sides stand as their greatest achievement. --David Vincent
Product Description
Tied to a Channel 4 television series in three one-hour parts, this is the story of the breaking of the Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II. That remarkable feat - breaking a code that the Germans believed to be unbreakable - was to play a major part in the outcome of the war. The book draws on official files and the testimonies of survivors to tell the story of a unique institution and the people who worked there. Examples designed to be intelligible to the layman are provided to illustrate how the code worked and how it was deciphered.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought "station X" in 1999 and although the stories surrounding Bletchley Park are interesting, the book frustrated me - it gives a very poor explanation about the machine "ENIGMA", which ends up being the driving force of the book. I would recommend "The Code Book" instead - It really explains how ENIGMA works.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book ties in well with the television series, and is able to go into greater detail about the major protagonists at Bletchley Park: in particular the programme's attitude of 'Alan Turing solved everything' is put firmly into perspective with the achievements of other codebreakers at Station X.
Inevitably, however, one is left wishing that the book were rather more heavyweight, as it does not offer enough extra over the series in the final analysis
Format:Paperback
An excellent book that provides a detailled and interesting appraisal of the work conducted at Bletchley Park and profiles of many of those people involved.I find it difficult to understand the vale of silence that existed until recently and probably did not allow the true recognition of what was achieved there to be to be fully appreciated
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
So interesting
Just finished this book,and found it so interesting. From the history of code breaking to the winding up of Bletchley Park after WW2. Read more
Published 24 months ago by palace pier
Prompt service
Was very satisfied with the condition of the book as well as the prompt delivery. Will use this seller again. Thank you. 76trombones.
Published on 6 April 2010 by R. Lambert
A cracking good read about something that had a great effect on our...
I found this book fascinating from start to finish. The descriptions of the eccentric people who were best at solving crossword puzzles and cracking codes interested me. Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2009 by John L
Not Enough Detail
I found Station X an interesting read, but I felt there wasn't enough content on the workings of the Enigma code and the decyphering techniques used. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2001
Very interesting to the younger reader
This in an extremely interesting book to read. It makes younger people like myself understand that the Second world War was not just fought milatarily against the Nazi Theird Reich... Read more
Published on 9 July 2000
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