Enigma: The Battle for the Code (Paperback)

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Timing is all but even Hugh Sebag-Montefiore could hardly have dreamed when he started researching this book four years ago that its publication would coincide with the release of the Hollywood blockbuster U-571. The film claims that it was the Americans "wot won the war" through the bravery of two of its sailors who climbed aboard the crippled sub and made off with an Enigma machine and assorted codebooks before it sank. But then Hollywood has never let the facts get in the way of a good profit. As Sebag-Montefiore points out it was a British officer, Francis Fasson, together with Able Seaman, Colin Grazier, who climbed down the turret of U-559 to retrieve the codebooks and, furthermore, their capture was only a small, if important, part of the Enigma story. However, this book is neither an exercise in point scoring nor full of dramatic new revelations. Its purpose is to chart the entire Enigma history from 1931, when a cipher officer, named Hans Thilo Schmidt, working in the German Defence Ministry, first passed secrets of the code to the French to the end of the War. As such it is extremely welcome. There have been a fair number of books on various parts of the Enigma story--not least the work of Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park boffins--but there have been few that have so thoroughly charted the early years of the 1930s when Polish cryptographers battled to read Enigma messages. Thus Enigma becomes part of an ongoing story, not something just bolted on to a dramatic narrative of the Second World War. Sebag-Montefiore has unearthed a few new primary sources, who add colour and insight rather than anything new, but he does have an engagingly easy style not found among many historians and the book is an extremely accessible read. For all its thoroughness, though, there are some things that the author cannot explain. Why did the Germans not realise the code was broken when all the evidence pointed that way? And how did Enigma work? Sebag-Montefiore devotes a lengthy appendix to a simplified explanation of the latter--but this reader is still none the wiser. Maybe some things will always remain a mystery. --John Crace --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Breaking the German Enigma codes was not only about brilliant mathematicians and professors at Bletchley Park. There is another aspect of the story which it is only now possible to tell. It takes in the exploits of spies, naval officers and ordinary British seamen who risked, and in some cases lost their lives snatching the vital Enigma codebooks from under the noses of Nazi officials and from sinking German ships and submarines. This book will tell the whole Enigma story: the original invention and use by German forces and how it was the Poles who first cracked - and passed on to the British - the key to the German airforce Enigma. The more complicated German Navy Enigma appeared to them to be unbreakable.

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First Sentence
Lots of books have already been written about Enigma, and they all have one characteristic in common. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

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11 Reviews 5 star:  (3) 4 star:  (6) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.1 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   7 of 7 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting & readable version of the enigma story, 19 April 2001 By A Customer Hugh Sebag-Montefiore (HSM) gives a well written & well researched history of the Enigma. HSM has interviewed a significant number of the main players in the story which leads to a much fuller background to the story which no doubt had very significant impact on WW II. The book was written after a large amount of historic data was released from the Public Records Office which accounts for when the book was published, this too adds to quality of read. I also liked the way in which HSM used appendices to include some of the more technical details of the cipher breaking techniques, this allowed the story to remain readable without losing the more complex information to those who will be interested in understanding it. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive research, poor writing., 7 Feb 2003 By  Davywavy2 - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    As bibliography in the back of this book indicates, it's an exhaustively researched piece of work, seemingly leaving no stone unturned in the authors quest to tell the whole story of the cracking of the enigma code from its inception in the early 30's right through to the end of WW2. It may be that this exhaustiveness is what leads to the books' greatest weakness - the leaden, lumpen prose in which it is presented. The breaking of Enigma was a major acheievement by British intelligence and undountedly lead to the war being shortened, possibly by years; it is a tale of individual courage and of genius, and of the constant race against time to break the messages of the day in the hope of protecting british shipping in the Atlantic. Sadly, none of this excitment or even interest is conveyed in the writing, and whenever a player in this grand tale seems about to develop a life of their own the authorial hand moves quickly to push them back into the grey, uninvolving prose. This is a shame; it's a great story, worthy of being often told - but this book - whilst crammed with facts - does not tell a story, more lists dates and names and forces the reader to try and find their invlovement or interest where they may. Five stars for research and information, one star for writing. A tremendous shame. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Great book - the hard work behind the cracking of the code, 26 Mar 2002 By  Alan Eager (Charleston, SC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This book describes the sheer hard work that went on with breaking the Enigma code - not just from the code breakers at Bletchley park but the guys who risked their lives in recovering secrets from the Germans to boarding booby trapped U-boats. It describes many of the successes and failures particularly at sea with the interception of the U-boat supply ships to the sinking of the Scharnhorst and the ultimate deceptions before D-day. Read this an find out there was much, much more to Enigma than Alan Turing (although he was pretty amazing too!). Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 11 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars hard going at times, but very entertaining The book at times could be hard going, especially when reading the deciphering codes. But it was very entertaining and gave a very good insight into just how many different... Read more Published on 3 Aug 2006 by J. A. McDermaid 3.0 out of 5 stars Well researched but boring Well researched, interesting in parts but generally a bit boring, which is surprising given the subject matter. Read more Published on 17 Jan 2004 4.0 out of 5 stars The other story of the breaking of Enigma Whereas many other books concerned with Enigma have concentrated on the work of the cryptanalysts of Bletchley Park this deals with those other people crucial to the effort. Read more Published on 18 Sep 2003 by Matthew Wharton 4.0 out of 5 stars Wide-ranging, thorough and readable This seems to be a thorough account of the Enigma story. Sebag-Montefiore is careful to cover, not only the Bletchley Park side of things, but the other people and organisations... Read more Published on 14 May 2002 5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched, very good read. Being untechnical and easily confused by too many mathematical equations, the structure of Enigma helped its readability. Read more Published on 30 May 2001 by simon.pass@bbc.co.uk 5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!! A truely wonderful story! Proud to be an English man and a European and am truely touched by the harrowing events, the tales of heroism and pure luck in getting the machine and... Read more Published on 15 May 2001 4.0 out of 5 stars Enigma...The definitive work? A great deal has been written about Enigma over the years and, because so many of the major players are no longer with us, I can't imagine that any significant additions can be... Read more Published on 12 Aug 2000 4.0 out of 5 stars True story of the heroic efforts to capture and break Enigma A wonderfully written story detailing the complete story that is "Enigma". The author has used archive material not previously seen or released to give us an accurate... Read more Published on 1 Aug 2000 by pjackson@ridgeway-sys.com Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 11 customer reviews...

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