like some other reviewers, this wasn't what i was expecting, but i was reasonably pleased with what i found. this book is a series of narratives by various people who worked at GC&CS (later to become CGCHQ) and Bletchley Park during WWII. their stories typically recount how they were recruited, their nervousness, and their most memorable moments. some authors describe how the codebreaking operations worked, including some of the machinery, which itself was fascinating.

the whole book isn't all cryptographers and code breakers, some of it is written by WRNS (or Wrens, young women in the naval reserves) who assisted the operation. and not all contributions were truly seen as positive, the final story describes a woman who left feeling as though she had contributed little to shortening the war.

it's good that there are multiple perspectives, although some of the overlap in the tales gets a bit frustrating. still, the length of the typical piece means that the story is over before it drags on too long, and others you wish went on longer.

the organization is good, the stories are arranged to slowly immerse you into the work and the world of Bletchley Park in the war.

the book doesn't just cover engma operations at BP, it includes some tales of field operations (which sounded quite daring and thrilling), and some work to crack japanese naval codes (the last section focuses on this).

probably best in conjunction with an official history. lots of good references are listed in the book, and some nice diagrams to contribute to the technical side of things.

like some other reviewers, this wasn't what i was expecting, but i was reasonably pleased with what i found. this book is a series of narratives by various people who worked at GC&CS (later to become CGCHQ) and Bletchley Park during WWII. their stories typically recount how they were recruited, their nervousness, and their most memorable moments. some authors describe how the codebreaking operations worked, including some of the machinery, which itself was fascinating.

the whole book isn't all cryptographers and code breakers, some of it is written by WRNS (or Wrens, young women in the naval reserves) who assisted the operation. and not all contributions were truly seen as positive, the final story describes a woman who left feeling as though she had contributed little to shortening the war.

it's good that there are multiple perspectives, although some of the overlap in the tales gets a bit frustrating. still, the length of the typical piece means that the story is over before it drags on too long, and others you wish went on longer.

the organization is good, the stories are arranged to slowly immerse you into the work and the world of Bletchley Park in the war.

the book doesn't just cover engma operations at BP, it includes some tales of field operations (which sounded quite daring and thrilling), and some work to crack japanese naval codes (the last section focuses on this).

probably best in conjunction with an official history. lots of good references are listed in the book, and some nice diagrams to contribute to the technical side of things.

After a long period of silence, many books about the accomplishments of Allied forces in breaking the codes and ciphers of German, Italian and Japanese forces in World War II have been published over the last twenty years. Most of these books have been either written by one of the individuals who worked on a few of the specific enemy codes, or an editor who crafted a story by interviewing a number of people who were part of the Allied code breaking effort. Unlike most of other books on the subject, Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park is a collection of 30 first hand accounts about the daily grind and life at Bletchley Park and its outstations written by different individuals who worked there during WWII.

First, a little background about the subject of the book for those who may not be familiar the British code breaking activities in WWII. Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), the British organization responsible for intercepting and decoding foreign communications, was moved from London to Bletchley Park shortly before the start of WWII to provide a safer location. Bletchley Park (BP) started as a small operation with less than 100 people in 1939. By the end of the war, BP had broken almost all enemy ciphers and codes, including the formidable German mechanical encryption machines Enigma and Fish, and intercepted and decoded thousands of critical enemy messages that changed the course of the war. During this process, the headcount Bletchley Park had grown to more than seven thousand including some of the leading mathematicians in the world like Alan Turing.

Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park gives as a cross section of the different kinds of people who worked at BP between 1939 to 1945. We learn about how they were recruited, what they worked on, how they attacked the problems, how they felt and what the general atmosphere was like.

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.

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.

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.

This is a great history of the work that went on at Bletchley Park during WWII. The work that led up to breaking the Enigma machines, the people who made it possible (Turing etc) are all described in detail - great informational book for anyone interested in the history of codebreaking.

I agree with one of the reviewers that this book is "not what I exactly expected." It is more of a personal account that dramatic reading. However, if you can get through of a lot of the personal stories that you are not interested in, the activity in code breaking is informative. - Not the greatest book of non-fiction, but it could be a 5-star to the Brits involved.

Having read Codebreakers and studied BP's work, I must call this book required reading for anyone interested in the most secret aspects of WW2.

The first hand accounts allow you to experience the atmosphere of comaraderie under intense pressure. More importantly, these mini-memoirs demonstrate the monumental intellectual efforts needed to break, daily, dozens of different Enigma ciphers.

The "dry, uninteresting administrative work" was the cornerstone upon which Ultra was built: without definitive indexes and dictionaries how were the decrypts to be interpreted and put into the proper context? Without the bureaucratic machinery in place to deliver the vital intelligence to leaders and commands, what use would it be? Bletchley Park was not about flying spies into enemy territory. The un-sung heroism of those working behind the scenes lay in a subtler realm, but the codebreakers did manage to shorten the war by several months at least.

Readers, be thankful for the glimpse into genuine genius: sparkling mathematical genius (like Turing or Welchman) as well as the other intellectual giants of the "dry administrative" field (like Sir F.H.Hinsley).

This book was not what I was expecting. It is a dry narrative account of the "Hut" workers at Bletchley Park. I was really interested in how Enigma was broken not in the daily administrative work. It did have really good information on the significance of the contribution of the codebreakers to the Allied victory. But this was just in the introduction

Fascinating eyewitness accounts from 29 individuals who were involved in the Bletchley Park code breaking efforts. These accounts range from somewhat technical accounts of code breaking by mathematicians and chess players, strategic analysis of "Ultra" and its effects on the outcome of the war to a report of working conditions by one of the many "Wrens" who had the mind numbing job of tending the code-breaking machinery. Absolutely essential reading to anyone interested in World War II Intelligence or Cryptography. -- Jim Bumgardner