Customer Reviews

Ultra Secret Pb

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In 1976 "A Man Called Intrepid" was a best seller in the US. In 1977 Frederick William Winterbotham published "The Ultra Secret", about the decryption of the German Enigma systems. In 1978 "Room 3603" was reprinted. They all are important books about WW2, altho "Room 3603" starts in the 1930s and has important information about intelligence activities. Did you know that they knew how to forge typewritten documents in the 1930s?

This book tells about FWW's involvment in solving the Enigma encryption system. Like any good history, it is well written. I would recommend it highly to anyone. A later book tells more of his personal history in the 1930s. Working for the Air Ministry, he travelled to Germany to sell aircraft parts, and met many high Nazi officials. He was such a good friend of Goering that he was the only foreigner allowed to fly his airplane thru the Third Reich! He was one of the top British Nazi sympathizers at the time, until 1937: he was summoned to the Berlin Foreign Office, and given 48 hours to leave the country, "or else". They finally discovered that FWW really worked for Military Intelligence!

No history of WWII can be complete without a knowledge of the part Ultra played in the winning of the wars in Europe and Japan. Moreover, no one is better qualified to tell the story than F.W. Winterbotham...an outstanding book, extremely well written, easy to read, and certainly informative.

This is an facinating look at the world of codes and code breaking that occurred during WW II. The real allied heros are the men with exeptional mathamatical talents, who like master chessplayers are able to defeat cunning and very deadly opponents.

This book tells about the Ultra operation that broke the Enigma cypher. The author operated as a secret agent in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, then was placed in charge of the Scientific Intelligence Unit. The code breaking operation followed.

Their man in Warsaw learned of the Enigma machine from a Polish mechanic, who was then exfiltrated to Paris. He duplicated the machine in wood. Next, a new cypher machine was acquired for study. They were able to break this unbreakable coding machine. He tells how carefully this information was guarded, and used. With radar and Ultra, Britain was able to efficiently use their scarce resources against larger forces. Only a small number of fighters were sent against the bombers and fighters to minimize losses to the RAF. It worked well; but afterwards Dowding was criticized for not using more fighters earlier.

Why was the Battle of the Bulge a surprise? They had come to rely on Ultra so much that they disregarded other indicators that were not confirmed by Ultra. And these plans were not broadcast by the enemy.

This was written from his own recollection, so it is not the complete history. It has nothing about the code breaking by other forces. This book provides new light on the previously known events.

The book describes, with historical context, how the Allies in WWII broke the secret codes of the German High Command. The OKH/German High Command used an encryption device to encode all communications to all military units. The book actually describes how the Allied command actually knew when the Germans were going to attack, who the lead units would be, how they would attack, even the phase line, supply and equipment disposition, battle status, and the like battlefield communications. Even having that type of foreknowledge the Germans were still able to beat the allies. I recommend the book to all those who really want to understand how the Allies actually used the Ultra Secret to achieve supreme allied victory. Without this book a military student will miss one of the most strategic and most secret intelligence of all of WWII.

My husband orders a book from Amazon after he has found it in the library and wants to have it in the home to frequently review. Such a book was UltraSecret. He has read many books regarding intelligence in WWII and this book had info he had not ever seen elsewhere.

The author tells about an epic time in history but with little dramatic impact. Some maps would have helped me follow the story. Perhaps the fact that the book was written in a foreign language (English) made it a bit cumbersome for an American.

Summary extracted from Usenet follows: Far better are; _Ultra Goes To War_ by Ronald Lewin, _The Enigma War_ by Jozef Garlinski; also see _Top Secret ULTRA_ by Peter Calvocoressi and _The Hut Six Story_ by Gordon Welchman, _The SIGINT Secrets_ by Nigel West, and _Very Special Intelligence_ by Patrick Beesly

An intriguing account of how Winterbotham single-handedly made the planet safe for democracy during WWII. One is left with the impression that the great generals and admirals may have had an ace up their sleeves, but also with the impression that Winterbotham is in love with himself. Despite his shameless name-dropping and self-aggrandizement, this book is a must-read for any serious student of WWII, because of the important context it provides for events of that time.

I ordered this book about a mounth ago. I received notic that you had found a copy. I said go ahead and get me a copy. I also gave you my credit card number. I still have not received my book.thank you.