Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park (Paperback)

~ Sir F. H. Hinsley (Editor), Alan Stripp (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This set of 27 personal narratives by British code breakers who served at the famous Bletchley Park center during World War II does not require much background on cryptography or even much interest in the subject. It offers the human side of an operation more secret than and just as critical to Allied victory as anything in the war except the Manhattan Project. For the most part, the men and women involved herein tell their stories with simple eloquence. It is fortunate that they were released from their Official Secrets Act oaths before time silenced them forever. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A fascinating and unique book. For the first time--and in their own words--the men and women of Bletchley Park describe in detail how they broke the most secret codes of Germany and Japan. Complex, evocative and engrossing, it is the story of an unprecedented intellectual achievement which not only shortened the war and saved millions of lives but also helped forge the modern age. Anyone who is interested in military or scientific history will want to read it."--Robert Harris
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 321 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (October 6, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019285304X
• ISBN-13: 978-0192853042
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #374,682 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not really what I'd expected, June 25, 2001

By	D. Gordon (Beijing, China) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading, October 9, 1997

By A Customer

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).

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Old Vets Gather for a Last Hurrah, September 18, 2001

By	El Cutachero (MD USA) - See all my reviews

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.