Enigma

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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. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore - like his brother Simon a journalist and author - has unearthed files at the Ministry of Defence and further documents now declassified in the US. He has also traced and made contact with many of the last surviving witnesses to the Enigma story, including Paul Pailliole, who was head of French counterintelligence and has a detailed first hand knowledge of the spying and double crossing which took place in relation to Enigma. ACCLAIM FOR ENIGMA “CRACKING STUFF…VIVID AND HITHERTO UNKNOWN DETAILS.” – Sunday Times (London) “IN A CROWD OF BOOKS DEALING WITH THE ALLIED BREAKING OF THE WORLD WAR II CIPHER MACHINE ENIGMA, HUGH SEBAG-MONTEFIORE HAS SCORED A SCOOP.” – Washington Post Winston Churchill called the cracking of the German Enigma Code “the secret weapon that won the war.” Now, for the first time, noted British journalist Hugh-Sebag-Montefiore reveals the c omplete story of the breaking of the code by the Allies—the breaking that played a crucial role in the outcome of World War II. This fascinating account relates the never-before-told, hair-raising stories of the heroic British and American sailors, spies, and secret agents who faced death in order to capture vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi officials. Sebag-Montefiore also relates new details about the genesis of the code, little-known facts about how the Poles first cracked the Luftwaffe’s version of the code (and then passed it along to the British), and the feverish activities at Bletchley Park, Based in part on documents recently unearthed from American and British archives—including previously confidential government files—and in part on unforgettable, firsthand accounts of surviving witnesses, Enigma unearths the stunning truth about the brilliant piece of decryption that changed history.