Enigma: The Battle For the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
The cracking of the German Naval Enigma codes was a key turning point of WW2, but until the original publication of this book back in 2000, the complete story hadn’t been told.
Whilst the contribution of Alan Turing and his fellow code-breakers at Bletchley Park was considerable, the exploits of spies, naval officers and ordinary British seamen also played a major part.
Indeed, the story dates back to 1932 when the Polish cracked the German Airforce Enigma, although they considered the more complicated Navy Enigma to be unbreakable. When WW2 broke out, they handed this information to the British, which was an important starting point.
Updated for the 70th anniversary of the Enigma breakthrough with new material, this is a dense but involving account which pays due tribute to the many people who lost their lives ensuring that Bletchley Park was supplied with the intelligence they needed to crack the code.
