Andrewj.comObserver
Architect
Developer
Photographer
Traveller
Writer
Reviewer
Thoughts on the World
    • Welcome PageArchitectDeveloperPhotographerTravellerWriterObserverReviewerLinks

The Hut Six Story

Breaking the Enigma Codes, By Gordon Welchman

Posted on 5 April 2002 by Andrew - Please share: All Addthis servicesTweet thisFacebook thisLink thisYam thisShare on Google

Summary


How do the rankings work?
Content 8/10
Readability 7/10
Presentation 5/10
Ideas 8/10
Value for money 8/10
Did it do what it said on the box? 7/10

The Review

An excellent, insightful and inspiring book

The men and women of Bletchley Park, who repeatedly broke German military cyphers throughout the Second World War, made an incalculable contribution to the allied success. This book, written by one of the code-breakers provides a fascinating insight into the process.

Despite the core subject, this is not really a book about cryptography, but about how to manage people and technology to solve complex, important problems. Welchman was the "glue" between the pure ideas men like Alan Turing, and the code-breaking production line.
His talents were clearly in building the organisation, and liaising between the different parties so that interception, decoding, understanding and using the intelligence became a repeatable success.

Welchman’s insights into British wartime society and bureaucracy are keen and frequently very humourous. Many of his insights are equally applicable today, in business as well as military circles. For example an individual’s promotion, prestige and salary should not depend solely on the number of subordinates.

Although he was very modest about it, it is clear that Welchman was no mean cryptologist himself. The book does attempt to explain several of the ways in which Enigma was cracked, but I found the primarily verbal explanations difficult to follow. However, this doesn’t prevent an understanding of the principals, and how different methods were applied at different points during the war.

The book does have some limitations. Because he was not personally involved, he explicitly refuses to discuss the effort focused on the German naval codes so important to the Battle of the Atlantic, and generally says little about the use of the intelligence information. Sadly, the current edition of the book omits much of Welchman’s advice on the analysis of battlefield communications, and how to keep such communications secure. However, one observation has been retained – it was a fundamental mistake to believe Enigma was secure simply because of the enormous computing power required for a brute-force attack. This should perhaps be noted in our Internet age, when so much depends on the assumed difficulty of factoring large numbers.

If I have a criticism of the book, it’s the rather poor production in places, with very faded photographs and occasionally blurred text. Figures are sometimes absent when they are most needed, e.g. when first explaining the Enigma machine. I read this book having only recently attended an excellent lecture and actually seeing an Enigma – otherwise I would have struggled at such points.

Nonetheless this is an excellent, insightful and inspiring book, containing a range of lessons relevant today, and I thoroughly recommend it.

Buy It From Amazon

Categories: Reviews. Content Types: Book, Cryptography, and History.

This entry was posted in Reviews. Bookmark the permalink.
Previous Post: Core J2EE Patterns
---- Next Post: Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Thoughts on the World Proudly powered by WordPress.

Main Pages

Welcome Page

Architect (Consultancy services)

Developer (Services and Products)

Photographer

Traveller

Writer (Publications and Papers)

Observer (My blog)

Reviewer

Links

Blog Contents

Post Category:

Review Type:

  • Recent Posts

    • When You Wish … A Different Approach To Sourcing
    • The World’s Worst Panorama 2023
    • Rainbows Rising
    • Have I Offended El Gauchito Gil?
    • We’re Going on a Guanaco Hunt!
  • Recent Comments

    • Divitel on It’s Screen Time!
    • Mike Parnell on Camera History
    • ValueBlue on What Do I Mean by "Agile Architecture"?
    • Robert on Combining Risk Factors
    • Paul M Turner on Typically Tropical!
  • Blog Indexes

    Favourite/Major Articles

    All Articles by Category

    All Articles by Title

    Review Index

    Search

    References to www.andrewj.com

    References to www.agilearchitect.org

    Contact Me

    Email me

    @TweetAndrewJ

    Others

    Share

    Facebook

    Google

    Twitter

    Linked In

    Yammer

    Share

    Feeds

    @TweetAndrewJ

    Thoughts on the World (Main Feed)

    Main feed (direct XML)

    Professional Blog

    Photo Blog

    Photo Album

    Review pages

    About my feeds

    © Questa Computing Ltd. 1994 - 2023:
    Questa Computing Ltd. is registered in England and Wales number:2889117.
    Registered office: Coppertrees, Forest Road, Effingham, Leatherhead, KT24 5HE
    Credits, copyright details and cookie policy