Secrets of Station X (Paperback)

When Captain Ridley's shooting partyA" arrived at Bletchley Park in 1939 no-one would have guessed that by 1945 the guests would number nearly 10,000 and that collectively they would have contributed decisively to the Allied war effort. Their role? To decode the Enigma cypher used by the Germans for high-level communications. It is an astonishing story. A melting pot of Oxbridge dons maverick oddballs and more regular citizens worked night and day at Station X, as Bletchley Park was known, to derive intelligence information from German coded messages. Bear in mind that an Enigma machine had a possible 159 million million million different settings and the magnitude of the challenge becomes apparent. That they succeeded, despite military scepticism, supplying information that led to the sinking of the Bismarck, Montgomery's victory in North Africa and the D-Day landings, is testament to an indomitable spirit that wrenched British intelligence into the modern age, as the Second World War segued into the Cold War. Michael Smith constructs his absorbing narrative around the reminiscences of those who worked and played at Bletchley Park, and their stories add a very human colour to their cerebral activity. The code breakers of Station X did not win the war but they undoubtedly shortened it, and the lives saved on both sides stand as their greatest achievement.

General

Imprint:	Biteback Publishing
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	August 2011
First published:	December 2011
Authors:	Michael Smith
Dimensions:	198 x 129 x 27mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	256
ISBN-13:	978-1-84954-095-7
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Espionage & secret services Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War Books > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War Promotions
LSN:	1-84954-095-0
Barcode:	9781849540957

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