Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park's Architect of Ultra Intelligence

Review for: Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park's Architect of Ultra IntelligencePages #13-107 offers among the most up-to-date, detailed account of the work at Bletchley Park over time as they found ways to decrypt and process WWII German military radio traffic. The critical contributions of Mr. Welchman and others within and outside Bletchley Park are detailed. This is, of course, more of a Gordon Welchman biography than an Alan Turing biography, though on occasion you do get some great personal insight into Turing, not only his prodigious technical capability but also his generous character. If you are interested in the subject of WWII Ultra work at Bletchley Park I recommend this book for these 90+ pages alone.Pages #199-252 focus on HIGHLY TECHNICAL material regarding Enigma machines and the machines called bombes that helped decrypt German radio traffic. For those who really want to understand the nuts and bolts this will be a TREASURE TROVE. For others this appendix will be quickly scanned and skipped.Most of the rest of the book focuses on Mr. Welchman outside the Bletchley Park war years, including the years he wrote and published materials about his wartime experience.The book is not written to entertain, it is a work of non-fiction told in the voice of a documentary and without much of the drama of Ultra. In addition to the detailed account of the work at Bletchley Park the book is a big thank you letter to Mr. Welchman, giving credit to a little known but critical member of the Bletchley staff, and others there, as well. In telling his story the book also helps to at least partially right some wrongs done to Mr. Welchman which we read about in the book. For example, one of his inventions at Bletchley with profound implications for the project resulted in a large financial prize at the end of the war .. that was given to the fellow that built it for Bletchley, not Mr. Welchman who invented it.This book doesn't go into much detail on the impact of Ultra on the war, it mostly focuses on how it all worked in detail when discussing the subject.I highly recommend this book for authoritative details on Ultra and Enigma not always covered elsewhere, if that is what you are looking forward to from this book. Clearly, if in addition you are interested in the biography of Mr. Welchman, this is a must read.SOME INSIGHTS FROM THE BOOK:------------------------------------------------------(1)I have read several accounts on the Ultra project at Bletchley Park and never really knew much about the important contributions of Mr. Gordon Welchman. The book also gives specific credit to several others whose important contributions often don't make it into the books on Ultra. If you saw the recent movie on Turing and Ultra you could be forgiven for getting the impression that it was all due to Alan Turing, with others taking on the role of glorified academic secretaries and Turing cheerleaders.(2)The author makes the case that the British work against Enigma was only able to get a foot in the door at the start because of the earlier pre-war work in Poland that the Polish shared with the British. He further notes that this is true regardless of the fact that fairly soon after the initial start, the British work became quickly independent of the Polish pre-war work directly. The Polish team helped the British effort understand what was possible and gave them the head start they needed.(3)The author gives Alan Turing credit for getting the German Naval Enigma decryption work off the ground at the start, noting that he was able to work on it largely because it was seemingly impossible to break by the time he began working on it. It was at that point Turing himself said that in order to move further along they would need to capture one of the more advanced German Naval Enigma machines.(4)The author is able to demonstrate how critical it was to capture a working German Naval Enigma machine with materials (which came from U-559 on October 30th 1942 - pg #76), and how close they came to missing the opportunity. Two of the three men who flung themselves into the ocean to enter U-559 went down with the sub. Turing felt this kind of equipment capture was critical to cracking the German Navy implementation of Enigma. The author makes the case that it wasn't just very helpful or advantageous, it allowed work to continue on AT ALL against the German Navy version of Enigma. With so many other contributing factors to Ultra's success I never realized just how important this lucky find and sacrifice was.

Excellently written and researched, It gives you the feeling that the powers that be will want these "Brainy boffins" when they are needed, but after they are finished the senior mgmt gets wind of what they are doing and the research is not any rewards personally, fights are started war records are lost or altered or suppressed that the stiff shirts ones start seeing ghosts where there are none, and the witch hunt begin again, The idea of treating these unsung heroes like these men and women is insane,Were it not for these "odd fellows" we might all be speking German.

Fascinating piece of history, and also the tragic story of a man who basically went unrewarded for his work to defeat the Nazi regime, and whose work was utilized to create the new surveillance state. In one sense it is the story of a hidden hero, and in another it is his personal tragedy for his revealing the background to that collaborative effort, as well as having his work taken into a new direction that was unintended.

When we think of WWII and Enigma we often think about individual mathematical and code-breaking genius. But in order to succeed at getting lots of usable intelligence in a timely manner, Bletchley Park needed to be a large, systematic, smooth-running organization. This book does a great job describing that aspect of BP, woven together with the biography of Gordon Welchman and his very notable contributions to creating it.

I enjoyed this book, which continues the discussion about the contributions of Bletchley in WW2. But will we ever know the whole story?

Book was what I expected. Reading

Well documented and established story on the details of secret data transport during The world wars in the 20fh century. Data collected And presented in full length , but still remaining attractive and making the story more accountable: Gordon Welchman's part in the fascinating inventions, applications and finally tracking the whole German Enigma correspondence, an achievement the Germans were never ready to admit its feasibility, is told from first class dependable sources.

it was helpful to get more information about the topic and i got a few good quotes for a paper i was writing

The Biography of a well-orientated 'normal' man who, like Churchill, are produced by a country at the right time and the right skills to perform vital jobs. Unlike todays self-opinionated over-bearing sports people and others who are paid obscene amounts of money to do worthless 'jobs' here was a man who by brilliant thinking and mathematical genius saved not only Britain but the world from the threat of Hitler and his henchmen. Yet this vital man was not only paid peanuts but because of wartime and then post-war secrecy was never able to tell the world of his exploits, not even his own family. He even suffered from verbal and psychological attacks from people who, at the time, believed he was a 'Shirker' and not fighting againt tyranny. It is only after his death that some but not all of the Truth can be told. Deserves detailed study to appreciate how even in wartime the government and military fought against him.

Very interesting to hear about Gordon Welchman as i had not come across his name before in relation to Bletchley Park. Up to half way the book was very good but I found it got bogged down when it talks about his living in America and trying to get hire book published. The appendices about how they cracked the code is mind blowing in it's technical description. The book is a good addition to any BP collection.

Such a brilliant mind whose contribution reverberates right up to the present day. Sadly he had a more pure intent than our intelligence gatherers today. It's well written, easy to read but very informative. It made me wish I'd realised how useful Maths can be when u was still at school. I think this should be on the national curriculum to inform and inspire today's youth.

Although the book celebrates Welchman's brilliance as a mathematician and an organiser, Greenberg delivers a pleasing and unexpected amount of additional information, which provides extraordinary detail about the people and events surrounding Welchman's efforts. Superbly well written and informative.

An excellent and well resesched account of what was involved in reading Enigma traffic. Welchmsn's role was crucial. Contains interesting technical detail for those who can understand.

An excellent read. A must for anyone who wants to learn more about the secret history of the Second World War and beyond

This book turns a light on one of the fascinating characters involved in the Bletchley code breaking operation. Well written it makes easy reading while at the same time explaining how the operation was organised.

A thoroughly interesting read, made all the more enjoyable having seen the movie Imitation Game. Cannot believe how he was treated in the end. He and Turing deserve the highest accolade for what their discoveries did for the war effort and beyond.

If you are happy to put up with a poor flow to the story, the history told is very good and adds to other books out there

We bought this book as a thank you Present for a friend. They were very happy with it. It came on time and was in good Condition

This Book should have been published years ago about one of the forgotten Heroes of Bletchley Park Gordon Welchman who was instrumental in shortening the War by two years with other like Tommy Flowers, Alan Turin and others. The Welchman Family should be very proud of there Father

Fascinating reading. Bit too detailed, drags at times.

This really was a great read, the secrecy of it all and the death of many of our great inventors.

Very interesting book and quite moving in places, especially if you're interested in WWII/Bletchley Park.

Good life story