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1. Good istory boor[k in some of the huts
   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.

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2. Authoritative detail on the decryption of German military radio traffic, especially the contributions of Mr. Welchman and others
   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.

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3. Accurate and comprehensive book on cyphering / decyphering during YoWWI and WWII
   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.

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4. Important historical information
   The information contained in this novel is so historically important. What they did was critical to winning world war I I. The novel comes across somewhat dry. It took me a while to get through it

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5. Sad tale of a hero.
   Glad I found out about Gordon Welchman, although it is a sad story, and he was not treated well by government, but not as badly as Turing. He made major contributions, which are explained quite well in the book. Welchman and Turing were both heroes!

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6. Good read!
   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.

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7. Unsung Hero
   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.

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8. Eye opening revaluations of Welchman and ULTA Intelligence.
   Erased from history, this book brings to light the extraordinary achievements of Gordon Welchman. After visiting Bletchley Park several years ago, I was dumbfounded to find out who was really the key person behind the ULTRA intelligence successes of WWII.

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9. The book was good for describing what went on at BP and who was involved but as for describing the function of the bombe machines and how they worked, I found a bit deep. I just wanted a bit of history especially after visiting the place and being told certain aspects of the work that took place there.Gordon Welchman and many others like him were a godsend what a blessing we had such clever people who helped us to win the war.

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10. This book fills some gaps in the history of British and American code breaking during and after WWII.

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11. Wenn man vom Bletchley Park spricht und das Knacken der Enigma und andere Codes wird immer von Alan Turing gesprochen, und ja, Alan Turing war sehr wichtig und seine Geschichte ist ein Skandal. Aber er war nicht der einzige wichtige Person. Gordon Welchman war genau so wichtig für den Erfolg oder sogar noch wichtiger.Dies ist ein hervorragender Autobiographie die man lesen sollte wenn einen das Thema Bletchley Park Interessiert.Lese auch das Buch was Gordon Welchman selber geschrieben hatThe Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma CodesThe Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes

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12. Excellent book, especially for the Bletchley Park enthusiast.

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13. Excellent book to describe an important part of history.

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