NP new book

[Doug Millison]

World War II buffs be will adding this title about codebreaking to their
collections: Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World
War II by Stephen Budiansky (Free Press, $27.50).

In 1942, U.S. Navy codebreakers at Pearl Harbor learned about Adm. Isoroku
Yamamoto's plan to land 5,000 soldiers at Midway, then annihilate American
carriers as they steamed to the rescue. Using this knowledge, Adm. Nimitz
was able to destroy four Japanese aircraft carriers and 300 planes in one
day, turning the tide of the war in the Pacific theater.

"Midway thus provides the perfect opener for this history of codebreaking
in World War II, an exuberant work in which Budiansky deftly demonstrates
his prowess as mathematician, military historian and narrative
storyteller," writes Vernon Loeb in The Washington Post.

It is, he continues, "a well-researched, well-balanced, comprehensive
volume that many are calling a definitive work. The book is filled with
readable chapters about the main players: British code breakers Alan
Turing, Joseph Rochefort, and none other than Ian Fleming.

"By war's end, Britain's ability to break the Enigma codes and read much of
Germany's military communications in near real time--the second biggest
secret of World War II, after the atomic bomb, Budiansky argues--was deemed
so valuable that the military establishment was conflicted about even
acting upon the intercepts, for fear of giving the secret awayÖUltimately,
however, the Germans rejected the notion that the British could have broken
their Enigma codes. It was, Budiansky writes, 'a possibility that seemed
too fantastic to entertain.' "

--from PW Daily
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