Station X: Decoding Nazi Secrets

Michael Smith, the senior espionage reporter for London's Daily Telegraph, gives an intimate and intense account of the exploits of Station X by drawing on recently declassified documents and extensive interviews with many of the students, soldiers, and mathematicians who were sequestered at the top-secret site. Smith strikes an engaging balance between the human side of the effort and the nuts and bolts of the code game, giving clear explanations of how brilliant code breakers such as Alan Turing solved the puzzles the Nazis put to them. --Paul Hughes

Upon fuller review of the book, it is acutely apparent that this text has more in common with a "pop tv show" than actual information about an interesting chapter in cryptography and cryptoanalysis. Overall rating is poor.

Better books:

Cryptonomicon The Code Book


Pulled in by the subject matter....   March 27, 2000
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

The subject matter originally attracted me to this selection, as secret codes have always interested me...but this holds alot more...you not only gain an understanding of what was done, but you get to feel like you were a part of it! The problem solvers are as engaging as the solutions are fascinating. Liked this enough that I'm buying another as a gift.


Too light for the serious historian!   March 26, 2000
 23 out of 23 found this review helpful

Having already read a few books on the work at Bletchley Park (Station X) and attended talks by those that worked at BP I was perhaps hoping for too much from this text. It appears to be a rehash of much of the work already published in better texts. It is certainly not as dry as some books on this subject instead focusing on the personalities, rather than the efforts that went into the decryption work.

If you want a populist review on what took place at BP then this is probably a good text. However if you want to understand more about the critical importance of the work undertaken at Station X this is not the text to give that information. I was hoping for more in depth discussion with events set in their historical context however this was not the case.

The narrative style is quite disturbing at first, however it is a very light read and can be completed in an afternoon. The procedures for selecting staff to work at BP is quite interesting and amusing in itself, just try completing the crossword provided in less than twelve minutes!

If you really want to get a more in depth feel of the events at BP then Codebreakers : The Inside Story of Bletchley Park by F. H. Hinsley & Alan Stripp maybe a better read. If you want a good fictional view then try Enigma by Robert Harris.