F. W. Winterbotham (1897–1990)

Having just read Dr. R. V. Jones' book, Most Secret War, I thought I knew most of what there was to know about Ultra but, Winterbotham sure clarified that for me quickly. As with Jones' book, this was a very readable narrative which I found difficult to put down. Winterbotham was there from the start when the British first discovered the Germans' Enigma machine used to create the codes the Germans used for the entire war. Unknown to them, the Allies were reading their messages including Hitlers almost as soon as the German generals were.

The most interesting item I gleaned from this book was that the decision to rescue the British Expeditionary Force from France in 1940 was made when it was because information learned through Ultra indicated that the Germans were planning to surround and capture the British Army.

This is a fascinating book written by the man who was in charge of the code breaking and dissemination of the information to the Allied leaders during the entire war. He met regularly with Churchill, Eisenhower, Clark and other Allied politicians and military leaders. In the 1930's, Winterbotham visited Germany as a diplomat and frequently met with top Nazis including Hitler and as a result he knew them very well to the point he could predict how they would react to a situation.… (meer)