Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II – October 2, 2018 by Liza Mundy
Click here to read our full book review
Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.
Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age – February 10, 2012 by Kurt W. W. Beyer
Beyer’s biography takes readers on a journey through the life of Grace Hopper, from her early days as a curious child with a passion for mathematics to her groundbreaking contributions to the field of computer science. The book paints a vivid picture of Hopper’s determination, intelligence, and unrelenting drive to push the boundaries of what was possible in the realm of computing.
One of the book’s strengths is its ability to humanize Grace Hopper, portraying her not only as a brilliant scientist but also as a complex individual with her own struggles and triumphs. Readers get a glimpse into Hopper’s personal life, her challenges as a woman in a male-dominated field, and the personal sacrifices she made in pursuit of her passion for technology.
“Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age” is a well-researched and thoughtfully written biography that pays tribute to a remarkable woman who helped shape the modern world of computing. Kurt W. Beyer’s storytelling skillfully combines technical explanations with personal anecdotes, making it an excellent choice for those interested in the history of technology and the incredible life of Grace Hopper.
A Woman of No Importance – The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell’s biography offers a compelling narrative that reads like a gripping espionage thriller. Virginia Hall’s journey from an American in Paris to a fearless operative of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and later, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), is a testament to human resilience and the indomitable spirit of those who are driven by an unwavering sense of duty.
Virginia Hall’s life is a testament to her determination to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Her perseverance, even in the face of significant physical disabilities, serves as an inspiring example of human resilience. Purnell does an excellent job of highlighting Hall’s indelible mark on history, emphasizing her role in organizing, training, and leading resistance forces in Nazi-occupied France.
“A Woman of No Importance” is a well-researched and engaging biography that finally brings Virginia Hall’s remarkable story out of the shadows and into the spotlight. This book is a must-read for those interested in the untold stories of World War II and the remarkable women who played pivotal roles in shaping the course of history.
Donovan – America’s Master Spy by Richard Dunlop
One of the most celebrated and highly decorated heroes of World War I, a noted trial lawyer, presidential adviser and emissary, and chief of America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II, William J. Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man.
During the dark days of World War II, Wild Bill” Donovan, more than any other person, was responsible for what William Stevenson, author of A Man Called Intrepid, described as the astonishing success with which the United States entered secret warfare and accomplished in less than four years what it took England many centuries to develop.”
Drawing upon Donovan’s diaries, letters, and other papers; interviews with hundreds of the men and women who worked with him and spied for him; and declassified and unpublished documents, author Richard Dunlop, himself a former member of Donovan’s OSS, traces the incredible career of the man who almost single-handedly created America’s central intelligence service. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.
Code Warriors by Stephen Budiansky
Click on this link to read our full book review
The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, NSA played a vital, often fraught and controversial role in the major events of the Cold War, from the Korean War to the Cuban Missile Crisis to Vietnam and beyond.
In Code Warriors, Stephen Budiansky—a longtime expert in cryptology—tells the fascinating story of how NSA came to be, from its roots in World War II through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Along the way, he guides us through the fascinating challenges faced by cryptanalysts, and how they broke some of the most complicated codes of the twentieth century. With access to new documents, Budiansky shows where the agency succeeded and failed during the Cold War, but his account also offers crucial perspective for assessing NSA today in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. Budiansky shows how NSA’s obsession with recording every bit of data and decoding every signal is far from a new development; throughout its history the depth and breadth of the agency’s reach has resulted in both remarkable successes and destructive failures.
Featuring a series of appendixes that explain the technical details of Soviet codes and how they were broken, this is a rich and riveting history of the underbelly of the Cold War, and an essential and timely read for all who seek to understand the origins of the modern NSA.
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David Hoffman
It was the height of the Cold War, and a dangerous time to be stationed in the Soviet Union. One evening, while the chief of the CIA’s Moscow station was filling his gas tank, a stranger approached and dropped a note into the car. The chief, suspicious of a KGB trap, ignored the overture. But the man had made up his mind. His attempts to establish contact with the CIA would be rebuffed four times before he thrust upon them an envelope whose contents would stun U.S. intelligence. In the years that followed, that man, Adolf Tolkachev, became one of the most valuable spies ever for the U.S. But these activities posed an enormous personal threat to Tolkachev and his American handlers. They had clandestine meetings in parks and on street corners, and used spy cameras, props, and private codes, eluding the ever-present KGB in its own backyard—until a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintryre
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation’s communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union’s top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States’s nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky’s name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain’s obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets.
Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky’s nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre’s latest may be his best yet. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, it brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man’s hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. A stunning military achievement, it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, tricked the Nazis into believing that the Allied attacks would come in Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring Allied victory at the most pivotal moment in the war.
This epic event has never before been told from the perspective of the key individuals in the Double Cross system, until now. These include its director (a brilliant, urbane intelligence officer), a colorful assortment of MI5 handlers (as well as their counterparts in Nazi intelligence), and the five spies who formed Double Cross’s nucleus: a dashing Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter-pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard, and a volatile Frenchwoman. Together they made up one of the oddest and most brilliant military units ever assembled.
With the same depth of research, eye for the absurd, and masterful storytelling that have made Ben Macintyre an international bestseller, Double Cross is a captivating narrative of the spies who wove a web so intricate it ensnared Hitler’s army and carried thousands of D-Day troops across the Channel in safety.
The book chronicles the extraordinary journey of Joseph Rochefort, a brilliant and unassuming codebreaker whose strategic brilliance played a pivotal role in deciphering the Japanese Navy’s intentions during the Battle of Midway. Carlson’s meticulously researched and finely crafted narrative brings Rochefort’s story out of the shadows and into the limelight, where it rightfully belongs.
“Joe Rochefort’s War” is a masterfully written and thoroughly researched tribute to an unsung hero of World War II. Elliot Carlson’s storytelling prowess and historical rigor make this book a must-read for anyone interested in military history, codebreaking, or the compelling stories of individuals who shaped the course of pivotal events. Rochefort’s journey from obscurity to recognition is both a testament to human perseverance and a reminder of the importance of intelligence in the theater of war. This book is a true gem in the genre of World War II history.
The year is 1942, and World War II is in full swing. Odette Sansom decides to follow in her war hero father’s footsteps by becoming an SOE agent to aid Britain and her beloved homeland, France. Five failed attempts and one plane crash later, she finally lands in occupied France to begin her mission. It is here that she meets her commanding officer Captain Peter Churchill.
As they successfully complete mission after mission, Peter and Odette fall in love. All the while, they are being hunted by the cunning German secret police sergeant, Hugo Bleicher, who finally succeeds in capturing them. They are sent to Paris’s Fresnes prison, and from there to concentration camps in Germany where they are starved, beaten, and tortured. But in the face of despair, they never give up hope, their love for each other, or the whereabouts of their colleagues.
InCode Name: Lise, Larry Loftis paints a portrait of true courage, patriotism, and love—of two incredibly heroic people who endured unimaginable horrors and degradations. He seamlessly weaves together the touching romance between Odette and Peter and the thrilling cat and mouse game between them and Sergeant Bleicher. With this amazing testament to the human spirit, Loftis proves once again that he is adept at writing “nonfiction that reads like a page-turning novel”
Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sherry Sontag
Blind Man’s Bluff is an exhilarating and eye-opening exploration of the covert world of submarine espionage during the Cold War.
This gripping narrative plunges readers into the depths of clandestine operations, where the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse beneath the ocean’s surface. The book unveils a world rarely seen by the public, shedding light on the audacious missions undertaken by American submarines and their courageous crews.
“Blind Man’s Bluff” is an enthralling journey into the covert world of submarine espionage. It celebrates the unsung heroes who risked their lives beneath the waves to protect national security and reveals the ingenuity and audacity that characterized these clandestine missions.
At All Costs – May 1, 2015 by Matt Proietti
In 1967, after 16 years in uniform, Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Dick Etchberger is starting to make plans for a post-military life when he is invited to participate in a clandestine Vietnam War mission. There’s a catch, though: he must accept the assignment before he’s told of the location. Etchberger quickly agrees to this condition and is sent to Southeast Asia with two dozen other Air Force technicians to run a secret radar site atop a remote peak. The mission is initially successful, though the team’s presence on the mountain is known almost immediately. The enemy soon launches a largely ineffective aerial assault on the camp. A later ground attack, however, is not and results in the Air Force’s greatest loss of ground personnel in the war. Etchberger’s heroic actions lead to the survival of three men, but not his own.
His name wasn’t Chester Nez. That was the English name he was assigned in kindergarten. And in boarding school at Fort Defiance, he was punished for speaking his native language, as the teachers sought to rid him of his culture and traditions. But discrimination didn’t stop Chester from answering the call to defend his country after Pearl Harbor, for the Navajo have always been warriors, and his upbringing on a New Mexico reservation gave him the strength—both physical and mental—to excel as a Marine. During World War II, the Japanese had managed to crack every code the United States used. But when the Marines turned to its Navajo recruits to develop and implement a secret military language, they created the only unbroken code in modern warfare—and helped assure victory for the United States over Japan in the South Pacific.
In “The Invention That Changed the World,” author Robert Buderi takes readers on an enlightening and captivating journey through the remarkable story of radar’s pivotal role in World War II and its profound impact on the course of history.
Buderi’s narrative meticulously unfolds the history of radar, from its humble beginnings as a theoretical concept to its revolutionary application during World War II. The book shines a spotlight on the unsung heroes — the brilliant minds and dedicated engineers who worked tirelessly to turn radar into a game-changing technology.
“The Invention That Changed the World” is a compelling and well-researched exploration of the radar’s evolution from an experimental concept to a world-altering technology. Robert Buderi’s storytelling brings to life the pioneering scientists and engineers who shaped history through their dedication to radar innovation. It’s a testament to human ingenuity and collaboration that changed the course of World War II and launched a technical revolution that continues to shape our world today.
This site is free for everyone to learn about information warfare, connect with mentors, and seek the high ground! Unfortunately operating the site is not free and your donations are appreciated to keep KTC up and running. Even a five or ten dollar donation helps.
