F. W. Winterbotham (1897–1990)

The Ultra Secret is a personal account of some of the cryptographic exploits of the Second World War. Winterbotham was an intelligence officer in charge of Ultra, the Bletchly Park effort to break the Nazi codes. A former RAF pilot, he is proudly not a mathematician, and his explanation of code breaking is a mysterious 'bronze goddess' who spits out decrypts. Rather, Winterbotham handled translating and distributing messages to allied commanders, a system named Ultra run by a world-spanning show more network of Special Liaison Units. He saw himself as a 'shadow OKW', a British version of the Nazi command staff, which enabled Allied generals to fight with the enemy's cards on the tables.

This was an incalculable advantage. With Ultra, Churchill and Dowding knew the margins of Luftwaffe endurance in the Battle of Britain, and could hold out until the window for Operation Sea Lion had passed. Ultra outfoxed Rommel in North Africa, and reassured Allied commanders that deception plans for amphibious landings, including Overlord, were working.

The book is at its best when it goes to Winterbotham's personal judgement of character. He knew most of the senior Nazis from his time as an attache in Germany in the 1930s, where he gathered vital intelligence by asking questions and letting Hitler talk (loose lips sink conquests). He praises many generals, Patton especially, for bold use of Ultra to punch around concentrations. Montgomery earns mixed marks as a traditionalist who fought in deliberate ignorance of Ultra, and Mark Clark, commander in Italy, dramatically failed to exploit Ultra several times at the expense of his troops.

This book was probably stunning when it was published. Now it's light and short on details, a conventional WW2 history. Compared to R.V Jones' Most Secret War, which drips with personal insights and interest, The Ultra Secret is an anodyne, bureaucratic history. show less

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 show more 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. show less

I thought I would not like this because I am not really into military history at all- I only like the spy stuff! But this narrative by the man who organized and shepherded the Ultra messages (decodings of Nazi secret ciphers from the Enigma machine)was very interesting. That said, it is mostly a revelation about the role of Ultra in the battles of World War II, with a definite focus on the European theater.

Fascinating book on how the intelligence produced by Ultra was used to defeat the Axis powers as told by one man who was at the center of distributing the information to everyone from Churchhill and Roosevelt to the generals commanding the troops. How they kept the secret from the enemy was a top concern from the start so many of the cover stories are discussed and explained. This is not about actually breaking the Enigma cypher machine, you need other books for that story.