Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers

This book contains 38 essays that cover all aspects of the British efforts to decipher messages sent on the German Lorenz machine during WWII. To help do so, they developed one of the first computers (the first depending upon how one defines a computer), Colossus. The essays range from personal reminiscences of life at Bletchly Park, where this work was done, to discussions of the design and building of Colossus and to appendices that get into considerable detail regarding the details of how the messages were deciphered.I enjoyed the book and it greatly improved my understanding of this aspect of the work at Bletchley Park. I recommend it to anyone interested in history, especially the history of WWII and especially to those interested in codes and ciphers. My only complaint, and it was not enough to reduce my overall 5-star rating, was that being a collection of essays there was some repetition of material and a lack of smooth narrative flow. However, this is the best book on the subject of the German Lorenz machine, the methods to defeat it and the building of Colossus that I have found. I feel that it struck a good balance between highly technical information and interesting information about the human side of the work at Bletchley Park and at Dollis Hills, the British Post Office Research Station where Colossus was designed and built.Some of the essays were challenging as they got into considerable detail about the Lorenz system and the mathematics behind the methods used to defeat it, but even if a reader skims over this material they will still find a lot to interest them. That the Lorenz machine was able to be broken is a testament to the ingenuity of the men who did it, most of whom never got the recognition that they disserved. This book rectifies this omission as it highlights the efforts of men like Bill Tutte, Tony Flowers and scores of others.

Many years ago I had read Brown's "Bodyguard of Lies." Since that time I've been intrigued by anything related to the subject matter of technology, science (and trickery) in WWII. I was engrossed by RV Jones' "Most Secret War" and many writings about Enigma. "Colossus" is a welcome addition to this collection and easily one of the best. Author excels at communicating many technical passages at a level appropriate to readers who are not expert in codes and computers. Having recently retired from a career spent in the field of computers, I was particularly intrigued at his lucid description of the evolution from early physical machine components (relays) through high speed electronic advances (valves/vacuum tubes). There's a particularly clever chapter explaining Colossus via component-by-component analogy to modern personal computers.On a personal level I can only commend in my heart those who made such monumental but unsung contributions to victory in a horrible war (yes, redundant).Although my intent here is to praise the book, I do have one MAJOR gripe, specificially with the Kindle Version. There is a listing of photos but neither the listing nor the various citations to photos throughout the book have a hyperlink to allow the reader to jump to the cited photo then back to the text. Furthermore the index contains neither "page" nor "location" numbers. I'm about half-way through the book and still have not found any of the scores of photos referenced. I assumed they might be clustered in the middle or end as used to be common in printed books. If so, I haven't yet found any. And if I eventually do find them, they will have lost much of their value by reason of viewing out of context. And I'm going to be a little po'd if I get to the end of the book and find the photos have been left out altogether. Any other readers out there care to pass along a Kindle location for them so I can view them as needed in context?

A longish, comprehensive book that includes many biographical, autobiographical and technical chapters written by some of the people who served at Bletchley Park and by some who are related to them, who were instrumental in cracking the Tunny cypher system, and in the design and build and operation of Heath Robinson and Colossus. One section delves into the architecture that was Colossus, comparing it to modern computer architecture and explains why Colossus can be called the first real, almost general purpose, electronic computer to be built, predating ENIAC.Most early books about BP have focussed on the Enigma cipher machine and the Bombes. This one takes on the more complex, later and, to date, less well-documented efforts surrounding Tunny and Fish. It also adds character by incuding anecdotes and facts about life at BP and the key personalities as written by BP's workers and their close relatives.An essential read for any person who wants to know more about the inside story of Bletchley Park and its high-level cryptanalysis efforts. Being a newer book (2006) than most, it had access to more declassified material ad corrects many of the errors and misconceptions contained in earlier publications thus making it a very useful reference work.

While much has been written about Bletchley Park's breaking of the Enigma codes, very little has appeared about Enigma's big brother, Tunny. Tunny was the name Bletchley assigned to the cypher encrypting messages between Hitler's headquarters and major military formation commanders -- army groups, air fleets, etc. These were the keys to the kingdom. Breaking this cypher required the invention and construction of the world's first programmable computer -- Colossus. Buried in secrecy until only a few years ago, the story of this remarkable first step into the world we take for granted today is finally told in this very readable compendium of essays by many of the people involved. One does not have to be either a computer whiz or a mathematician to enjoy this book. For WWII buffs, and those who are still looking for answers to what really went on behind the scenes, this is essential reading. Have fun.

This is a fascination book with much detail on the workings of Colossus and (auto-)biographies of those who built and operated it.If it falls down anywhere it is that it was written by several authors who contributed their own versions of what they saw and did. Consequently there is a fair amount of repetition and an unevenness for style and technical content. Most of the declassified information is there, but you need quite a deep understanding of statistics and the associated mathematics to get the most out of some chapters. Although it would have lost much of the personal touch and in some cases immediacy, these areas could have done with a total consolidating re-write by a competent technical author to bring it all together. Maybe adding the personal reminiscences about life and times at BP as a second section.The almost complete post-was neglect of the chief participants and their muzzling by the Official Secrets Act is a national disgrace.

Public awareness of the huge contribution by Bletchley Park to Allied success in World War 2 is ever increasing, through the growing number of books appearing on the market. However, as the veils of secrecy are being slowly lifted, confusion still reigns both over the part played by the several outstanding individuals responsible for the codebreaking successes, and also over the function of Colossus, the world's first true electronic computer. This book, a compendium of cryptanalysis by Jack Copeland and others, reveals for the first time the genesis of the machine by its designers at the Post Office Research Station, led by the now legendary Tommy Flowers, its basic principles, and the astonishing achievement of its production in time to provide intelligence for the D-Day landings. Readers will find here a history of cipher codebreaking, the development of techniques that spelled the end of conventional coding, and a reference to methods that are vital to the production of signal intelligence today.

Although attributed to one main author the book contains many contributions from other people who contributed to B P’s success. Some of the contributions described the way of life for the code-breakers as well as the more technical (and sometimes incomprehensible) description of the code-breaking processes. All in all, well worth reading on several levels.

I bought the paperback version so impressed I felt I wanted to buy the hard back for prosperity. The paperback version (seems the same as the hardback) was very informative on the maths used in the different Enigma versions and how the codes were cracked. The description of the characters of the people working there is fascinating. When you look at the names of the people who worked there it really is like a who's who of computer science from people who were subsequently instrumental in CPU architecture in computers to Neural Network processes.

This book contains numerous articles written by some of those invisible people who actually took part in this top secret project. Some of the accounts are those of frustration, from people not allowed to get the recognition that they and their colleagues deserve. The level of detail and understanding shown makes this a very interesting and unique picture. I would recommend it without hesitation. Their ability to inject humour in the most serious of stories gives you some idea of the luck and good fortune that resulted in the most important achievements.