Stephen Budiansky, Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II (New York: Touchstone Books, 2002)
Rare is the work of popular narrative history that includes the sort of exhaustive academic research as found in Battle of Wits. Stephen Budiansky’s depiction of signals intelligence is a rich, enthralling narrative that describes the evolution of codebreaking during World War II. Budiansky is a mathematician by training, with degrees from both Harvard and Yale who transitioned to science journalism and is the author of eighteen books. Throughout this book, Budiansky presents a captivating, if technical, account of American and Allied efforts to decode and predict Axis operations from its early unsophisticated and underdeveloped origins to becoming an integral component of Allied victory.
Budiansky argues for the primacy of intelligence, and particularly codebreaking, in bolstering the Allied effort in World War II. Without it, perhaps Midway is lost, and the fight against Japan and Germany becomes increasingly tricky. Battle of Wits focuses on the Allies’ efforts to break and re-break Enigma and other codes used by the Axis powers throughout the Second World War. The origins, development, and use of the Enigma machines by the Germans for cryptography are described in detail, as are the mathematical methods and the mechanical, electromechanical, and electronic machines used by the British and the Americans in breaking the Enigma and Purple ciphers, among others. He characterizes the American effort as unprepared for the challenges that a war on two fronts would present to its cryptological capabilities. Budiansky rightly denotes that while important to the war, information derived from Ultra and Magic against Purple, JN-25, and Enigma were but pieces of the overall picture, not an intelligence panacea for decision-makers in their own right. More than communications, intelligence is required to see through the inevitable fog of war.
The origin of the Enigma machine is itself an enigma, first demonstrated during the International Postal Union Congress in 1923 as a helpful device for encoding business correspondence. By 1932 Polish scientists acquired improved German Enigma rotors and by 1940 used them to develop a means to decrypt intercepted military traffic. Discovering information concerning Germany’s invasion of Poland, the cryptographers wisely presented their findings to Britain. The challenge throughout the war was to analyze an ever-changing sequence of rotors, reflectors, and steckers that encoded the traffic. Early punchcard sorters and mechanical calculators from IBM presaged the modern computer and proved instrumental to the effort at breaking high-level enemy codes. Throughout the book, Budiansky provides excellent color and commentary about the mercurial and eccentric figures that found a home in the deep recesses of codebreaking operations. Some of them have become famous, such as Alan Turing and Ian Fleming—others more obscure, such as Joseph Rochefort. More than a story of highly intelligent geniuses, the Allied codebreaking effort eventually encompassed thousands of personnel working around the clock and around the globe.
As this is not a traditional scholarly monograph, Budiansky does not provide the typical introduction that might have outlined his larger thematic ideas and situate himself within the historiography, undoubtedly reflecting his journalistic training and intended lay audience. Regardless, his deep research is evident in the copious notes and bibliography provided within, despite their unorthodox formatting. Battle of Wits is ultimately a fascinating narrative account that uses material newly declassified when he was writing. Budiansky’s mathematical training combined with his skillful writing allows him to make complex problems somewhat easier to understand. Despite his efforts, much of codebreaking analysis is highly technical and requires more than a rudimentary understanding of computing and mathematics to understand. Despite the books problems, his case for the importance of signals intelligence to the Allied war effort is evident. This book is an essential contribution to the historical understanding of Allied codebreaking efforts, primarily because he consolidates the stories of many disparate actors. Despite its technical nature, the Battle of Wits is, as the title suggests, one of human intuition and innovation. This book is useful as a survey of codebreaking efforts in the Second World War, ideal for students of military history, intelligence, early computing, and mathematics.