Cracking the Luftwaffe Codes
by Gwen Watkins

List Price: $34.95 
Hardcover: 224 pages
ISBN: 185367687X
Publisher: Greenhill Books
Publish Date: July 15, 2006




New in Print
• A compelling first-hand account of Britain's battle to crack the German codes
• Clearly demonstrates the methods used for cracking codes
• The first memoir detailing life at Bletchley Park's German Air Section

'When we codebreakers left Bletchley Park we found on our Certificate of Discharge a warning. This is what it said. "You are hereby reminded that the unauthorised communication by you to another person of any information you may have acquired whilst in His Majesty's Service which might be useful to an enemy in war renders you liable to prosecution under the Official Secrets Act."'

Bletchley Park, or 'Station X', was home to the most famous codebreakers of the Second World War. The 19th-century mansion was the key centre for cracking German, Italian and Japanese codes, providing the allies with vital information. After the war, many intercepts, traffic-slips and paperwork were burned (allegedly at Churchill's behest). The truth about Bletchley was not revealed until F. Winterbotham's The Ultra Secret was published in 1974.

However, nothing until now has been written on the German Air Section. In Cracking the Luftwaffe Codes, former WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) Gwen Watkins brings to life the reality of this crucial division. In a highly informative, lyrical account, she details her eventful interview, eventual appointment at the 'the biggest lunatic asylum in Britain', methods for cracking codes, the day-to-day routine and decommisioning of her section.

Gwen Watkins joined the WAAF in 1941, and the next year she was posted as a code-breaker to Bletchley Park, where she met and married the Welsh poet Vernon Watkins. She is the author of Dylan Thomas: Portrait of a Friend and the book will be launched at the Swansea's Dylan Thomas Centre on July 19th. She is also being interviewed for the Western Mail.

Lord Asa Briggs is a renowned historian who also served at Bletchley Park. He is the author of A Social History of England, Victorian Cities and Victorian People. He is currently President of the British Social History Society and of the Victorian Society.