War Of Shadows

Gershom Gorenberg

Hachette 2021 Beaverton 940.5486 GOR

Overly long. Lots of backstory. This would have been a better book at half the size.

A more fraught view of the day-to-day decryption struggles at Bletchly Park.

A sad story of US diplomatic incompetence - leaving critical ciphers in insecure safes at the Italian embassy, giving the Germans the information they needed to decrypt US codes in early World War 2.

The British military informed the US about moves in Egypt, which meant Rommel knew exactly what the British planned. Much of his "tactical brilliance" was simply that. When the British finally convinced the US to change their codes (after many failed US promises), Rommel was blinded and the British cleaned his clock at El Alemain.