Colossus: Bletchley Park's Last Secret (eBook)

This is the last untold story of Bletchley Park. Using declassified information, Paul Gannon gives us a gripping account of the invention of the world's first true computer, Colossus. Uncover the secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers. In 1940, almost a year after the outbreak of the Second World war, Allied radio operators at an interception station in South London began picking up messages in a strange new code. Using science, maths, innovation and improvisation Bletchley Park codebreakers worked furiously to invent a machine to decipher what turned out to be the secrets of Nazi high command. It was called Colossus. What these codebreakers didn't realize was that they had to fashion the world's first true computer. When the war ended, this incredible invention was dismantled and hidden away for almost 50 years. Paul Gannon has pieced together the tremendous story of what is now recognized as the greatest secret of Bletchley Park. 'Gannon's book contains a mass of utterly fascinating and largely unknown material about an immensely important wartime project, and is very welcome indeed.' - Brian Rendell, TES

Paul Gannon is a writer on all aspects of information and communications technology. He is the author of Trojan Horses & National Champions: A History of the European Computing and Telecommunications Industry (IT Book of the Year, 1997) and Colossus (Atlantic, 2006).

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This is the last untold story of Bletchley Park. Using declassified information, Paul Gannon gives us a gripping account of the invention of the world's first true computer, Colossus. Uncover the secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers. In 1940, almost a year after the outbreak of the Second World war, Allied radio operators at an interception station in South London began picking up messages in a strange new code. Using science, maths, innovation and improvisation Bletchley Park codebreakers worked furiously to invent a machine to decipher what turned out to be the secrets of Nazi high command. It was called Colossus. What these codebreakers didn't realize was that they had to fashion the world's first true computer. When the war ended, this incredible invention was dismantled and hidden away for almost 50 years. Paul Gannon has pieced together the tremendous story of what is now recognized as the greatest secret of Bletchley Park. 'Gannon's book contains a mass of utterly fascinating and largely unknown material about an immensely important wartime project, and is very welcome indeed.' - Brian Rendell, TES