Colossus: Bletchley Park's Last Secret: Bletchley Park's Greatest Secret - Softcover

Masterly in its breadth and sweep . . . Gannon's account of wartime interception and encryption is deeply researched . . . I commend the book to both the professional and the general reader. -- Donald Michie * Spectator * Seeks to restore Colossus to its rightful place in the history of computing... read Gannon to feel the collective power of human minds harnessed to the cause of defending our freedom. -- Georgina Ferry * Guardian * Paul Gannon has revealed a previously untold story . . . [Colossus] tells of the heroic efforts of the inventors and mathematicians [who] received no recognition for decades . . . Gannon sets the record straight. -- Simon Singh * The Times *

This is the last untold story of Bletchley Park. Using recently declassified information, Paul Gannon has written 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 BletchleyPark 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 fashioned 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 BletchleyPark. '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 Randell, TES