The Secret in Building 26: the Untold Story of America's War Against the U-Boat Enigma Codes

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), March, 2005 by Gerald F. Kreyche

THE SECRET IN BUILDING 26: The Untold Story of America's War Against the U-Boat Enigma Codes

BY JIM DEBROSSE AND COLIN BURKE RANDOM HOUSE, 2004 273 PAGES, $26.95

The breaking of the Enigma Code virtually was as important to winning World War II as the Manhattan Project. It was one of the best-kept secrets of the war, despite nearly 1,000 people working on the problem. Among them were top mathematicians, scientists, engineers, Navy and civilian personnel, and 600 WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

As early as the 1920s, Germany got possession of a complicated secret code to be known as Enigma. With 15 years of updating, it plagued the Allies by directing Nazi U-boats to Allied convoys of troop and merchandise shipping. (Germany had broken the British code and knew where the convoys were.) Wolf packs sunk the ships with abandon, almost to the point of completely cutting off supplies needed by Britain to carry on the war. Tonnage sunk in the North Atlantic tripled between 1941 to 1942, so breaking that German code was of the highest priority.

Some decoding progress was made by Poland before that country was overrun by the Blitzkrieg and this information was conveyed to France and England. The latter immediately went to work on the project, carried on in Bletchley Park, outside of London and known as Ultra. The machine invented by the Poles was called the Bombe, as were subsequent models. Mathematical whiz Alan Turing invented a complicated machine that tried to run the Enigma Code backwards in order to decipher the messages. Each time the Germans made a variation of the code, England had to reprogram its device.

When the U.S. entered the war, it mounted its own Enigma-breaking initiative, sponsored and run by the Navy in conjunction with The National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio. Building 26 was the designated site of operation. One of the top Navy code-breakers was Agnes May Driscoll, fluent in German, French, and Japanese. However, she believed in solving problems with paper and pencil. Her successes were legend, but Enigma eluded her. Head of the project was engineer Joe Desch. His mother was of German extraction and she had relatives there. To ensure secrecy, Desch's boss moved in with him.

England and the U.S. had trouble cooperating on the project, as both were worried the other would breach the secrecy. Desch's first two prototypes built to break the code were named Adam and Eve. The next two were designated as Cain and Abel. At least the technicians did not lose their sense of humor. At one point, espionage was suspected and the problems this entailed are set forth in a fascinating chapter.

The work involved seemingly endless man-killing hours, which played on one's patriotism always to do more, and bred guilt in knowing that many deaths would result each day of delay. Desch eventually had a breakdown and walked off the job, only to return later to help with Japanese codes. Secretly, he was awarded the National Medal of Honor.

Desch's daughter had no idea of her father's work until two years after his death in 1987. She then broke the seal of secrecy that shrouded the eventual breaking of the code.

Jim DeBrosse is a journalist and Colin Burke an academic. Their combination of talents make for a wonderful read.

GERALD F. KREYCHE

American Thought Editor