Welcome to Litsy!

Having filled the difficult XYZ spot with a book called X Y and Z, I have a new bingo!

#scarathlonatoz #scarathlon @Catsandbooks

A thriller unlike any other I‘ve ever read—because it all was true, with the world at stake. The French created an alliance before WWII, between X (Paris), Y (London, and Z (Warsaw) to share knowledge to break and continue breaking the Enigma cipher each time the Nazis improved it. Breathtaking were the risks taken by the Pole code breakers, the French super-spy, and the German super-spy stealing his country‘s secrets. Truly nerves of steel. ⬇️

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It‘s heartbreaking to know what happened in Poland after the Nazis were defeated. Poland code-breakers were instrumental in breaking the Enigma code, in winning the war, having been in the initial alliance against the Nazis, and then to be occupied by the Soviets. This is just a tiny bit of the horrors suffered by the Poles once the Soviets “saved” them from the Nazis. 😢

#litsyatoz #scarathlonatoz #LetterX #scarathlon @Catsandbooks

I am learning so much from this nonfiction spycraft book we don‘t generally learn about in history class. Again, dumbfounded! The Nazis wanted to poison Alexandria en masse!

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As sayeth the queen (any Star Wars fans know who said this?):

“So this is how liberty dies. To thunderous applause.”

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Who knew that the British set out to destroy the French Navy during WWII? I didn‘t!

This was in the Port of Oran, Algeria

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We are finally introduced to Alan Turing. His nephew wrote this book. Turing was clearly a genius, and his nephew appears to be pretty danged smart himself as he explains the inner workings of the Enigma machine. But the author is trying to give credit where credit‘s due—and so much of the groundbreaking work was done by some Polish geniuses.

#litsyatoz #scarathlonatoz #LetterX #scarathlon @Catsandbooks

The Nazis created their own excuse to invade Poland

#litsyatoz #scarathlonatoz #LetterX #scarathlon @Catsandbooks

The Brits and French were dumbfounded to learn the Poles had for years broken the Enigma code. The problem: the Poles lacked the money to build enough of their code-breaking machines to keep up with the Germans. Thus, the Poles decided to reveal their long-held secrets to the X-Y-Z alliance once the Nazis threatened Poland. X=France, Y=London, Z=Warsaw.

#litsyatoz #scarathlonatoz #LetterX #scarathlon @Catsandbooks

“Who…could tell what Hitler‘s new political programme would bring?…The policies…by the Nazi Party had, so far, been all domestically focused: suspending constitutional protections; removing Jews from public offices and schools; introducing a eugenics programme for people with disabilities; establishing concentration camps; and burning un-German books. ⬇️

Pre-WWII, the Poles were already trying to break the enigma code, being between two hostile nations wanting their land (the Germans and the Soviets). Apparently it was easy to buy enigma machines…but did them little good.

#litsyatoz #letterX

This is my next ebook and yes it‘s written by Alan Turing‘s nephew. Here‘s a summary from the intro:

“The Enigma endeavour was, then, an international collaboration by three countries. For the greater security of the joint enterprise, the code-breakers labelled themselves X, Y and Z for the French, English and Polish centres respectively.”

The goal is to tell the story of the code breaking that started with the Poles, then the French. Turing ⬇️

Alan Turing's nephew's history of the decipherment of the Enigma coding machine focuses more on the work by a team of Poles breaking earlier versions of the Enigma codes. It does assume rather more familiarity with how the physical machines actually work than I possess, which made it hard to follow in places, but it was nevertheless fascinating.

November 1918 was a good month for Maksymilian Ciężki.

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@ShyBookOwl

#coffeeandabook

I thought I was going to have to skip #LetterX in the #alphabetgame but then I saw this book in my BookBub email this morning. Fortunately it was on Scribd, so I've started it, so I'm going to count it.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks