Keeping the Atlantic sea-lanes open was a vital factor in the fight against Nazi Germany. In the battle to protect merchant shipping from the menace of surface raiders and U-boats, Allied resolve and resources were tested to the utmost. The story of the extraordinary measures that were taken to combat the threat, at sea and in the air, has often been told. But there is one crucial element in this prolonged campaign that has still not been fully appreciated ? the role of code-breaking, in particular the decryption of secret signals transmitted by German Enigma machines. And this is the focus of Roy Nesbit's fascinating new account of the Battle of the Atlantic. Using previously unpublished decrypts of U-boats and describes their fate. Their terse signals reveal, perhaps move vividly than conventional communications could do, the desperate plight of the U-boatmen as they struggle against increasingly effective Allied countermeasures that eventually overwhelmed them. AUTHOR: Ron Conyers Nesbit has a long-established reputation as a leading historian of the Second World War. His service in the RAF during the war included a period as a navigator and bomb-aimer in Beauforts of Coastal Command, mainly attacking U-boat ports in Western France. He has made a particular study of the war in the air and at sea. His many books include The Royal Air Force: An Illustrated History From 1918, RAF in Camera, The Battle of Britain, The Battle for Europe, Arctic Airmen, Eyes of the RAF and The Battle of the Atlantic. Roy C. Nesbit lives in Wiltshire. 200 photos + 200 decrypts
