Categories
Graphic novels and comics

The graphic novel “Super Canon”

The graphic novel "Super canon" from Philippe Girard.
The graphic novel “Super canon” from Philippe Girard.

With “Super canon— Le marchand d’armes qui visait les étoiles”, writer Philippe Girard offers us a high quality graphic novel, as much for the scenario as for the drawings and colour choices. For this work, he benefited from an author residency in Liège. He certainly enjoyed his experience in Belgium much more than his writer’s residency in Poland, where he had to fend for himself because the hosts hadn’t respected the scheduled introductions and appointments. At the time, he used his misfortune to produce a very interesting graphic novel entitled “Le Starzec — un mois à Cracovie”.

Graphic novel "Le Starzec - Un mois à Cracovie" by Philippe Girard.
Graphic novel “Le Starzec – Un mois à Cracovie” by Philippe Girard.

“Super Canon” is based on a true story, that of Canadian engineer Gerald Vincent Bull. Of course, it’s impossible to retrace this man’s life step by step, so the author has created a character named Doctor Gerry.

On reading the book, we realize the incredible talent of Gerald Bull, the scientist who revolutionized ballistics. We bear witness to his chequered destiny, tormented as he was between his youthful dreams and his boundless ambitions.

To balance his research budgets and keep his company afloat, he gradually transformed himself into an arms dealer. He offers his service to multiple states, including Canada, the United States, Israel, Iraq, Iran, China. In the process, he becomes the object of constant surveillance by many agencies and accumulates enemies.

A page from the graphic novel "Super Canon" by Philippe Girard.
A page from the graphic novel “Super Canon” by Philippe Girard.

We’re dealing with a genius who has purposely blocked any critical thinking about his weapons of destruction. He dreams of a powerful cannon to send satellites into space, but the intelligence agencies of other countries hold very different plans for his invention.

He naively believes that he will be able to serve several masters with divergent interests, without this causing him the slightest problem. It borders on childish reasoning, on wilful blindness in the pursuit of the high life.

My only reservation regarding the content concerns the first page of the story. I find an ambiguity about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction (box 5, page 3).  This was indeed the initial fear raised by the United States, but repeated follow-ups by UN inspectors had shown that Saddam Hussein had no such weapons. The invasion of Iraq couldn’t be justified on such a basis. The invasion went ahead anyway, and none of these supposed armaments were found in Iraq. I would have liked the UN’s conclusions to have been mentioned. This would have allowed to establish the book’s scenario on a basis that left no room for doubt.

A page from the graphic novel "Super canon".
A page from the graphic novel “Super canon”.

Otherwise, one thing’s for sure: you’ll enjoy this extremely well-crafted graphic novel.

Click on the link for other graphic novels and comics on my blog.

Title: Super canon

Author: Philippe Girard

Publisher: Casterman, 2023

ISBN: 978-2-203-24112-1

Categories
Graphic novels and comics

Warbirds : B-25 Mitchell : Tonnerre sur Tokyo

Warbirds: B-25 Mitchell - Tonnerre sur Tokyo
Warbirds: B-25 Mitchell – Tonnerre sur Tokyo

This comic book, published in 2023, is the third in the Warbirds series, published by Editions Soleil.

On April 18, 1942, a few months after the Pearl Harbor raid, sixteen B-25B Mitchell bombers took off from the new Hornet aircraft carrier for a surprise attack on five Japanese cities. The mission was known as the “Doolittle Raid“.

These machines, which were not designed to operate from an aircraft carrier, would not be able to reach their targets and return safely to port for lack of sufficient fuel. All the pilots were well aware of this, and volunteered.

The fleet of sixteen aircraft, commanded by Jimmy Doolittle, successfully achieved its objective of confusing the enemy and showing that Japan remained vulnerable to surprise attacks. The Japanese wondered how it was possible that American bombers could have reached and hit their country. Where did they take off from? They know that the B-25 Mitchells were not designed to take off from an aircraft carrier, and that they were incapable of landing on one.

The genius of the operation laid in the combination of a number of highly risky decisions which, taken together, took the enemy by surprise. Firstly, as it was impossible to land the planes on the Hornet, they were installed with a crane, knowing full well that they would never return to the ship.

In addition, the captains were trained to take off over distances unthinkable for them, using a technique pushed to the extreme. The ship sailed at high speed into the wind, improving the headwind component so essential for such perilous maneuvers.

The pilots had to be extremely skilful to keep to the departure trajectory on a platform that moved from left to right in the middle of a storm. Buildings on the Hornet’s side had to be avoided at all costs, and the available gap between the wing tip and the ship’s tower was no more than two meters. Despite all the obstacles, all the B-25s managed to take off. It was to be a one-way mission to Japan.

Doolittle piloted the first B-25 to take off from the carrier. He had only a very small portion of the deck to work with, as there were still fifteen other bombers waiting their turn to take off. The second pilot to leave the deck narrowly avoided a water landing, as the aircraft sank slightly and a landing gear wheel touched the water. But the plane gained just enough speed to stay airborne.

Bombers and crews suffered different fates once the bombing raids on Japanese targets had been completed. The authors conclude: “The raid destroyed 112 buildings and killed 87 people, in about 6 minutes. […] The destruction of 15 of the 16 B-25s, unable to reach Chinese airfields for landing, was nevertheless to be deplored, the 16th B-25 having landed safely in the USSR.  Also to be deplored was the accidental death of three airmen (planes 3 and 6) and the capture of 8 others (planes 6 and 16) by the Japanese, 4 of whom never returned home, 3 having been executed as “war criminals” and the 4th having died in captivity. Worse still, the Japanese took revenge on the Chinese, who had helped all the surviving airmen, by organizing the massacre of some 250,000 civilians in the Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces then under their control. This was to leave its mark…”.

Landing and takeoff tests on an aircraft carrier, the Forrestal, were also made decades later for a C-130 Hercules. I tried to repeat the experience in flight simulation. The flight can be found in the “challenging virtual flights” section of my blog. As the Forrestal is not available in virtual mode, I used the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

Click on the link for other comics and graphic novels on my blog.

Title: Warbirds: B-25 Mitchell: Tonnerre sur Tokyo

Authors: Richard D. Nolane and Vladimir Aleksic

Edition : Soleil/D. Nolane/Aleksic

ISBN : 978-2-302-09745-2

© 2023

Categories
Controversial subjects

The September 11, 2001 attacks

11 Septembre - Les vérités cachées (September 11- The hidden thruth)
11 Septembre – Les vérités cachées (September 11- The hidden thruth)

11— Septembre : les vérités cachées (September 11 – The Hidden Truth)

For those of you who are bilingual, here is an interesting book analyzing the September 2001 events. Two planes went through the Twin Towers. We have seen those images over and over again. A Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon. At least, that is what has been reported since 2001. I knew that I would eventually see live footage of the plane hitting the building, and pictures of Boeing 757 parts, like it is always the case with crashes around the world. With tens of cameras surrounding the Pentagon and the nearby buildings, and reporters on site, there were surprisingly neither credible pictures nor videos showing 757 parts. Years went by, and nothing popped up. That raised my curiosity.

I knew that it was in the American government’s interest to show photos or videos of the plane, like it did for the Twin Towers. But with the Pentagon, there was nothing. We could obviously see a small hole in the building, but nothing else. I wanted to learn more about those attacks and, among all the documents and books that I read, there was this book written by Éric Raynaud.

Éric Raynaud is an investigation journalist who has written about important personalities like Ingrid Betancourt, Benazir Bhutto, Pierre Bérégovoy and others. He has worked for twenty years for daily newspapers before becoming an independent journalist. In his book titled “11-Septembre: les vérités cachées”, the author aligns facts, studies and verifiable testimonies that can be confirmed by the reader. He provides, at the bottom of pages, his sources and original references to all the medias. That includes books, interviews, newspaper articles, TV programs, videos and multiple internet sites.

Here are some of the subjects that the reader will find in the book. I can only present them very briefly here:

Pentagon: identification of the parts found on site

The author says that [my translation]:“the Commission of inquiry established that only part of one engine was found, and that it presented, as a proof, a totally inadequate picture”. It was not a part of a 757 engine but something else. A clue is given through a citation from Barbara Honegger (former advisor in political analysis to the United States President, between 1981 and 1983) during an interview [my translation]: “Some parts found in the Pentagon have been identified as compressor pieces that are part of a turbo JT8D engine, used for the A-3 Sky Warrior fighting aircraft […]”.

Pentagon: where is the Boeing 757?

There are many other sources of concern, like the obvious lack of important pieces. Their absence is noted, without any given explanations. Bob Pugh is a reporter with twenty-five years of experience and he is the first reporter to arrive on site, five minutes after the firemen. When he is interviewed by other medias on what he just saw, he declares [my translation]: “I look for significant parts, for the aircraft’s wreck, I do not see anything that I can recognize…I don’t see the tail. I don’t see the wheels. I don’t see the engines. There are no seats…there is no luggage.” The author writes [my translation]: “nothing has been found that would even look a bit like airliner parts”.

Pentagon: no serial numbers, no landing gear, no 757 engines

George Nelson, a Colonel in the US Air Force, has a direct experience as an investigator in aircrafts accidents. He declares that a fire resulting from an airplane crash cannot destroy every significant piece like the landing gear or the engines; neither can it make all the serial numbers disappear. He says [my translation]: “I repeat: this is impossible […]. Any objective and rational investigator would only be able to conclude the following: no Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon, as opposed to the official statement”.

Pentagon: depleted uranium detected on the site where the building was damaged.

Another surprising discovery was made by two scientists, Leuren Moret and Janette Sherman. Leuren Moret spent her career in the nuclear field, working among other places in California in the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory . She says [my translation]: “What happened at the Pentagon appeared highly suspicious to me. That led me to contemplate the use of a missile fueled by depleted uranium, and to make an immediate research with my colleague and great friend, Dr Janette Sherman. Janette went to take radiation measurements using a Geiger counter, a very short time after the crash. From fifteen kilometers, under prevailing winds from the Pentagon, she detected radiations that were eight to ten times higher than normal…” They learned, only four years later, that other experts had also detected similar levels where the Pentagon had been damaged.

WTC7 (building 7): bombs explode in the lower floors.

Numerous witnesses heard powerful explosions in the basements of the two towers (WTC1 and WTC2) and in the building 7 (WTC7), all while the Twin Towers where still standing.

Barry Jennings, the Assistant Director of the Emergency Services Department of New York was trapped in the superior floors of the building 7: he could no longer go down since the lower floors had been blown away. He declares [my translation]: “Once we arrived on the sixth floor, the level supporting the stairs we were about to use had disappeared! There was an explosion and the floor disappeared…the whole level had given in. I found myself there, suspended in the air! I had to climb back to go up to the eight floor…the explosion happened just beneath us…and when it exploded, we were projected backward…and the two buildings [the Twin Towers] where still standing…we were trapped there for hours. I was still there when the towers went down”.

This capital witness died two days before he was scheduled to testify. His testimony would have contradicted the main version. The Commission of inquiry, across its six hundred page report, does not mention the WTC7 name.

Twin Towers: bombs explode in the basements.

William Rodriguez, an employee with twenty years of experience, was at the B1 level of the WTC1 tower. He says that there were six basements, called B1 to B6. There was such a powerful explosion between B2 and B3 that they were lifted off the floor. Soon after, they heard another BOUM and it was the plane arriving in the tower. Many other testimonies, also visible on videos, show the employees and firemen reacting in surprise toward the series of explosions that they were able to hear.

How were the Twin Towers built?

Nine months before the attacks, one of the designers of the towers, Franck Martini, explains how the Twin Tower’s construction was thought through. He knew that there had already been a crash against the Empire State Building during the Second World War. A bomber, lost in fog, had hit the building straight on (a building that stayed up). Now knowing that a passenger jet could mistakenly hit the new towers that would be built, he explains [my translation]: “the steel networks structure is built as “mosquito screen”. A plane colliding with the towers would have the same effect as a pen going through a mosquito screen: the hole stays, but the global structure around it does not change. The Twin Towers (WTC1 and WTC2) are conceived to resist the impact of an airliner, even many…

And if the architects had planned the possibility of one or more impacts against their new towers, they also knew that once the crash would occur, the fuel would start burning. There is no surprise here.

The steel’s melting point.

Steel melts at 1538 Celsius degrees. According to Thomas Eagar, teacher of material physics at the renowned MIT, a kerosene fire generates temperatures between 870 and 930 degrees. The author declares [my translation]: “In 2008, an engineer who participated in the FEMA inquiry admitted that even their studies could not demonstrate with absolute certainty that the [Twin Towers] fires had generated temperatures higher than 300 or 400 degrees […]”.

The abnormal falling rate of the buildings

The towers went down at free fall speed. Between 9 and 10 seconds, according to observers; this is totally impossible without the use of accelerators. The most pessimist scenario, applied to the “pancake theory” collapse, requires a minimum of 21 seconds… The author writes [my translation]: “Numerous expert calculations hover around thirty to forty seconds”.

Kevin Ryan, from Underwriter Laboratories, a well-known institution in USA, says this [my translation]: “We tested the floor very well, by means of faithfully reconstituted models, in August 2004”. These tests totally refuted the main theory, the “pancake theory”.[…] Months later, the government published an update on its own conclusions, indicating not only the absence of the floors collapsing but also that examinations of the areas touched by fire proved that the temperatures…were very low”.

We are then back to the unexplained free fall. Or even the multiple unexplained free falls. Such gigantic buildings crashing down 1) totally, without leaving major parts standing 2) in a perfectly vertical way and 3) at free fall speed are sure to attract the attention and comments of experts in controlled demolition. On this subject, there are lots of testimonies.

In 2009, a crucial discovery from Danish scientists radically modified the main version.

2009: Niels Harrit and the nanothermite

In 2009, an internationally renowned scientific researcher, Niels Harrit, writes an article in the Open Chemicals Physics Journal. This magazine’s editorial team is composed of one hundred scientists coming from five continents. The article, which is written in collaboration, is titled: “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe”. They are nine scientists to announce that they have discovered nanothermite, a new and extremely powerful explosive, in the World Trade Center.

[My translation]: “According to what we choose to do with it, it can be an extremely powerful explosive, or it can melt metal at high speed.” Thermite has been known for a long time, but nanothermite is much more recent. The more the mixture is refined, the more it is powerful [my translation]: “ Activated to melt steel, for example, nanothermite will only take a fraction of a second to pass from the ambient temperature to 2500 degrees…steel, itself, melts at a little above 1500 degrees. I let you conclude…” The author finally understands [my translation] “the pockets of molten metal that were found in the Twin Towers debris and in WTC7, that New-York firemen took two months and a half to definitely neutralize”.

We then learn that nanothermite is [my translation] “made under license, to the exclusive use of the army and under the seal of secret defense”. The author refers to an interview given by Niels Harrit where the scientist says that ten tons of nanothermite are needed to cause the fall of the towers. And how is it possible to bring ten tons of that product in a place with such tight security? He writes that the company in charge of the security had for society director the President Bush’s brother and as general director the President Bush’s cousin.

It was possible to see the interview, with French subtitles, on (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x273rhq_de-la-nanothermite-le-11-septembre-2001-par-le-scientifique-niels-harrit_webcam), but like many other links available for a few years only, this one has also been blocked.

Obstructions made against the Congress inquiry

The senator Tom Daschle complained several times, and on many different medias, of obstruction problems he was facing from Dick Cheney and from President Bush, that were asking him no to investigate and even to stop the Congress inquiry.

The money allotted to the new 2004 independent Commission of inquiry.

The author notes that in order to understand everything about the sexual scandal involving Bill Clinton, 100 million dollars were spent. In order to know what happened on September 11 2001, the Commission of inquiry was given 3 million dollars. It is only after multiple complaints that this amount was finally reviewed to 14 million. Three thousand American lost their lives in that tragedy but a battle was necessary to get more than three million dollars…

The facts discarded by the independent Commission of inquiry.

The Commission seems to have found an easy way to deal with the most troubling testimonies: when this happens, instead of writing the details in the report and risk raising even more troubling questions, the subject is simply avoided. There is nothing written. So, in 600 pages, there is no mention of WTC7 whose lower floors were destroyed by explosions even before the planes arrived in the towers.

Nothing can be found about the Minister of Transport Norman Mineta’s testimony as to what he saw and heard with regards to Dick Cheney before the attacks. Mineta was nonetheless a direct witness; he was in the room with Cheney. Éric Raynaud cites what Mineta said and it is obvious that if those words would have found their way in the Commission’s report, this would have created a crisis.

There have been multiple testimonies received by the FBI as to the fact that something smaller than a B757 hit the Pentagon. Nothing can be found on those testimonies in the Commission’s report.

On that subject, you can read a Washington Post article dated from August 2, 2006 and signed by Dan Eggen: “9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon Allegations Brought to Inspectors General”. Another book written on the subject in 2009, whose author, John Farmer, is a former General Attorney of the New Jersey State, is available: “The Ground Truth: the story behind America’s Defense on 9/11”. He says [my translation]: “The public has been seriously duped with regards to what happened on the morning of the attacks”.

Cases of insider trading

Numerous cases of insider trading were detected, starting September 6th, which is five days before the attacks. They involved “put option” to sell United Airlines, American Airlines, as well as reinsurance giants like Munich Re and AXA and financial companies that would be impacted within a few days like Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, etc. However, enormous amounts of shares were bought on Raytheon, a military armament producer, just before the attacks. There was an inquiry, but no details were released.

The Osama Ben Laden case

The book’s chapter 8 holds surprising details about Osama Ben Laden. This information, that most of us ignored, brings a new light on what is generally known about him. It is said that Ben Laden rapidly denied being involved with the attacks. Normally, an attack is quickly reclaimed with pride by its mastermind. It is not the case here. I remember having seen Ben Laden on the news at the moment where he was saying that he was not behind the 9/11 attacks. Some details are given in the Éric Raynaud’s book as to why Ben Laden was not behind those attacks.

On this subject, the reader might, for example, take note of Bénazir Bhutto’s testimony, the woman coming back to Pakistan with the intention of running her own country once more [my translation]: “Osama Ben Laden has been killed by a former member of the Pakistani secret services, Omar Sheikh”. This link was available on dailymotion.com. The Omar Sheikh name often surfaces when the 9/11 attacks are concerned.

A few weeks after she confessed what she knew about this delicate subject to Al Jazeera in 2007, Bhutto herself was killed. She was not the only one to have publicly spoken on that subject. A former very high ranking CIA manager, David Baer, also confirms to Persian CNN, in 2009, that [my translation]: “ Ben Laden died many years ago, and videos and sound recordings that are episodically broadcasted are obviously false…” (www.persiancnn.com).

This book reports that the Dalle Molle Artificial Perceptual Intelligence Swiss Institute studied the messages supposedly recorded and sent to medias by Ben Laden throughout the years. The result [my translation]: “None of the recordings provided by the CIA or Al Jazeera correspond to the real voice of Ben Laden”.

United 93

Few pages are dedicated to the United 93 flight, which in itself was an issue that has given rise to many comments. We read about visual witnesses who see an aircraft explode in flight. The official story is also presented, which says that the aircraft crashed in a field. [My translation]: “The big, the huge problem, is that the rescuers, firemen, witnesses, and even the Shanksville mayor, who arrived quite rapidly on the site, effectively found a crater, but…absolutely empty”.

I’ve been interested in aviation all my life. Wanting to understand as soon as possible what had just happened, I had rapidly watched the live news and videos released by the media. At the time, it was not yet a question of conspiracy. News reports were live and journalists were doing their best to describe the scene. It was quite something to see a nearby farmer, who had rapidly gained access to the site. He was certainly anticipating, like everybody, to find many dead people here and there around the site. But he was talking to the camera and saying that there was nobody. He did not understand how it was possible.

It was also something to hear that reporter, on board a news helicopter, trying to describe what he was…not seeing. The helicopter’s camera was pointing to the site where the crash supposedly happened. All the viewers could see the scene at the same time as the reporter. But there was almost nothing to comment about. We could not see anything that would look like something we are used to see when there is a crash. And God knows we’ve seen a lot throughout the years. The reporter was unsure, he was improvising to kill time.

Conclusion

Through all the quotations and references offered in the book, among which some of David Ray Griffin, the author wants the reader to understand the following facts: in order to maintain its global domination, the United States needed to control the vast oil reserves of Central Asia. In 2001, there was a meeting between American and Taliban representatives. The Americans wanted to build an oil pipeline and needed the consent of the Taliban. This project having been refused by the Taliban, the latter were advised that a war would be started against them in October 2001. But a war lead by USA in a foreign country needed the strong support of the American population. In order to gain that kind of support, many neoconservatives like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Philip Zelikow had underlined, over different decades, that a new “Pearl Harbor” would be necessary.

What I understand of the book is that an attack without a very strong visual impact would not mobilize the American population and ensure that the latter would support a war in a foreign territory. Airplanes crashing in the Twin Towers, but more importantly the towers crumbling down would constitute this new “Pearl Harbor”. The freefalling towers would be played and replayed by all the media, reinforcing the desired impact.

But there had to be a certainty that the towers would both completely come down to reach that visual impact. The majority of viewers would certainly not notice that the buildings were all freefalling.

But there was nonetheless a major obstacle: the towers had been built in such a way that many airliners could hit them without destroying them totally, due to the “moustiquaire” design. Added help was required. And this is why there are so many testimonies, from firemen and workers that were present in the buildings, of multiple explosions in the buildings, down to the basements, and this just before the planes hit the buildings. Nobody expected the 2009 discovery of nanothermite in the Twin Towers ashes made by Niels Harrit and his team of scientists. This nanothermite created molten steel. It transformed steel into a metal softer than butter.

To suggest that Ben Laden was still alive, even though his death had been announced by many political personalities and intelligence sources, led the American public to concentrate their attention on a number one public enemy. There was no more moral dilemma to authorize military attacks in Afghanistan, supposedly to kill the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.  The promised war against the Taliban was now a reality. They did not support an oil pipeline controlled by the Americans and they paid the price for a while.

The reader has to decide what to make of that information. As a controversial subject, I could not find a better one. If you want to look deeper into the subject, there are many books available. Other than Éric Raynaud’s book, published in French, there is no doubt that David Ray Griffin’s analysis and research, initially published in English, might surprise you. The title is: 9/11 Contradictions – An Open Letter to Congress and the Press (ISBN: 978-1-56656-716-9). There are also many documentaries on the subject, among which the well-known video, available on You Tube: 2014 New Loose Change 3rd Edition.

September-11 attacks are the only event in which it is not acceptable to be curious. Here, there is only black and white. You are either on the government side, or you are an advocate of conspiracy theories. Like Bush would put it: “You are either with us, or against us”.

Title: 11 — Septembre : Les vérités cachées
Author : Éric Raynaud
Éditions Alphée /Jean-Paul Bertrand
Copyright 2009
ISBN: 978 2 7538 0481 4
(www.editions-alphee.com)

Categories
Intelligence

The secret life of Bletchley Park

This book is about the daily operations and lifestyle of the people who worked at decoding German messages in Bletchley Park, England, during the Second World War. The reader quickly realizes the incredible impact of the shadow workers on major battles like the Battle of England, El Alamein or eventually the D-Day. Moreover, it allows the reader to enter the Park’s installations to witness the rigor and professionalism of the men and women who worked day and night, through high tension and exhaustion, to accomplish their duties.

The Secret Life of Bletchley Park
The Secret Life of Bletchley Park

Their efforts to obtain results bordered with obsession. Even while sleeping, brains were at work. A major breakthrough happened after a researcher woke up in the middle of the night with a long awaited solution. Naturally, names like Alan Turing, John Herivel or Dillwyn Knox are repeated on a regular basis. But they are just a few in a crowd who played an essential role.

Bletchley Park was highly efficient for many reasons:

1. A wise combination of employees with diversified training and capabilities. A wide cross-section of abilities and general culture were sought after. Women and men working at decoding were gifted with a highly superior intelligence and focusing capacity. Multiple fields of knowledge were required: there were experts in mathematics as much as in history, classical letters or linguistic. Dillwyn Knox, one of the Bletchley stars, was himself an expert in old papyrus. The combination of intelligence resulted in important innovation.

2. The ability to keep a secret: the employees were scrupulously screened and could not walk in any other buildings than the one that they were assigned for their work. If there had been a mole in one of the buildings, that person would not have been able to have a physical access to other buildings to try to acquire secret information. A common goal and a deep understanding about the importance of their sole objective helped the staff to deal with fatigue and keep the unavoidable personal conflicts under control. The discretion about the operations at Bletchley was even maintained by the employees after the war was officially over.

3. A special treatment for the code breakers: even if Bletchley Park was officially created for military purposes, there was no strict military regime implemented: [my translation] “Throughout the years and centuries, we observe that British intelligence is partly a military affair, but is mostly managed by talented civilians”. The code breakers needed a special treatment: [my translation] “It was deemed very important that the “experts” benefitted from enough space and liberty so that their brilliant thinking could be used at its full potential”. They did not have to deal with restrictions and discipline applied to other employees. This objective to avoid useless pressure on highly skilled employees has been repeated in successful international companies aimed at innovation.

4. Collaboration between countries: it is important to mention the essential collaboration between Poland, England and France at gathering results aimed at cracking the Enigma code. Up to the moment that France was defeated, all the found solutions were shared. Besides, Polish cryptanalysts where the first to decipher the codes on the first version of the Enigma machine, results that were shared with the two other countries.

5. The importance of the chance factor in the success of the operations: the chance factor would eventually play a key role in the ability for Bletchley Park to maintain its operations for a prolonged period. In spite of the intense German bombings, very little damage was inflicted to the buildings where the code breakers were working: [my translation] “We owe it to a miracle that only two bombs fell on Bletchley Park […]. Moreover, another bomb fell near the site where Knox and Lever were working, but it never exploded”. Furthermore, two other bombs fell on the Park, also without exploding.

There were nonetheless obstacles to efficient operations. These included the existence of useless levels of administration: primary information starts to be transformed as soon as it is passed to another level for interpretation. The more levels there are, the more the message is transformed. Some people become masters at protecting their own status and job and eventually become superfluous. Because of their higher status, they are harder to dislodge. This situation could not be avoided at Bletchley Park: [my translation] “Our working place is actually overcrowded by intelligence officers who mishandle our results and make no efforts to double check their arbitrary correction”.

A book passage that particularly touched me was the story of three British sailors who swam up to a slowly sinking U-Boat, the U-559, and helped protect and bring back a four rotor Enigma machine (the most complex version) as well as all the Stark keys used with the machine. The two sailors who entered the U-Boat drowned as they had insufficient time to get out on time. The third sailor, who had stayed outside, was able to bring back all the secret material (wisely placed in a sealed bag) to his ship. To get a hold of this Enigma machine and all its keys would be deemed of capital importance to help neutralize the German forces on the oceans.

I conclude with a quote from Mavis Batey which resumes quite well the state of mind of the people who worked at Bletchley Park: [my translation] “You do things or not, but if you don’t act, nobody will do it at your place”.

©2012 Ixelles Publishing SA
ISBN 978-2-87515-178-0
©Sinclair McKay 2010 (author), original English title: The Secret Life of Bletchley Park