The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes - Hardcover

Urban, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006018891X ISBN 13: 9780060188917

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

Synopsis

The true story of George Scovell follows the engraver's apprentice who possessed extraordinary linguisitic genius as he is assigned to Wellington's headquarters where he easily cracked codes used in French dispatches, but when the enemy changed their tactics from simple ciphers to almost unbreakable encoded messages, he was forced to race against time to save the British army from Napeoleon's deadly machinations.

About this title

About the Author

As a journalist and former army officer, Mark Urban has the perspective of an eyewitness to the most crucial political events and military campaigns of our time. He lives in London and is a prominent BBC Newsnight correspondent.

Reviews

Alan Turing wasn't the only Brit with a genius for code cracking. The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes introduces readers to George Scovell, an engraver's apprentice who stumbled into a job as the Duke of Wellington's decoder and managed to unravel Bonaparte's legendary Great Paris Cipher, which contained 1,400 coded elements. Mark Urban, a BBC correspondent, chronicles Wellington's campaigns against the French from the battle of Corunna in 1809 to the 1815 victory at Waterloo, showing how Scovell's decoding of enemy communiqu s was pivotal to Napoleon's defeat. (Mar.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After the decisive Battle of Salamanca in 1812, Arthur Wellesley infamously described his soldiers in the Peninsular War as the "scum of the earth." According to this original history, the duke of Wellington was just as charitable. He refused to acknowledge that the code-cracking efforts of one of his staff officers was critical to the victory. That officer was George Scovill, whose name Urban discovered in a history of the war but about whom nothing further had apparently been published. Fortunately, Scovill kept a journal of his years on Wellington's staff, from which, along with the records of Scovill's work on breaking French ciphers, Urban has built this winning narrative of military history. Urban's pacing is fast as he shapes Scovill's personality and ambition and vividly paints the battle scenes. In his report on Salamanca, Wellington mentioned Scovill's success, which gave him "a pronounced advantage" against the split-up French forces. However, he never again acknowledged how much his victory, and subsequent fame, relied on Scovill's intelligence. A fine work of vindication. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

In an extremely useful addition to the literature concerning the British army's campaigns in Spain and Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars, Urban rescues from obscurity the life and career of Maj. Gen. Sir George Scovell. One of Lord Wellington's staff officers, Scovell, an engraver's apprentice prior to purchasing an army commission, got involved with the attempt to break the French army's enciphered dispatches. Far more intelligent than the average high-born officer, Scovell was also a linguistic genius who was able to break the simpler codes. As the French switched to a more complicated code, the stage was set for the race against time to break the code and enable Wellington to gain the victory in the Iberian Peninsula. Urban, a well-known BBC correspondent and also a former British army officer, has combined the fast-paced narrative of a spy novel with colorful period detail describing the inner workings of an army staff at war. Recommended for all libraries. David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 006018891X
• ISBN 13: 9780060188917
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368