David O'Keefe

There is a wealth of information in One Day in August. But it seems like two books were merged into one. The bulk of the work consists of the codebreaking and "pinch" operations that establish the necessity of the Dieppe raid. About 1/5 of the work covers the raid itself and the last two chapters seem to rush the timeline. The book seems to focus much more on Enigma than the title suggests.
One other area that caused me to lower my rating is in a few instances the author intrudes on the narrative to describe the research process.
Even so, it does provide new insight into one of the costliest single actions of the war.… (mehr)

David O’Keefe gave us a new and refreshing perspective on the Dieppe Raid repositioning Dieppe from a meaningless and costly raid to an limited offensive that was designed to capture meaningful German code intelligence and ideally a 4 rotor Enigma Machine.

Viewed from this perspective the Dieppe Raid can be viewed as a justifiable operation with lofty goals that unfortunately failed in all objectives. With the release of new sources that led to this new take on the Dieppe mission, this becomes a must read.
The book also discusses the background of the Naval Intelligence Division, the Ian Fleming and other persons of interest early on in the British code breaking endeavor and how they developed and acquired resources to break German Naval Codes.… (mehr)

It's hard to believe that things are still being declassified this long after World War II. Recently released documents shed new light on the raid at Dieppe. Previously, it was thought that the raid was undertaken to boost British morale or ease pressure on the Eastern Front. It was actually an attempt to 'pinch' a four rotor Enigma machine and associated code material.

Most of the book is not about the raid itself, but about the huge task of dealing with breaking German naval codes. Several other 'pinch' raids are covered as well as the planning for the raid at Dieppe.

This is a very good book. Obtained through LT ER program.… (mehr)