The Enigma Girls
The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming is a compelling true story about ten young women sworn to secrecy whose work helped their country wing World War II. Fleming is a great storyteller that brings to life the secret lives of several women with fast paced chapters and photographs throughout that bring the information to life for the reader. Additionally, at the end of certain sections she provides “Top Secret” information with tips for different types of ciphers, code breaking, and the technology at the time that was helping make it all possible.
Enigma was a type of machine used by Germans during WWII that helped them encrypt and decrypt important communications between their armies. Fleming gives images and details within the novel of how exactly these machines worked and the difficulty in cracking them. In response, the British invented what was known as a Bombe and a Colossus, which was a computer that helped workers attempt to break the sophisticated codes of the Germans. There are lots of details in this book, which is too much to cover in this brief review. I will highlight the ten women that are the focus of the novel’s narration.
Patricia Owtram – she was not at the same location as many of the women who resided at Bletchley Park. Her efforts and work was to listen over the wireless radio to capture Morse code. It was this information that was then sent to those working at Bletchley Park.
Jane Hughes was a part of high society in London and was set for being presented to society; however, her mind was on much more important matters. At 18, she signed up with the military and ended up working in Bletchley Park with work related to the Enigma.
Mavis Lever quit school to join the war effort and spoke German. She worked closely with Dilly Knox for a while to break ciphers.
Sarah Norton was also 18 when she joined the war effort and also had the ability to speak German. She was originally assigned to indexing, which required cross referencing the intelligence received.
Diana Payne, 17, was sent to Bletchley Park and worked primarily with the Bombe machines. According to Diana, “Working on the monster machines was soul-destroying work” (166).
Ann Williamson was 21 when she started her war work and was a talented mathematician. Her work was to create the menus that the Bombe’s needed.
Joanna Chorley, 18, worked with the Colossus computer and absolutely enjoyed her work with the massive machines.
Charlotte Vine-Stevens worked as an indexer for most of the war effort, but after D-Day she was moved to “paraphrasing translated Japanese messages” in Block F of Bletchley Park (290).
Marion Graham also worked on the process of paraphrasing translated Japanese messages.
Gwen Davies worked in Hut 10 during most of her time at Bletchley Park. While there, she used retrieved cipher books to break coded messages.
There are a few mentions of romance as two of the women get married during this time, but there isn’t anything inappropriate in the discussions or details about this aspect of their lives. If you have a reader who loves WWII history and loves puzzles and coded messages, I think this book is sure to be a hit. It is a great, quick read about the heroic acts of women during WWII and their efforts to support the men fighting for freedom and justice.
