British Intelligence in the Second World War; Its Influence on Strategy and Operations. Volume One

New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Presumed First U.S. Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. xiii, [1], 601, [1] pages. Volume 1 ONLY. Color endpaper maps. Abbreviations. Footnotes, Appendices. Map. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. Some ink underlining and marginal marks noted. Sir Francis Harry Hinsley OBE (26 November 1918 - 16 February 1998) was an English historian and cryptanalyst. He worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War and wrote widely on the history of international relations and British Intelligence during the Second World War. Hinsley helped initiate a programme of seizing Enigma machines and keys from German weather ships, such as the Lauenburg, thereby facilitating Bletchley Park's resumption of interrupted breaking of German Naval Enigma. Hinsley produced, with others, the multi-volume official history British Intelligence in the Second World War, and argued that Enigma decryption had speeded Allied victory by 1-4 years while not fundamentally altering the war's outcome. After the war, Hinsley returned to St John's College. The first volume of the this famous history covers the preparation of the UK for the intelligence war of 1939 -1945. Although later in the war the British intelligence system would dominate that of the Germany it started out well behind. In 1939 the British had little insight into Enigma, the organizational structure for intelligence gathering was fragmented and the whole effort under funded. This volume covers events from the outbreak of war through operations in Greece, Iraq, Crete, and Syria in 1941. This first volume outlines the steps and actions taken to create an Intelligence system that would be second to none in WWII.