One Day in August (eBook)
Ian Fleming, Enigma, and the Deadly Raid on Dieppe
David O’Keefe
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‘A lively and readable account’ Spectator
In less than six hours in August 1942, nearly 1,000 British, Canadian and American commandos died in the French port of Dieppe in an operation that for decades seemed to have no real purpose. Was it a dry-run for D-Day, or perhaps a gesture by the Allies to placate Stalin’s impatience for a second front in the west?
Historian David O’Keefe uses hitherto classified intelligence archives to prove that this catastrophic and apparently futile raid was in fact a mission, set up by Ian Fleming of British Naval Intelligence as part of a ‘pinch’ policy designed to capture material relating to the four-rotor Enigma Machine that would permit codebreakers like Alan Turing at Bletchley Park to turn the tide of the Second World War.
‘A fast-paced and convincing book … that clears up decades of misinformation about the ignoble raid’ Toronto Star
‘A fast-paced and convincing book … that clears up decades of misinformation about the ignoble raid’
‘A lively and readable account’
‘Magnificent and engrossing, this is a deep dive into one of the most fascinating and clandestine mysteries, which O’Keefe has cracked open. With extensive research, he produces a captivating and revealing narrative full of intricate detail and written in an accessible and flowing manner. Much of the information is new and I can safely say this will appeal to those interested in history, in particular, that of WWII, and those who find strange and enduring mysteries compelling. A compulsive, informative and eminently readable book, One Day in August is a multilayered and deeply thrilling expose.’
‘[A] fine book … well-written and well-researched’
