num_pages: 338
description: But for the work of Room 40 there would have been no battle of Jutland; the Irish Easter Rising in 1916 might have succeeded; and the United States would not have joined the Allies in April of 1917.This book is the enthralling story of he extraordinary band of amateurs in Room 40—university professors, clergymen, naval schoolmasters, stockbrokers, and bankers—who captured the German naval codes before the end of 1914 and of how they read them and their replacements over the next four years. the head of British Naval Intelligence, the legendary Admiral "Blinker" Hall, was described by the then-American ambassador as the "one genius that the war has development . . . all other secret service men are amateurs by comparison."Room 40 chronicles the Lusitania, the Dardanelles, the Zimmerman Telegram, the defeat of the U-boat, with verve and immediacy: the personalities of the principal characters, their clashes of will, and the mistakes and triumphs of the admirals and politicians, who come alive as though it had all happened yesterday.The American edition benefits form an important revision: the author has amended his views of the sinking of the Lusitania and intimates that a British conspiracy lay behind the tragedy—an interpretation later hotly disputed on television by Winston Churchill.Patrick Beesly's two previous books, Very Special Intelligence and Very Special Admiral, have established him as the leading authority on British Naval Intelligence. Access to hitherto unpublished material makes the present book a unique and invaluable contribution to the history of that organization as well as illuminating Amglo-American relations during World War I.
language: English
title: Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1914 - 1918
publisher: Harcourt