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    GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1900–1986
    GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1900–1986
    GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1900–1986
    Ebook468 pages8 hours

    GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1900–1986

    By Nigel West

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The go-to intelligence expert and author of MI6 has “provided the clearest review of GCHQ and its predecessors in a publicly available book” (Firetrench).

    Signal intelligence is the most secret, and most misunderstood, weapon in the modern espionage arsenal. As a reliable source of information, it is unequalled, which is why Government Communications Headquarters, almost universally known as GCHQ, is several times larger than the two smaller, but more familiar, organizations, MI5 and MI6. Because of its extreme sensitivity, and the ease with which its methods can be compromised, GCHQ’s activities remain cloaked in secrecy.

    In GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War 1900-1986, the renowned expert Nigel West traces GCHQ’s origins back to the early days of wireless and gives a detailed account of its development since that time. From the moment that Marconi succeeded in transmitting a radio signal across the Channel, Britain has been engaged in a secret wireless war, first against the Kaiser, then Hitler and the Soviet Union.

    Following painstaking research, Nigel West is able to describe all GCHQ’s disciplines, including direction-finding, interception and traffic analysis, and code-breaking. Also explained is the work of several lesser known units such as the wartime Special Wireless Groups and the top-secret Radio Security Service.

    Laced with some truly remarkable anecdotes, this edition of this important book will intrigue historians, intelligence professionals and general readers alike.

    “Nigel West is an acknowledged expert in this field of literature and his latest book is fascinating and intriguing.” —Books Monthly

    “Rich in the kind of detail from which all students of radio and military history can learn.” —The Spectrum Monitor
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateFeb 19, 2020
    ISBN9781526755797
    GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War, 1900–1986
    Author

    Nigel West

    Nigel West is a military historian specialising in security and intelligence issues. He was voted ‘the experts’ expert’ by a panel of other spy writers in The Observer, with the Sunday Times commenting: ‘His information is so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services. West’s sources are undoubtedly excellent. His books are peppered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories.’ In 2003, he was awarded the US Association of Former Intelligence Officers’ first Lifetime Literature Achievement Award, and until 2015, he lectured at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Alexandria, Virginia. His website can be found at www.nigelwest.com.

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