One Day in August: Ian Fleming, Enigma, and the Deadly Raid on Dieppe
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About this ebook
'A fine book ... well-written and well-researched' Washington Times
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
David O'Keefe
DAVID O’KEEFE is an award-winning historian, documentarian and professor at Marianopolis College in Westmount, Quebec. He served with the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada in the Canadian Forces in Montreal and worked as a signals intelligence research historian for the Directorate of History and Heritage. He created and collaborated on more than fifteen documentaries for the History channel and National Geographic and has appeared on CBC, CTV, Global Television and the UKTV Network in Great Britain. He wrote and co-produced the groundbreaking documentary Dieppe Uncovered, which made headlines around the world, as well as the documentary Black Watch Snipers. He is also the writer, co-creator and host of the History channel’s program War Junk. In addition, he is the bestselling author of One Day in August: The Untold Story behind Canada’s Tragedy at Dieppe, a finalist for the John W. Dafoe Book Prize, the CAA Lela Common Award for Canadian History and the RBC Taylor Prize. David O’Keefe lives in Rigaud, Quebec, with his wife and children.
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Reviews for One Day in August
28 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There is a wealth of information in One Day in August. But it seems like two books were merged into one. The bulk of the work consists of the codebreaking and "pinch" operations that establish the necessity of the Dieppe raid. About 1/5 of the work covers the raid itself and the last two chapters seem to rush the timeline. The book seems to focus much more on Enigma than the title suggests.One other area that caused me to lower my rating is in a few instances the author intrudes on the narrative to describe the research process.Even so, it does provide new insight into one of the costliest single actions of the war.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an amazingly detailed look at perhaps one of the deadliest operations in World War II. The events behind the scenes were long kept secret and Canadian historian James O’Keefe searched through mounds of documents to find the truth.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5David O’Keefe gave us a new and refreshing perspective on the Dieppe Raid repositioning Dieppe from a meaningless and costly raid to an limited offensive that was designed to capture meaningful German code intelligence and ideally a 4 rotor Enigma Machine.Viewed from this perspective the Dieppe Raid can be viewed as a justifiable operation with lofty goals that unfortunately failed in all objectives. With the release of new sources that led to this new take on the Dieppe mission, this becomes a must read. The book also discusses the background of the Naval Intelligence Division, the Ian Fleming and other persons of interest early on in the British code breaking endeavor and how they developed and acquired resources to break German Naval Codes.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's hard to believe that things are still being declassified this long after World War II. Recently released documents shed new light on the raid at Dieppe. Previously, it was thought that the raid was undertaken to boost British morale or ease pressure on the Eastern Front. It was actually an attempt to 'pinch' a four rotor Enigma machine and associated code material.Most of the book is not about the raid itself, but about the huge task of dealing with breaking German naval codes. Several other 'pinch' raids are covered as well as the planning for the raid at Dieppe.This is a very good book. Obtained through LT ER program.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Day in August by David O'Keefe (London : Icon Books Ltd ; 2020) revisits the August 1942 Allied Powers (United Kingdom, Canada, United States) raid on the English Channel coastal town of Dieppe, France, occupied by the German Wehrmacht since the fall of France in 1940. Although a military disaster, the Dieppe Raid provided valuable lessons-learned for the June 1944 cross-channel invasion of France that would lead to Allied victory in Europe and serve as the beginning of the end of World War II. The book was first published in Canada by Knopf in 2013.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5David O’Keefe’s One Day in August might be better titled Pinched. While the failed raid on Dieppe by British, American and Canadian commandos is an important component of this history, much of the book is about efforts by the British to “pinch” German Enigma code machines. German U-boat attacks were sinking thousands of tons of war material and foodstuff each month during the early part of World War II. British code breakers worked extensively to read German naval orders that used Enigma and which they believed was unbreakable. It was estimated that one Enigma machine could create 10.5 quadrillion possible keys for each message, so indeed their confidence was not misplaced. It was critical to the British war effort that they have access to Enigma and the codes which could only be broken through the acquisition of a machine and its codes which were changed daily but through a system that typically issued 30-day code books. The need increased when the Enigma machine went from a three-wheel system to a four-wheel one. The raid on Dieppe, according to many war historians, appear to have no real purpose. Unfortunately nearly 1,000 commandos died in the raid. It wasn’t until the release of Ultra Secret classified documents, beginning some 40-50 years after the war, that it appears that the raid was a special operation, partially designed by Ian Fleming, to capture the new Enigma material. The “pinch” policy was sanctioned by the British and no doubt the capture of these machines was a reason that Allied effort to curb U-boat attacks was successful. The Dieppe raid appears to have been poorly designed and the death of 1,000 Allied soldiers is of course a sad event. The book is interesting history.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not sure this required a book length treatment. Some areas felt like the author was padding out the number of pages; however, fascinating read, even without the presence of Ian Fleming it would be a great story. So tragic an event. The strength of this book is the parade of characters that helps explain a lot. Excellent maps!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5General history tells us that the disastrous raid on Dieppe on 19 August 1942 by British and Canadian forces was meant to be a “reconnaissance in force” to test German coastal defenses. History also describes how Commander Ian Fleming was on one of the destroyers as an observer as his new Intelligence Commando unit tagged along on their first mission. O’Keefe’s meticulous detailed research paints a different picture as he positions that the Dieppe raid was at its core always a Naval intelligence operation designed to ‘pinch’ material desperately needed by the Bletchley Park code breakers; and that if the raid had succeeded Fleming himself had a specific role to play. This is clearly the most in depth analysis of the raid to date and draws from recently declassified material covering both its conception, planning, chaotic execution, and aftermath; but it is undermined a little by a few too many instances of the researcher inserting himself in the narrative. And while the Fleming connection is a definite fact I think it’s overplayed at times just to provide a narrative through line.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Day in August, Ian Fleming, Enigma and the Deadly Raid on Dieppe by David O’KeefeProfessor O’Keefe has written the history of the attack on Dieppe using newly released documents about the raid and what it all was about. He makes the reader feel like they are reading a novel rather than a history book. To tell the complex story of the raid is told brilliantly, through the documents, people who survived and published and unpublished memoirs. This book is so much more than about the raid, he takes you to the inner workings of spies, the intelligent agencies, and, of course, the people who were code breakers. Sometimes there was jealousy and departments and countries were uncooperative. He tells about the “pincer raids” whose jobs were to steal the Enigma machine on land and sea. Bletchley Park also has a huge roll in this book. This is the perfect book for anyone who enjoys reading about codes, enigma machines, and the people involved in this part of WW2 history.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It'd love to see the Venn diagram for the target audience for this book - (Cryptography enthusiasts - especially Enigma/Ultra) x (James Bond fans) x(Military history nuts, especially those fascinated by Churchill's recurring proclivity for squandering the lives of Commonwealth Forces)? As I seem to have an at least mild interest in each of these three overlapping circles, this seems to have been written just for me.The hypothesis here is that the Dieppe raid was undertaken not JUST to satisfy Churchill's desire to kill his colonial allies - but that the REAL reason was an attempt to grab an upgraded Enigma machine..
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Since the raid on Dieppe in August, 1942, historians have wondered why the raid was planned and what were the objectives. Some of the reasons surmised were Lord Louis Mountbatten was seeking glory, it was a trial run for D-Day which Churchill indicated when he said it was a test of Hitler's vaunted fortress Europe, or it was done to placate Stalin's request for a second front. These reasons were never accepted by critics and they wondered what the planners were hiding.This book seems to provide the answer- the raid was designed to pinch an Enigma machine and all the code books that went with it. Why were so many men sacrificed for that? The reason is the U-Boat war was not going well because the Germans had upgrade their Enigma Coding machines to a four rotor machine that the British Code breakers had not been able to solve. Too many ships were being sunk and Britain faced starvation of food, equipment and most importantly oil. The code breakers need to get their hands on a new four rotor machine so they could once again listen in on German communications. This was the reason for Dieppe. When O'Keefe told a 97 year old survivor of the raid the reason behind it, he said, " Now I can die in peace. Now I know what my friends died for."The description of the raid is probably less than half the book. A greater part is about code breaking by the British and the code breakers at the secret facility at Bletchley Park and how they used captured three rotor Enigma machines to combat German U-Boats in the Atlantic. When the Germans introduced the four rotor machine, all information about where the U-Boats were being sent stopped'. The British were desperate. After several other raids were unsuccessful in pinching a machine, Dieppe became a target because of the many trawlers that used it as a base as well as naval headquarters all of which would have machines and code books available for the pinch.Great entertaining read that seems to finally solve the mystery of the raid and O'Keefe promises more as more classified documents are released in the future.