The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming is an outstanding contribution to the history of World War II. Fleming tells the true story of the Girls who worked secretly at Bletchley Park, a World War II cryptology center in Britain. “There the team gathered intelligence of the most crucial nature. They strove to outwit the Nazis and break into German codes and ciphers.”

The hundreds of Girls, some of them as young as sixteen, and young women who worked there struggled to decode the messages sent by the Nazi forces. In doing so they made a major impact on the outcome of the war. Some estimates concluded that the work at Bletchley Park shortened the war by two years.

When they went to work at Bletchely Park, each of the workers were told, “You will never mention the name of this place, not to your family, not to your friends, not to anyone you may meet… You will never disclose to anyone the nature of the work you will be doing. Nor will you mention anything about the location of the place.” Each worker had to sign a document. They were told, “This is the Official Secrets Act. It clearly states that if you disclose the slightest information about this place or you work… you will committing TREASON.”

For that reason no one told about their war work or the place where they worked until many years later. Continue reading →