Spy fiction

Have historians exaggerated Ian Fleming’s role in the cracking of the Enigma code?

Ian Fleming is best known for his novels about the superspy James Bond. But his reputation as a creative genius has been considerably enhanced by his exploits during the second world war as a lieutenant commander in naval intelligence. He has been praised in particular for coming up with Operation Ruthless, the first viable plan to capture naval Enigma codebooks for Alan Turing and his codebreakers at Bletchley Park.

In the words of the official Enigma historian, this was ‘a somewhat ungentlemanly scheme’. That was putting it mildly. The plan was that a British pilot would crash land a captured German bomber beside a German rescue ship in the English Channel, and British secret agents disguised as Germans would mow down their German rescuers so that they could seize the Enigma codebooks.

That drama never took place. But Ruthless has never been forgotten, because it inspired a series of similar schemes which eventually led to the capture of the Enigma codebooks and the breaking of the code.