In 1812 two mighty armies manoeuvred across the Spanish plains. They were finely balanced, under skilful leaders. Each struggled to gain an advantage. Wellington knew that if he defeated the French, he could turn the tide of the war. Good intelligence was paramount, but the French were using a code of unrivalled complexity - the 'Great Paris Cipher'. It was an unprecedented challenge, and Wellington looked to one man to break the code: Major George Scovell. Using a network of Spanish guerrillas, Scovell amassed a stack of coded French messages, and set to work decrypting them.
As a man of low birth, Scovell - even with his genius for languages, and bravery on a dozen battlefields - struggled for advancement amongst Wellington's inner circle of wealthier, better connected officers. Mark Urban draws on a wealth of original sources, including many cyphers and code-tables, to restore Scovell to his rightful place in history as the man who was the brains behind the intelligence battle against Napoleon's army and a forerunner of the great code-breakers of the 20th Century.
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Subtopic
Napoleonic WarsIndex
HistoryTable of contents
- Cover
- Landing Page
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Maps
- Preface
- PART I: From Corunna to Talavera: the Campaigns of 1809
- PART II: The Campaign of 1811 and the Evolution of French Codes
- PART III: The Campaign of January–November 1812
- PART IV: Winter Quarters, the Vitoria Campaign and Afterwards
- Notes on Sources
- The Leading Players
- Index
- Plates
- About the Author
- By the Same Author
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes by Mark Urban in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Napoleonic Wars. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.