The Shadow
CLIFTON?FORGE — The Clifton Forge Public Library’s Brown Bag Book Club will meet on Thursday to discuss “Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Code Breakers of World War II,” written by New York Times best-selling author Liza Mundy.
The author’s website writes: “In 1942, reeling from Japan’s devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States military launched a secret program to recruit young female college graduates to act as codebreakers in the newly ramped-up war effort.
“Recruited from settings as diverse as elite women’s colleges and small Southern towns, more than 10,000 women served as codebreakers for the U.S. Army and Navy during World War II. While their brothers, boyfriends, and husbands took up arms, these women went to the nation’s capital to take on highly demanding top-secret work involving complex math and linguistics.
“Running early IBM computers and poring over reams of encrypted enemy messages, they worked tirelessly in a pair of overheated makeshift codebreaking centers in Washington and Arlington from 1942 to 1945. Their achievements were immense: they cracked a crucial Japanese code, which gave the United States an acute advantage in the Battle of Midway and changed the course of the war in the Pacific Theater; they helped create the false communications that caught the Germans flat-footed in the lead-up to the Normandy invasion; and their careful tracking of Japanese ships and German U-boats saved countless American and British sailors’ lives.
“Ordered by military officials never to reveal the scope of their war work, these women and their incredible stories and accomplishments were all but written out of history until Mundy discovered a cache of recently declassified documents at the archives of the NSA. Based on these documents, other rich archival sources, and interviews with the women themselves, ‘Code Girls’ offers a page-turning narrative of broad popular appeal while establishing a vital new historical record; and it brings to life this riveting story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.”
The Brown Bag Book Club meets from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the library’s Michael Armstrong Community Room.
New members are always welcome. Participants are encouraged to bring a friend and to bring a lunch. Dessert will be provided.
For more information, contact Helene Baker at (860) 558-2170, or email her at ibusybee22@gmail.com.
The library is located at 535 Church St.
For information on any library programs, call the Clifton Forge Public Library at 863-2519.
