Most Secret War
In this work, the author details how Britain steathily stole the war from under the Germans' noses by outsmarting their intelligence at every turn. He tells of the 'battle of the beams', detecting and defeating flying bombs, using chaff to confuse radar, and much more.
Stats for nerds
16recommend
41mentions
27people
2010–2026years
61% recommend37% neutral2% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- There were a great number of inventive aerial navigation systems that predate GPS by many decades. One of my favourite books is Most Secret War[0], a biography by R.V. Jones that details much of the cat and mouse that went into detecting and countering the various systems used by the Axis and the Allies to bomb each other.
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1127842.Most_Secret_War
- The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer. The amazing courage shown by the US Navy sailors as their tiny 2,000 ton Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts faced a Japanese fleet of Battleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers at The Battle Off Samar. Inspiring and horrifying, the DDs and DEs of the US navy were protecting "Escort Carriers" which were smaller aircraft carriers made from cargo ship hulls. Warning, may inspire you to learn a whole bunch more about world war 2.
And 2 books that sort of go together:
Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway by Walter Lord, and Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. Read Incredible Victory first, learn about the luck, good and bad, that led to a much-needed victory in the Pacific. Then read Shattered Sword and get a fuller picture of events, especially from the Japanese side. Learn about how hubris and dogma led to the Japanese Navy's defeat. Then learn about how saving face led to history not being accurately told by the witnesses on the Japanese side.
All 3 are great books that are well worth your time.
Others that I've enjoyed:
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (near future post-apocalyptic sci-fi).
The non-fiction Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson (more WW2 non-fiction, nice details about North Africa through Italy, then France to Germany).
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.
Most Secret War by RV Jones (nerdy, funny history of one scientist's world war 2 experience).
The Discworld City Guard books, starting with Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett. Fantasy fiction satire, hilarious and comforting. Highly, highly recommended!!
Peter F Hamilton sci-fi adventure books: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained are a duo of great space opera stretching across multiple planets and people. Don't spoil yourself by reading any descriptions of Judas Unchained before you read Pandora's Star. Also by the same author, The Night's Dawn Trilogy: The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God. Fantastic big canvas space opera with lots of threads, great world-building, and amazing situations. Both sets of books are highly recommended escapes from reality.
- Somewhat related, being a book on science and world war 2:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1127842.Most_Secret_War
Dr R V Jones' Most Secret War is amazing, funny, easy to get into, and tells a great story too:
"R.V. Jones's account of his part in British Scientific Intelligence between 1939 and 1949. It was his responsibility to anticipate German applications of science to warfare, so that their new weapons could be countered before they were used. Much of his work had to do with radio navigation, as in the Battle of the Beams, with radar, as in the Allied Bomber Offensive and in the preparations for D-Day and in the war at sea.
He was also in charge of intelligence against the V-1 (flying bomb) and the V-2 (rocket) retaliations weapons and, although the Germans were some distance away from success, against their nuclear weapons."
- Non-fiction: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer. US Navy destroyers, escort carriers and destroyer escorts face off against Japanese cruisers and battleships. The Japanese had many times the firepower of the US, yet incredibly brave US sailors and airmen attacked anyway. Incredible story of courage under terrible conditions and odds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Stand_of_the_Tin_Can_... and https://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin-Sailors-Extraordinary/...
Fiction:
Project Hail Mary is very enjoyable, don't read spoilers and you'll enjoy it even more. https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-Mary-Andy-Weir/dp/059313...
The Discworld City Watch series of books, starting with "Guards! Guards!" The characters are hilarious, there's so much humour yet still enough space for meaningful prose. Terry Pratchett was taken from us too soon. https://www.amazon.com/Guards-Discworld-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0...
Edited to add: non-fiction "Most Secret War" by Dr R V Jones. Funny, easily digestible short chapters, wonderful account of the author's work in WW2. "(the author's) appointment to the Intelligence Section of Britain's Air Ministry in 1939 led to some of the most astonishing scientific and technological breakthroughs of the Second World War." https://www.amazon.com/Most-Secret-Penguin-World-Collection/...
- If you've not read Most Secret War I highly recommend it. Dr R V Jones details some of the different systems involved in the Battle of Britain and it's a great book too.
- Amazing. I came here to specifically recommend another RV Jones book, the Most Secret War (https://www.amazon.com/Most-Secret-War-R-V-Jones/dp/01410428...). I wasn't aware of his other book, so very much looking forward to reading this.
I first read this book when I was starting out as a Dev some 20 years ago. It made a huge impression and is still relevant. Some things I remember off the top of my head.
- It was the first time I came across Occams Razor. This really helped me understand how to approach debugging issues and generally dealing with problems.
- It discusses the dangers of people who don't understand areas at a technical level being in charge of programs that depend on those technical things. Even more so when they have an inflated ego. Apparently Churchill was very good at seeing through this.
- If I'm remembering correctly, there was a section about a practical joke someone played on their apartment neighbour that involved swapping out their pet tortoise for gradually larger versions. I very recently read a Roald Dahl childrens book to my kid which had this exact story. Now I have no idea if this actually happened as RV Jones wrote, or if it was a well known story at the time that Roald Dahl also adapted.
- The dangers of making assumptions.
I'm sure there are more. It's a worthwhile and highly entertaining read regardless.
