Phil Shanahan

For almost sixty years after their deaths, three men, whose brave actions shortened the Second World War by as much as two years, remained virtually unknown and uncelebrated. Two lost their lives retrieving vital German codebooks from a sinking U-boat. The third survived the war, only to die in a house fire soon afterwards. But it was the precious documents they seized in October 1942 that enabled Bletchley Park’s code-breakers to crack Enigma and so win the Battle of the Atlantic. Now recognised as a pivotal moment in world history, three British servicemen made it possible to finally beat the U-boats, but at the time not even their families could be told of the importance of their deeds. Shrouded in secrecy for decades, then recast as fictional Americans by the Hollywood film U-571, this book sets the record straight. It is written in celebration of Colin Grazier GC, Tony Fasson GC, and Tommy Brown GM - the REAL Enigma heroes.

The capture of the Enigma codes helped shorten the Second World War by at least a year. Churchill took a special interest in the information that came out of Bletchley Park’s Station X and he guarded his contact well so that the Germans would never find out the source.Without the quick actions of three men from HMS Petard, who clambered aboard a sinking German U-boat, the codes might never have been broken. On the night of 30 October 1942, First Lieutenant Tony Fasson, accompanied by Able Seaman Colin Grazier and Tommy Brown, climbed aboard U-559. Passing codebooks up through the hatch, Fasson and Grazier were caught aboard the sub as she suddenly sank. Brown was saved, along with the code books, and the rest, they say, is history... It wasn’t until 1969 that the men were mentioned for their work in rescuing the Enigma codes, and even then it was in the comic "The Hornet". Phil Shanahan tells the extraordinary story of the three men who saved countless Allied lives and shortened the war by a year, as well as the efforts to recognise their bravery.