The Secret Life of an American Codebreaker: Codebreaker Girls

"…a welcome addition to the seldom told story of the role of American women in the World War II codebreaking effort." ― The Spectrum Monitor

The Secret Life of an American Codebreaker is the true account of Janice Martin, a college student recruited to the military in 1943, after she was secretly approached by a college professor at Goucher College, a liberal arts establishment for women in Baltimore, USA. Destined for a teaching career, Janice became a prestigious professor of classics at Georgia State University, but how did she spend three years of her secret life during the war working in Washington D.C.’s Top Secret Intelligence?

Why was she chosen? How was she chosen? What did she do? Questions everyone asks are answered in this study of not just one but several Second World War codebreakers, male and female.

Backed by extensive research, unpublished photographs and recorded interviews, we discover the life of Janice Martin from Baltimore and her Top Secret Ultra role in helping to combat U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic; the work she and her colleagues undertook in a foundation provided by both British and American Intelligence. From ‘the early days’ to D-Day and beyond, the book includes other hidden figures who were part of this huge wheel of an incredible time in history.