Book Description

The tale of a college student’s top-secret life: “A welcome addition to the seldom told story of the role of American women in [WWII] codebreaking.” —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 professor at Goucher College, a liberal arts establishment for women in Baltimore, Maryland. 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? This intriguing biography also delves into the stories of several other World War II codebreakers, male and female. With extensive research, unpublished photographs, and recorded interviews, we discover the life of Janice Martin from Baltimore and her Top Secret Ultra role in helping to combat U-boats in the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, 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 reveals the hidden figures who were part of this incredible time in history.