The Codebreakers: The True Story of the Secret Intelligence Team That Changed the Course of the First World War Read Free

while the petty officers, of whom there were nearly 100, paid to have their laundry done on shore. Hall considered this system a waste of time and money, so he contacted a company that manufactured washing machines, yet another new invention, and had one installed.
    Not that he was a soft touch, far from it; a strict disciplinarian with hawkish features, he could be terrifying if he wanted to be. The nickname ‘Blinker’ came about because of a persistent twitch. What is striking in the testimony of those who knew him is how little this featured in their recollections. In others the twitch might have been taken as a sign of weakness and anxiety; not in Hall’s case. Instead, what struck his colleagues about his piercing blue eyes was the effect they had when he trained his laser-like stare on you: once trapped by his unyielding gaze, it was impossible to escape the feeling that he was reading your mind. As Walter Page, US ambassador in London, observed, ‘Hall can look through you and see the very muscular movements of your immortal soul while he is talking to you.’

    Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, as commander of HMS
Queen Mary,
1914
    As war approached, Hall was ready and eager to test the
Queen Mary
in battle. On 28 August, he was part of the squadron, under the command of the young firebrand Admiral David Beatty, which went to the aid of destroyers being harassed by enemy submarines and cruisers near the Heligoland Bight, the heavily mined exit point for the German fleet. During a brief engagement, two German ships were sunk.
    This skirmish proved to be the last action he saw. Throughout his life he’d been plagued by a weak chest and bronchial problems that were aggravated by cold and damp weather. Given his current hunting ground was the North Sea, no stranger to freezing winds and driving rain, his condition soon became serious. On 10 September, Beatty noted that ‘Captain Hall is far from well, he looks terribly grey and tired’.
    Beatty was not the only one concerned for Hall’s health. Ethel Agnes, Hall’s wife, was so worried that she wrote to Admiral Oliver, who had just stood down as DNI to become Churchill’s assistant, begging him to find her husband a desk job. Oliver obliged, and Hall took over as Director of Naval Intelligence. His frustration at being denied the chance to end his career at sea evaporated as he found himself at the helm of the good ship Room 40, and he proceeded to build an intelligence empire that spanned the globe.
    In his unpublished autobiography, Hall explained his approach to the job, revealing a subtle grasp of human psychology and the need for flexibility: ‘a Director of Intelligence who attempts to keep himself informed about every detail of the work being done cannot hope to succeed; but if he so arranges his organisation that he knows at once which of his colleagues he must go to for the information he requires, then he may expect good results. Such a system, moreover, has the inestimable advantage of bringing out the best in everyone working under it, for the Head will not suggest every move; he will welcome, and indeed, insist on ideas from his staff.’
    The main criticism levelled at Hall by his colleagues was that he was too fond of intrigue. Without doubt, he relished devising elaborate ways to deceive the Germans and often made risky and hasty decisions. His secretary called him a gambler who enjoyed a dangerous game, and recognised the Machiavelli in him. Underneath, however, was nothing but a schoolboy; she fondly remembered how ‘the fun and hazard of it all would fill him with infectious delight’.
    Of all the intelligence chiefs, Hall exercised the most authority because he was able to escape the confines of his department. No door was left unopened, no area of policy neglected, no aspect of the war untouched. As a result, all roads led to him: Guy Gaunt, Hall’s man in the USA, realised ‘what a powerful friend he was … when I saw the men who came