Codebreakers Series: About

Exhibit - Breaking the Code: Dayton's Secret Role in WWII

This exhibit explores the profound connection between cryptology in WWII and Dayton, Ohio - a topic largely unknown to the general public. The full extent of Oakwood's Joseph Desch's groundbreaking work, the WAVES stationed at Sugar Camp, or the operations conducted in NCR's "Building 26" is outlined in this exhibit at Wright Library.

Made possible with support from the National Cryptologic Museum, Oakwood Unsung Heroes, National Aviation Heritage Area honoring Montgomery County as an American WWII Heritage designation, and Wright Memorial Public Library Foundation.

Codebreakers Program Series

Wright Library invites you to a series of programs on cryptology - the creation and decription of secret codes - with the National Cryptologic Museum. 

Upcoming Programs

Visit the Wright Library Calendar for upcoming Codebreakers programs

• Sharing the Burden: Women in Cryptology - 2025 March 19, 7 PM
• Solving the Enigma - 2025 May 1, 7 PM
  The history of the German cipher machine, Enigma, and how it was solved by the Allies.

Join us!

In-person - Wright Library Community Room (seating limited to 80, first-come, first-seated)

ZOOM option available - please register to receive your ZOOM link

Past Programs

• Battle of Codes - 2025 January 23 | Watch the recorded program on Wright Library's YouTube channel
• American Secrets: Cryptology Through History - 2024 August 8
• Dayton Codebreakers Film Screening - 2024 May 23
• Joe Desch, Codebreaker - 2024 January 28

Additional Resources

• Oakwood Unsung Heroes
• Dayton Codebreakers  
• About the Bombe

Books about Codebreakers

• From author Michael Smith
  • The Secrets of Station X: How the Bletchley Park Codebreakers Helped Win the War
  • The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park
  • The Real Special Relationship
• From author Sir Dermot Turing
  • Enigma Traitors: The Struggle to Lose the Cipher War (2023)
  • The Enigma Story (2022)
  • The Bombe Breakthrough (2022)
  • Reflections of Alan Turing: A Relative Story (2021)
  • The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park (2020)
  • Alan Turing: Remarkable Lives (2019)
  • X,Y, & Z (2018)
  • The Story of Computing (2018)
  • Alan Turing: The Life of a Genius (2017)
  • Clearing & Settlement (2016)
  • Prof: Alan Turing Decoded (2015)
• The Road to Station X, by Sarah Baring
• The Secret Lives of Codebreakers, by Sinclair McKay
• The Secret in Building 26: The Untold Story of America's Ultra War Against the U-boat Enigma Codes, by Jim DeBrosse and Colin Burke
• Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Codebreakers of WWII, by Liza Mundy
• Enigma: The Battle for the Code, by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
• The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945, by Max Hastings
• The Bletchley Riddle, by Steve Sheinkin (juvenile fiction)

Codebreakers in the Movies

• The Imitation Game
• Dayton Codebreakers - a PBS documentary
• Dunkirk
• Darkest Hour
• The Bletchley Circle