The Enigma Game is another wonderful story by young adult author Elizabeth Wein whose superb writing captures life in northern Scotland during World War II.
The story's narrative weaves between the following three characters. Nineteen-year-old Flight Lieutenant James G. Beaufort-Stuart leads 648 Squadron B-Flight which includes the Madeira and Pimms sections. The 648 squadron fly Bristol Blenheims on low-level bombing raids targeting German ships in the North Sea. Before his next mission, Stuart confronts his Wing Commander, Talbot Cromwell, who was recently moved to Shetland as the Battle of Britain ended. Cromwell is use to commanding a squadron of new Spitfire fighters, fast and agile. He wants the 648 Squadron to fly at twenty thousand feet which means hitting any target at that height is almost impossible. When Stuart argues with Cromwell about his battle tactics, he is accused of lacking "moral fiber", a euphemism for cowardice. Cromwell doesn't want them flying low because they are targeted by the German's anti-aircraft guns.
Fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair finds herself alone in London. Her parents had moved to England from Jamaica when she was twelve-years-old. They'd left Kingston, Jamaica because her mother "was afraid of the workers' strikes and Caribbean riots".
Louisa's parents were killed in the same week the previous month. Her mother Caroline, a white Englishwoman was killed when the front of the bus she was in fell into a crater when the Balham tube station was bombed. Her father Lenford, a Black Jamaican and a merchant seaman, was killed three days after her mother died, when his ship was torpedoed.
Now alone in their flat at 88 Gibraltar Road, Louisa knows she has to find work otherwise she will end up living in an air-raid shelter. Going back to Jamaica isn't an option because it would mean a life of hardship. After no success applying for various jobs, Louisa discovers Nancy Campbell's notice in the newspaper, seeking someone to look after her elderly Aunt Jane. Nancy's Aunt Jane is currently living in Rushen Camp, an alien detainment camp, on the Isle of Man. She is German and is a former opera singer who married a Scotsman many years ago. Now alone at eighty-two and recovering from a broken hip, Jane whose real name is Johanna von Arnim is coming to stay at Nancy's home, a pub, the Limehouse located next to the Royal Air Force base at Windyedge.
So Louisa accepts the position and travels to Liverpool and then by ferry to the Isle of Man. There she meets Johanna von Arnim, a feisty old lady who turns out to be a rule breaker like her mother. Wearing Frau von Arnim's furs, they travel back to Liverpool and using Frau's English name of Jane Warner get the train to Stonehaven where they wait for their ride to the Limehouse.
That someone is volunteer Ellen McEwen, a driver for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) assigned to the RAF aerodrome in Windyedge. No one except Jamie Stuart knows that Ellen is a "Traveller" - a gypsy. Ellen billets at the Limehouse. Driving the Hillman Minx van, Ellen meets Louisa and Aunt Jane at the bus shelter on the Aberdeen road. She is surprised to see that Louisa is a black girl. As they approach the Limehouse, they see a plane approaching. Louisa is convinced the plane is German and it turns out she's correct.
After dropping off Louisa and Nancy at the Limehouse, Ellen races over to the RAF aerodrome. There Sergeant Norbert Ferguson, standing outside the guard's hut at the aerodrome tells her that a German has just landed on the airfield. Ellen sees that the aircraft is a Messerschmitt 109 fighter with its Luftwaffe markings covered up. In the operations building, standing just inside the radio room is the German pilot brandishing a black pistol. He quickly takes Ellen hostage while the radio operator explains that the pilot has a recognized code name of Odysseus and was expected by British Intelligence. The German pilot was to meet with Robert Ethan of the War Office. However that hasn't happened so he's to wait until the morning and if Ethan doesn't arrive, he's to leave. Ellen drives the pilot to the Limehouse, where Louisa, Aunt Jane and Nancy Campbell are shocked to see her walk in with a German pilot.
Meanwhile Jamie and the Pimms Section of the 648 Squadron return to their base after intercepting transmissions between two Messerschmitt 109 fighters and then encountering one who leaves. Back at the base, Jamie learns that they encountered a German plane that Intelligence was expecting. But Jamie believes that the Luftwaffe plane they'd run into was hunting for the traitor Intelligence was expecting. He also learns that the 648 Squadron will be sent back to the RAF aerodrome at Windyedge.
At the Limehouse, tension is high with the presence of the German pilot whose name they learn, is Felix Baer. He plays Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture which Louisa recognizes. When Louisa stands next to him, he knocks open the wooden box which he'd placed on the piano and she sees it contains a strange typewriter-like device labelled ENIGMA. Aunt Jane who speaks German, explains how Louisa's parents have been killed in the war. Eventually German pilot asks to take Jane's gramophone upstairs to this room, playing her records well into the night.
The next morning the German pilot leaves, having missed his British contact who arrives late. But before doing so, he places a coin into a crack in the black oak beam that formed part of the fireplace and are part of the wishing tree. After searching the Limehouse, Ethan leaves disappointed. However, later that morning Louisa makes an amazing discovery. First the coin that Felix Baer placed in the wishing tree is no coin but a small enamel disk that Louisa knows is from the typewriter- like instrument in Baer's wooden box. Then while in Room Four where Baer spent the night, Louisa discovers that the gas fireplace has been tampered with. When she removes the fireplace panels, she discovers that Baer has left the wooden box with a cipher machine named Enigma. This machine, as Aunt Jane explains, is able to create and translate code. Louisa is also able to find leaflets Baer hid, that provide instructions and dial settings for the next three months. Not knowing who to tell, they first hide the cipher machine and then eventually pass the information on to Jaime Beaufort-Stuart.
The Enigma offers the British pilots a fighting chance against the Germans but it also places the RAF Windyedge and the Limehouse at great risk when the Germans suspect they have one of their cipher machines. This sets up up a game of cat and mouse that might have deadly consequences.
Discussion
The Enigma Game is an exciting and well-written novel. Elizabeth Wein is a master storyteller, who captures her readers' attention almost immediately with a heart-pounding air battle over the North Sea between the RAF and the Luftwaffe. Wein employs three characters to narrate her story, beginning with Flight Lieutenant James G. Beaufort-Stuart who is the son of a Scottish laird. Picking up the story is fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair who is British-Jamaican, and Ellen McEwen who is a "traveller" the name given to Scottish Romani or gypsies.
The strength of this novel is its engaging story line and the realistic and believable characters created by Wein. Set in 1940-early 1941 Scotland as the Battle of Britain is waning, The Enigma Game centers on the cipher machine, known as Enigma which has been stolen by a member of the German resistance and brought to Scotland. Its discovery by a young English girl results in the Enigma being used to help the bomber squadron assigned to the local RAF aerodrome get the upper hand on the Germans.
The role of the Enigma machine in helping the Allies during World War II has long been recognized. Developed by Arthur Scherbius, a German engineer at the end of World War I, the Enigma was used by Nazi Germany to send coded messages during World War II. However, in the 1930's, Polish mathematicians and code breakers were able to solve the mystery of Enigma and learn how to decode messages. In 1933, the Polish were able to build a replica Enigma machine based on intelligence the French secured. In 1939, lacking the resources to continue their work on modified Engima machines, the Polish began working with the British Intelligence. With war on the horizon, the Polish scientists were secreted out of Poland along with their Engima machines in 1939. The Germans continued to believe Enigma was secure and used it to send many messages.
The British did not obtain an Enigma machine until 1941 so the events in The Enigma Game are a bit out of the real timeline. Nevertheless, centering the story around Engima, offered Wein the opportunity to build a truly engaging main plot through the narratives of the three main characters. Perhaps the most poignant and heart-rending is that of Jamie Beaufort-Stuart and his 648 bomber squadron. Wein very much captures the danger, the sacrifice and the courage of the pilots as they fly missions against the better equipped German airforce. These qualities are demonstrated by each of the pilots in Jamie's Pimms section when they are sent to bomb Stavanger, a Norwegian aerodrome being built by the Germans. The resulting catastrophe vividly portrays the very real risks these brave, young men encountered. As Wein shows, many airmen did not survive very long under such terrible battle conditions.
The novel also highlights the effects of war, not just on those engaged in battle but on the civilian population as well, through the character of Louisa who is orphaned when both her parents are killed within days of each other, and through the food shortages that are experienced by those living in Scotland.
One character central to the main plot, Felix Baer, a German pilot who is a member of the German resistance, is based on the real-life defection of a three-man crew flying a German bomber, a Junkers 88 from Denmark to Aberdeen, Scotland in 1943. The crew did not bring an Enigma machine with them, but Wein used this as the basis for Baer's actions in the novel.
The diverse cast of characters allows Wein to highlight some of the racial and ethnic issues that existed at this time in Britain and in America. Louisa is of mixed Jamaican and British heritage and she encounters racial prejudice throughout the novel because of her darker skin colour. When she arrives at the Limehouse, Nancy Campbell is shocked to see that she is black and stares at her. Louisa offers to leave but Jane Warner refuses to allow this. The guard on the base is more concerned with Louisa than he is with the German soldier, and Intelligence officer, Robert Ethan makes a racially discriminatory remark to Louisa telling her, "Well, perhaps the hoo-doo will help you to feel at home, Louisa." in reference to the coins in the wishing tree above the pub. When Louisa and Jane Warner take the bus into Stonehaven to visit the library, Louisa experiences more discrimination. While on the bus, a young boy believes Louisa is a German and therefore the enemy simply because of her dark skin. Filled with anger, Louisa thinks, "I thought about the little boy on the bus, who'd taken one look at me and decided I must be the enemy, just because he'd never seen anyone who looked like me before."
Ellen McEwen is a "traveller" or a gypsy. Her family are known to Jamie Beaufort-Stuart whom she considers an "old friend" because her mother and father camped on his grandfather's land. Ellen is careful to keep her heritage hidden as she knows this will be a source of trouble. She is careful not to use "traveller" words or do things that are considered common to gypsies and thus reveal who she really is. Ellen is careful around Nan and everyone she meets. "I lived in fear Nan would twig what I was and we'd have a bitter fight over whether I should leaver her house. I didn't think she'd prefer me to raise a tent in her garden, but I wasn't ready to find out."
Although Ellen is able to hide what makes her different, Louisa is not. When Chip Wingate, a Texan, refers to Louisa as a "little darkie", Ellen at first hears this as "filthy tinker", and understand exactly how this makes Louisa feel. However, she doesn't nothing to defend her new friend, leaving that to Jamie and his friend Silver. When a brawl is instigated in the Limehouse after some racial slurs, Ellen stands up an reveals that she is a traveller. Later Ellen explains to Louisa that being called a tinker is the equivalent of Louisa being called a darkie. These experiences, along with many others strengthen the bond of friendship between the two girls.
The Enigma Game is such a well written novel, with an engaging cover that certainly encourages readers to crack the spine. But readers would have benefited from a map of England, Scotland and Norway as well a Cast of Characters located at the front of the novel. A glossary at the back containing some of the unusual words and slang used throughout the story might also be helpful for younger readers. Wein does include a detailed note about her writing of the novel at the back in a section titled, Author's Declaration of Accountability and offers an excellent section on Further Readings.
The Enigma Game is yet another excellent addition to Elizabeth Wein's group of World War II novels, this time taking a minor character, Jamie Beaufort-Stuart from Code Name Verity and telling his story. Highly recommended!
Book Details:
The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
New York: Hyperion 2020
437 pp.
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