War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another special bonus episode of Key Battles of American History.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And as promised, I have another single one-off topical episode on a topic that was

requested by one of my supporters at the major level on patreon.com.

This topic was suggested by Major Joan Belford, and it's on Bermuda Code Breakers. And I have to admit, this is a little

out of the topic of American history, but it is related to World War II, and you know I love

code breaking and spy stuff, so I couldn't resist. Plus, Bermuda's pretty close to the U.S.

You could argue that it's part of America in the larger

sense of the word. So here we go. I hope you like this. Listeners, Bermuda Code Breakers.

When you think about key centers of code breaking activity in the Second World War, what places

come to mind? Station Hippo at Pearl Harbor? Bletchley Park in England? Well, how

about Bermuda? You may find it hard to believe that such a small island was so important in the

intelligence war, but it really was. It has been said that Bermuda was Britain's number one

listening post during World War II. During the war, all transatlantic mail from the U.S.

was routed through Bermuda. During the war, the Prince's Hotel in the city of Hamilton was

transformed into the island's counterintelligence headquarters for the British, which monitored

...