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A Game of Birds and Wolves
A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II | Simon Parkin
3 posts | 3 read | 4 to read
The triumphant true story of the young women who helped to devise the winning strategy that defeated Nazi U-boats and delivered a decisive victory in the Battle of the Atlantic. By 1941, Winston Churchill had come to believe that the outcome of World War II rested on the battle for the Atlantic. A grand strategy game was devised by Captain Gilbert Roberts and a group of ten Wrens (members of the Women's Royal Naval Service) assigned to his team in an attempt to reveal the tactics behind the vicious success of the German U-boats. Played on a linoleum floor divided into painted squares, it required model ships to be moved across a make-believe ocean in a manner reminiscent of the childhood game, Battleship. Through play, the designers developed "Operation Raspberry," a countermaneuver that helped turn the tide of World War II. Combining vibrant novelistic storytelling with extensive research, interviews, and previously unpublished accounts, Simon Parkin describes for the first time the role that women played in developing the Allied strategy that, in the words of one admiral, "contributed in no small measure to the final defeat of Germany." Rich with unforgettable cinematic detail and larger-than-life characters, A Game of Birds and Wolves is a heart-wrenching tale of ingenuity, dedication, perseverance, and love, bringing to life the imagination and sacrifice required to defeat the Nazis at sea.
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Oblomov26
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A senior British admiral having had his submarine sunk three time in a row in a war game demands to meet his opponent, imagine his reaction on being introduced to a 20year old WREN. At the height of WW2, an invalided naval officer and a team of WRENs were tasked with creating a game to analyse uboat tactics and teach countermeasures to escort captains; a task at which they were excelled helping to change the course of the battle of the Atlantic.

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JSW
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This is very well written and researched, and fairly addresses the complexities of war without glorifying it. I skimmed a lot because I'm not into military history and really just wanted the story of the Wrens - which was fascinating.