A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II

by Simon Parkin

Overview

As heard on the New Yorker Radio Hour: The triumphant and "engaging history" (The New Yorker) of the young women who devised a 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 counter-maneuver 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Combining vibrant novelistic storytelling with extensive research, interviews, and previously unpublished accounts, Simon Parkin describes for the first time the role that women played in developing the Allied strategy that, in the words of one admiral,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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316492065
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	02/23/2021
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	209,008
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Simon Parkin is an award-winning British writer and journalist. He is a contributing writer for the New Yorker, game critic for the Observer newspaper, and a regular contributor to the Guardian's Long Read. He is the recipient of two awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, and his work has been featured in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He lives on the south coast of England.

Table of Contents

I Last Man Standing 1

Part 1

II As You Wave Me Goodbye 9

III They Will Come 21

IV Wolves 35

V Pineapples and Champagne 53

VI Never at Sea 64

Part 2

VII Roberts 89

VIII Oak Leaves and Christmas Trees 103

IX The Aces and the Note 123

X The Citadel 134

XI Raspberry 148

XII The Royal Key 162

Part 3

XIII The Elephant Has Landed 177

XIV Nulli Secundus 200

XV The Battle of Birds and Wolves: Part I 208

XVI The Battle of Birds and Wolves: Part II 224

XVII Honours 237

XVIII The Gun in the Night 246

XIX The Sisterhood of the Linoleum 256

Postscript 264

Epilogue 266

Acknowledgements 279

A Note on Sources 281

Select Bibliography 283

Notes 287

Index 303

Picture Acknowledgements 310

Editorial Reviews

"[A Game of Birds and Wolves] brings to life one of the most elusive aspects of war...compelling."—New York Times Book Review

"In this engaging history...Parkin paints a vivid picture of training sessions in which seasoned sailors chafed at being tutored by 'an inexperienced girl,' and captures each maneuver in the ensuing sea battles with zeal."—The New Yorker

"A thoroughly absorbing book, drawing upon archives and oral histories. It reads like a thriller, with its accounts of nerve-wracking battles, extreme weather, icebergs, and ships sunk in a matter of minutes."—The Wall Street Journal

"This stirring history...redresses a balance: none in this doughty sisterhood has ever been publicly honoured."—Nature

"Through assiduous research and well-paced narrative, Simon Parkin has given us an extraordinary, little-known story from World War II. . . . A Game of Birds and Wolves is a work of nonfiction that reads in part like a thriller."—Pittsburgh-Post Gazette

"Parkin's book is extensively researched, well written, and tells an engrossing story of a little-known topic."—Science

"History writing at its best."—Booklist, starred review

"Parkin does a masterful job of evoking the sweep of this vital piece of naval history in both broad strokes and the telling detail. Every war buff will want to read this book. And anyone interested in strategy would be wise to read it as well."—New York Journal of Books

"Simon Parkin's book rips along at full sail and is full of personality and personalities. Above all, it brings a barely known aspect of the sea war out into the light. Which is
a triumph in itself."—Sunday Express (U.K.)

"Like a well-designed game, A Game of Birds and Wolves is fun, informative and intense."—BookPage

"A vivid glimpse of a little-known World War II effort...Parkin weaves this history together like a novel, switching back and forth among various characters and storylines to reveal a fascinating fight for freedom; both for Britain and the young women who defied contemporary norms to serve their country."—Library Journal

"With novelistic flair, Parkin transforms material gathered from research, interviews, and unpublished accounts into a highly readable book that celebrates the ingenuity of a British naval "reject" and the accomplishments of the formerly faceless women never officially rewarded for their contribution to the Allied defeat of Germany. A lively, sharp WWII history."—Kirkus Reviews

"A magnificent look at a war game that mattered most: how to out fox the Nazi's dreaded U-boats. Told with poetic mastery, Simon Parkin's A Game of Birds and Wolves unveils the story of Operation Raspberry, how eight young women and a retired naval captain found the key to winning the Battle of the Atlantic on a giant board game played on a linoleum floor."—Annie Jacobsen, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain

"A hugely enjoyable and exciting book. It is fascinating to read about this little-known aspect of the war which made such a massive difference to the outcome. A compelling and important new story, lucidly and humanely told."—Roland Philipps, author of ASpy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean

"In a riveting, intricately researched book, Simon Parkin tells the previously unknown story behind the Allied victory in the Atlantic during World War II. It's an underdog's tale-not only of British supply fleets trying to outrun German U-boats, but also of the women game designers who made that victory possible."—Ian Bogost, IvanAllen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies at the Georgia Institute ofTechnology; Contributing writer at The Atlantic, and author of PlayAnything

"This is the riveting true story of war, amazing women, and one of the most important games in history. Read it here before some film producer makes a mess of it."—Tom MouatMBE, Simulation and Modelling Technology School, Defence Academy ofthe United Kingdom

"A fascinating story, wonderfully well-told on a little known but hugely important aspect of naval warfare. The characters of the main players, notably the Wrens are beautifully and colourfully put across."—Admiral Sir Michael Layard KCB, CBE, former Second Sea Lord

"A stunning book of an unknown part of the largely forgotten Battle of the Atlantic, which is a must to read."—Niall Kilgour, CB, former Rear Admiral, Submarines and President of theSubmariners Association

From the Publisher

Parkin…brings to life one of the most elusive aspects of war, showing how a military can develop an understanding of what the enemy is doing and then, without adding any additional firepower, find ways to stymie those actions.

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas E. Ricks

10/28/2019

In this dramatic but disjointed history, New Yorker contributor Parkin (Death by Video Game) explores the role that war games played in British efforts to defeat the German U-boat menace during WWII. After the fall of France in June 1940, Parkin explains, the British war effort depended on transatlantic shipments of food, oil, and raw materials. Knowing that England would be forced to surrender if U-boats sank Allied ships at a fast enough rate, the German navy developed aggressive tactics, including attacking at night in groups of six or more (“wolfpacks”). Seeking to stem Allied losses, British naval officer Gilbert Roberts and members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service, nicknamed Wrens, created a giant board game to recreate actual U-boat attacks. Though the Wrens helped to prove that “support groups” of destroyers would prove effective against the wolfpacks, readers expecting a deep dive into the role of women in WWII will be disappointed—Parkin focuses more on German submariners than he does on the individual Wrens. Though it feels like three different narratives stuffed into one, the book is packed with colorful trivia, such as the number of condoms U-boats carried for use as weather balloons and antennae extensions (1,500). This overstuffed account misses its mark. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2019

Parkin (Death by Video Game) provides a vivid glimpse of a little-known World War II effort that pitted young British women against the full force of the Nazi U-Boat campaign in the Atlantic. The game to which the title refers was an actual game, played out on the floor in a secret British military installation by an invalid captain and a contingent of "Wrens"—young women who answered the call to serve with the Royal Navy in a variety of capacities during the war. This game, focused on evaluating and developing successful tactical strategies for outsmarting the ruthless German submarines that laid waste to many Allied ships, was played out on a large chess-like grid on the floor, complete with various props to illustrate ships and submarines as they plied the waters off Britain's coast. Parkin weaves this history together like a novel, switching back and forth among various characters and storylines to reveal a fascinating fight for freedom; both for Britain and the young women who defied contemporary norms to serve their country. VERDICT Vibrant and readable, recommended for anyone interested in the history of World War II, women in the military, naval history, and military history.—Philip Shackelford, South Arkansas Community Coll., El Dorado

Library Journal

2019-10-06
A New Yorker contributing writer and Observer critic tells the story of how volunteers in the Women's Royal Naval Service helped the British military win the battle against German U-boats during World War II.

As Parkin (Death by Video Game: Danger, Pleasure, and Obsession on the Virtual Frontline, 2016, etc.) shows, in 1940, the British navy was struggling badly. German U-boats had sunk more than 1,200 vessels and done more damage to British shipping than the German navy and Luftwaffe combined. Civilians were dying, as well, and with every ship lost, Britain had one less way to carry much-needed food and supplies back from the United States. To protect public morale and keep the Germany military in the dark, Winston Churchill imposed a blackout on all information regarding shipping losses from U-boats. Meanwhile, Gilbert Roberts, a former British naval officer forced into early retirement by tuberculosis, came up with an idea that, though initially dismissed by members of the British admiralty, eventually turned the tide of war against the Germans. Using a Battleship-style game to simulate lost sea battles, Roberts reasoned he could help naval officers to understand each situation "from all angles." His assistants included a team of exceptionally gifted young women from the newly formed "Wrens" unit. Using "string, chalk, great sheets of canvas [and] linoleum," Roberts and the Wrens devised and tested countermaneuvers, including one dubbed "Raspberry," which they taught to skeptical British naval officers. By the summer of 1942, Britain began seeing an increase in the number of U-boat sinkings, but the greatest victory came in 1943, when a convoy of British ships survived attacks by "wolfpacks" that included some of Germany's most decorated U-boat commanders. With novelistic flair, Parkin transforms material gathered from research, interviews, and unpublished accounts into a highly readable book that celebrates the ingenuity of a British naval "reject" and the accomplishments of the formerly faceless women never officially rewarded for their contribution to the Allied defeat of Germany.

A lively, sharp WWII history.

Kirkus Reviews