City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

A game of birds and wolves, the secret game that won the war, Simon Parkin

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsportraitsplates

index present

non fiction

A game of birds and wolves

Simon Parkin

the secret game that won the war

1941. The Battle of the Atlantic is a disaster. Thousands of supply ships ferrying vital food and fuel from North America are being torpedoed by the German U-boats. Prime Minister Winston Churchill is concealing from the country the number of British ships sunk. He is concealing the number of British men killed. And worst of all, unless something changes, he knows that Britain is weeks away from being starved into surrender to the Nazis. This is the story of the game of battleships that won the Second World War. In the first week of 1942 a group of unlikely heroes - a retired naval captain and a clutch of brilliant young women - gather to form a secret strategy unit. On the top floor of HQ in Liverpool, the Western Approaches Tactical Unit spends days and nights designing and playing wargames in an effort to crack the U-boat tactics. This book takes us from the sweltering fug of a U-boat as the German aces coordinate their wolfpack, to the tense atmosphere of operation room as the British team plot battles at sea on the map. The story of Operation Raspberry and its unsung heroines has never been told before. Investigative journalist Simon Parkin brings these hidden figures into the light in this gripping tale of war at sea