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

Author: Simon Parkin

Narrator: Elliot Fitzpatrick

Unabridged: 10 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/28/2020

Synopsis

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Combining vibrant novelistic storytelling with extensive research, interviews, and previously unpublished accounts, Simon Parkin describes for the first time the role that women played in developing the Allied strategy that, in the words of one admiral,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.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an award-winning British journalist and author. A contributing writer for The New Yorker, he has also written for The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, New Statesmen, the BBC, and other publications. He is the author of The Island of Extraordinary Captives (winner of the Wingate Literary Prize), A Game of Birds and Wolves, and Death by Video Game, and his work has been featured in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He was named a finalist in the Foreign Press Association Media Awards and is the recipient of two awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Parkin lives in West Sussex, England.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on February 14, 2021

As a child, my introduction to the Battle of the Atlantic was the film version of Nicolas Monsarrat’s The Cruel Sea. I recall the voice of Jack Hawkins – he of the terribly stiff upper lip – declaring, ‘The men were the heroes, the ships were the only heroines …’ But as I’ve been recently discoverin......more

Goodreads review by Book2Dragon on February 21, 2020

I really, really liked this book. I was lucky to win it, and this review has nothing to do with that. The story of the U-Boats in WWII is not one I had delved into much, although the German movie 'Das Boot' was all about submarines. But the story of the women (WRENs) of England, many quite young, wh......more

Goodreads review by Michael on July 24, 2022

The Battle of the Atlantic was one of the few truly critical campaigns of the war. While other campaigns mattered, especially to the people who fought in them, ultimately the material superiority of the Allies meant the initiative would return, the Axis would be pushed back eventually. But if the At......more

Goodreads review by Kathryn on September 19, 2021

In the early, dark days of WWII, Great Britain's survival balanced on a knife edge. The German Luftwaffe famously rained bombs on Britain's cities nightly. The battle to keep the island nation fed is not as widely known. For food and fuel, Britain depended on convoys from Canada and the U.S. Those c......more

Goodreads review by Historyguy on October 24, 2019

Told in vivid, thrilling detail, A Game of Birds and Wolves shines a light into one of the forgotten tactical units of the Second World War and the core role the men and women who worked there played in driving the U-boats from the Atlantic. The book often reads like a thriller, with well-rounded, m......more

Quotes

"[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 isa triumph in itself."—Sunday Express (U.K.)

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

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