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A Game of Birds and Wolves

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What to expect

1941. The Battle of the Atlantic is a disaster. Thousands of supply ships ferrying vital food and fuel from North America to Britain are being torpedoed by German U-boats.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill is lying to the country about the number of British ships sunk. He is lying about 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, the youngest only seventeen-years-old - gather to form a secret strategy unit. On the top floor of a bomb-bruised 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.

A Game of Birds and Wolves takes us from the sweltering fug of a U-boat as the German aces coordinate their wolfpack, to the tense atmosphere of the 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 and shows the ingenuity, perseverance and love needed to defeat the Nazis in this gripping tale of war at sea.

Critics Review

[A] splendid new history of the war in the Atlantic . . . 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
Sheds compelling new light on the ferocious struggle being played out in the mid-Atlantic ... [A Game of Birds and Wolves] has all the elements of a film
Sunday Times
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.
Engaging and skilful . . . [Parkin] writes with real flair and the human side of this story is brought out with fine vignettes and character sketches . . . If the place of women in Britain's naval war has been played down, Parkin's vivid story recovers it handsomely . . . Inside his narrative is a desire to show how ordinary people did extraordinary things in wartime . . . this is a good read on a corner of the war and the men and women who peopled it - one very much worthy of our attention.
Guardian
A triumph
Daily Mirror
History writing at its best
Booklist (starred review)
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
This is a thrilling story, compellingly told
History Revealed
Enthralling . . . a pacey read with some wonderfully vivid set pieces
Literary Review
Gripping . . . a great read.
Sorted Magazine
A hugely enjoyable and exciting book . . . A compelling and important new story, lucidly and humanely told.
Roland Phillipps, author of A Spy Named Orphan
Simon Parkin describes brilliantly the key role of WATU in the Battle of the Atlantic. I was proud to read of my mother's role as a Wren with influence far beyond her age and experience, and of my father's application of WATU-designed tactics in the key anti-U boat battle of the Atlantic.
Vice Admiral Mike Gretton, son of Judy Du Vivier and Sir Peter Gretton
This is the riveting true story of war, amazing women, and one of the most important games in history.
Major Tom Mouat MBE, Simulation and Modelling Technology School, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom
A stunning book about an unknown part of the largely forgotten Battle of the Atlantic, which is a must read.
Niall Kilgour, chairman of the Submariners Association
Author Simon Parkin
Narrator Elliot Fitzpatrick
Duration 10 hours and 5 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529353228
Format x-book®
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Genre Maritime history, Military and defence strategy, Military history, Naval forces and warfare
Availability AU, GB, IE

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