02561cam a2200277 4500 419167117 TxAuBib 20200316120000.0 200106s2020||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u bl2020000334 9780316492096 HRD 29.00 0316492094 HRD 29.00 TxAuBib Parkin, Simon. A game of birds and wolves [BOOK] : the ingenious young women whose secret board game helped win World War II / Simon Parkin. First US edition. New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020. 309 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-302) and index. 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 Combining vibrant novelistic storytelling with extensive research, interviews, and previously unpublished accounts, Simon Parkin describes for the first time the role that women played in developing the Allied strategy that, in the words of one admiral,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. 20200316. Great Britain Royal Navy Western Approaches Tactical Unit. World War, 1939-1945 Campaigns Atlantic Ocean. World War, 1939-1945 Naval operations Submarine. World War, 1939-1945 Military intelligence Great Britain.