A Game of Birds and Wolves

The triumphant story of a small group of female volunteers who, alongside a retired British naval captain, devised a winning strategy to defeat the Nazi U-boats and deliver 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. Operation Raspberry, or “The Game,” was devised by Captain Gilbert Roberts and a group of eight WRENS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) assigned to his team in an attempt to stop the devastating success of the German U-boats and turn the tide of World War II. Played on a linoleum floor divided into painted squares, model ships were moved across this make-believe ocean in a manner reminiscent of the childhood game, Battleship. Combining rich novelistic accounts with extensive research and interviews, Simon Parkin describes for the first time the role that women played in developing the Allied strategy which won World War II. Told with unforgettable cinematic detail and larger-than-life characters, A GAME OF BIRDS AND WOLVES is a heart-wrenching story of ingenuity, dedication and perseverance, bringing to life the incredible sacrifice required to defeat the Nazis at sea.