My father served in the Royal Navy during the second world war. He drank over-proof rum and smoked unfiltered cigarettes, both free of charge, while wearing a uniform that enhanced his natural attractions. What more could any teenager want? Of course, there were hazards in store when he set out from Liverpool. Worst of all was the weather. Atlantic storms could punch out portholes and bend iron stanchions. But a close second came U-boats, which sank ships in minutes.
The U-boats were dangerous not only for sailors. Their depredations almost cost Britain victory. By 1941, the losses of merchant vessels in the Battle of the Atlantic meant we faced starvation. The solution came from an unlikely source. Simon Parkin’s book is subtitled ‘the secret game that won the war’, because it was playing a game on dry land that helped turn the tide of hostilities at sea.
War games using boards and miniature pieces to simulate combat had been around since the 19th century, but hadn’t got far in the Navy. Indeed, the leader of its main war gaming unit in 1942 was not even a serving officer. Captain Gilbert Roberts was officially retired, invalided out of the Navy with tuberculosis. Moreover, most of his team were young women — very young women. They were ten Wrens, ranging in age from June Duncan, who was just 17, to the 21-year-old Jean Laidlaw. Yet as well as their youth and gender, they were distinguished by unusual brightness and enthusiasm.
The killer U-boat tactic was to slip into a convoy from behind, unseen by its escort of destroyers and corvettes. Once inside the convoy, merchant vessels were easy targets. To escape the escort the U-boats then dived and let the convoy pass overhead.
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