jakobitz's review against another edition
2.0
All in all, an intriguing story told rather blandly. I found the Epilogue to be the most interesting part of the book
travistn's review against another edition
2.0
A disjointed spaghetti of a book that needed more of an editor or focus to be great.
The book overall does a lot of telling but little showing. The point of the narrative is that this “game” developed by the Royal Navy helped turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic, but glosses over what tactics where really innovated. All we are told is they developed tactics like”Raspberry” but never got the notion that the author knew what that was. The other strategies discovered by the team are never even explained.
The focus on the wrens was interesting and that is a needed element of WW2 history that can be expanded upon, but again after developing several of them it then seems to gloss over contributions. In essence it was: Here is this interesting person who broke through into a masculine world by being tenacious, and then they were in this room where something happened.
There are baseline historical elements that are seemingly left out, We never get a table for the Allied shipping losses, despite the repeated emphasis that this WAS a big deal that the UK leadership focused on. We never get a sense of the ebbs and flow of the battle.
The beginning setup with a cliff hanger was cheesy and would have been REALLY annoying had I bothered to remember it. That goes for the whole book that seems to jump around in time that it’s not clear when things are happening.
I feel like this book is a great idea of an interesting subject, but it needed to either be a 30 page history article, or a 300 page book with charts/graphs.
The book overall does a lot of telling but little showing. The point of the narrative is that this “game” developed by the Royal Navy helped turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic, but glosses over what tactics where really innovated. All we are told is they developed tactics like”Raspberry” but never got the notion that the author knew what that was. The other strategies discovered by the team are never even explained.
The focus on the wrens was interesting and that is a needed element of WW2 history that can be expanded upon, but again after developing several of them it then seems to gloss over contributions. In essence it was: Here is this interesting person who broke through into a masculine world by being tenacious, and then they were in this room where something happened.
There are baseline historical elements that are seemingly left out, We never get a table for the Allied shipping losses, despite the repeated emphasis that this WAS a big deal that the UK leadership focused on. We never get a sense of the ebbs and flow of the battle.
The beginning setup with a cliff hanger was cheesy and would have been REALLY annoying had I bothered to remember it. That goes for the whole book that seems to jump around in time that it’s not clear when things are happening.
I feel like this book is a great idea of an interesting subject, but it needed to either be a 30 page history article, or a 300 page book with charts/graphs.
mbondlamberty's review against another edition
5.0
Entertaining and informative book with so much information.
It is not a fast read but a lot of fascinating looks behind the scenes from WWII>
It is not a fast read but a lot of fascinating looks behind the scenes from WWII>
hbelle01's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
tense
medium-paced
3.75
This was a solid, informative read on a topic I’d never heard of since women’s contributions to various war efforts often remains unremarked. There were parts of the story that I wish had more information, but the author acknowledges that most of the women did not record their experiences or the records were destroyed/lost. There isn’t much to be done. That said, the book had well researched, cited facts to contribute to the narrative.
disneyfreak627's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
2.75
Honestly, I felt like I learned far more about the men involved, even the U Boat captains than the women the book claimed to champion. Disappointed, but it was informative.
agruenbaum's review against another edition
3.0
Unique story. The narrative bounced around quite a bit early on.
nobodyspoet's review against another edition
3.5
Well-written, though unfocused. The constant back-tracking is tiresome, but my chief complaint is that I find the subtitle to be misleading at best and entirely unwarranted at worst. It takes nearly half the book to even begin to actually turn focus to the WRENs , and then that focus still reads secondary and impersonal in comparison to that of the men. With some tweaking the focus could have fully shifted to any number of subjects and would have been just as interesting, but as-is it's disappointing because those near-misses aren't why I picked it up in the first place.
thomcat's review against another edition
4.0
Primarily focuses on the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) school of anti-submarine warfare, which helped the allies turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Also relays the story of founder Gilbert Roberts and the many Wrens who implemented the work and trained the Naval commanders. Chapters are short and to-the-point, with some photographs of the principals. The most detailed look into "war games" and their impact that I've read so far.
The book does wander a bit, and the reasons are not always plain at first. This includes the opening chapter, about children boarding a ship for America in the early days of the war. The sub-stories are also not strictly linear, which was a bit irritating. A solid 3½ stars.
Also relays the story of founder Gilbert Roberts and the many Wrens who implemented the work and trained the Naval commanders. Chapters are short and to-the-point, with some photographs of the principals. The most detailed look into "war games" and their impact that I've read so far.
The book does wander a bit, and the reasons are not always plain at first. This includes the opening chapter, about children boarding a ship for America in the early days of the war. The sub-stories are also not strictly linear, which was a bit irritating. A solid 3½ stars.