A Blitz of Training

Most of the varying manoeuvers developed after Raspberry were also given memorable names of fruits and vegetables: ‘Pineapple’, ‘Artichoke’, ‘Strawberry’, etc. would sit around the board and Roberts would explain how the game went.

As the Derby House was ideally located at the Western Approaches HQ, Roberts was able to meet with every naval officer that came back from sea and ask them about what they had seen. With first-hand information readily available, he was able to understand the many problems the Allies were facing. Before deployment, every sailor underwent a two-week long training course that “was intended to build efficiency among an individual ship’s crew, but it did not address the effectiveness of ships working in company. Not only was there no universal set of tactics with which to fight U-boats, neither was there any training for how escort ships should work as a team” (Parkin 151). In addition to the disorganization they faced, the sonar technology they had at the time was often not on every escort ship, being too specialized a tool to use as well as virtually ineffective in turbulent seas or at speeds faster than 18 knots. There was not much the escorts could do when attacked.

Along with this information, Roberts was able to reenact one of his rival’s (Captain Frederick John Walker) recent battles at sea, and finally understood the most important aspects of the tactics the Germans were using to successfully destroy so many ships. They had been infiltrating the columns of ships within the convoy from the stern (rear) where the lookouts rarely checked, firing their torpedoes from close range, and then immediately submerging to wait for the convoy to roll overhead and get away. The same night Roberts discovered this, he began to test how they could oppose their tactics and asked Okell and Laidlaw to stay and help him. Roberts played the U-boat captain while the two young women played as the escort ships—a solution was revealed immediately. “Laidlaw and Okell lined the escort ships up around the convoy. While the convoy continued on its way, each escort ship performed a triangular sweep, listening for U-boats [using sonar]” (Parkin 159). In the three times that they performed this scenario, Roberts’ U-boat was found and sunk every time. After testing the strategy further for another day, Roberts had it approved by the Commander-in-Chief of Western Approaches HQ, Sir Percy Noble, and told Laidlaw to name it since she had done a majority of the hard work. She named this first counterstrategy against the German force at sea Raspberry, for the shape the ships formed when it was being performed as well as being a “razz of contempt aimed at Hitler and his U-boats” (Parkins 161).

Days after it was approved, the first group of naval officers arrived to take the six-day course to learn the strategy and its variants. The games were run by the wrens who moved the pieces across the board and guided the officers through the process, often offering advice of what to do and when. An officer would receive reports from both his lieutenant as well as his assigned wren that mimicked the chaotic and overwhelming amount of information of sonar reports, where shells had been fired, if another ship was trying to make contact, where explosions had been heard, et cetera. Wrens would also collect,

decipher, and transmit coded signals to the officers as well as introduce unexpected setbacks and problems that had to be solved quickly. Every turn, the officers would recieve all this information and then write their intended movements on small chits (sheets of paper) for the wrens to collect and execute.

The game was very real to the sailors who had just returned from sea and would have to go back immediately after their training. Failing at the games in Derby House would be the same as dying out in battle—the pressure was real to succeed. Four games were played throughout the entirety of each course “with each varied details such as visibility, the time of day and the size, speed, and start point of the convoy” (Parkins 164). When each game finished, Roberts would go over every move’s triumph, mistake, and turning point. Roberts found most enjoyment here, and his explanations made the complexities of battle

(below) Wrens calculating and recording moves on the tactical floor with the utmost accuracy. White canvas sheets surround the playing field and provide areas of visibility similar to those found at sea.

(below) An extension of the Derby House run by wren Mary Charlotte Poole, the first woman to take the tactical course led by Roberts. This giant deck simulator was built to teach evasive maneuvers for torpedo attacks. seem simple to the officers—he hoped to ensure that when the officers left his training course that they would do so with self-assurance and confidence in their newfound knowledge.

Their Commander-in-Chief, Noble, had much praise for the wrens; Drake, Howes, Laidlaw, Wales, and six junior ratings including Okell had become invaluably skilled at conducting the games, providing knowledgeable advice, and creating new counterstrategies and tactics with Roberts. Experienced officers often balked at the idea of taking advice from young women, some not even out of school, who had never been out to sea. But as they played through each game and saw the confidence and respect the wrens provided when making suggestions, as well as seeing that these suggestions were flawless to such a degree, they eventually respected the wrens in turn and were in awe of their skill. Roberts had long believed that carefully designed games could make experts of amateurs, and both the skill of the wrens and the officers who completed their training became his proof. The course continued