Secret Warriors

The British term "boffin"--for scientists, engineers, and technicians-- emerged in WWII to identify those working behind the scenes to win the war through technological innovation. This is the first popular survey of the pre-boffins: those who supported Britain in WWI. The engaging stories cover the development of airplanes, code breaking, poison gas, propaganda, and other boffin-like activities. Derek Perkins is one of the great audiobook narrators. His clear and well-paced performance makes Downing's sometimes technical explanations easy to follow, and his deep tone and cultured British accent enhance the experience. Pronouncing names, Perkins seems as at home in French and German as he is in English. Downing's story is almost entirely centered on Britain. F.C. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Starred review from February 9, 2015
Downing (Spies in the Sky), a British TV producer and writer, offers an ingenious history that sets aside WWI’s immense slaughter in order to concentrate on those who labored behind the scenes (primarily in Britain). Though he fails to provide a unifying theme (an introductory chapter attempts to do so by describing the world-changing 19th-century advancements that defined the pre-WWI era), few readers will complain as they proceed through five unrelated but completely engrossing sections on aviation, intelligence, weapons, medicine, and communication. Even readers familiar with Bletchley Park’s dazzling feats in WWII will marvel at how Britain was able to decipher Germany’s military and diplomatic codes nearly from the start of WWI. Downing’s fine history of the war’s most notable weapons—machine guns, tanks, poison gas—precedes chapters giving even finer histories of vast advances in surgery (90% of wounded soldiers in WWI survived, versus 60% during the American Civil War) and sanitation (10% of deaths stemmed from disease in WWI, versus 70% in the Civil War). He also outlines how Hitler and Goebbels admired and emulated Britain’s surprisingly effective journalism and propaganda operations during WWI, which have been adopted by countries at war ever since. For better or worse, these military developments remain with us, and Downing delivers a riveting account of how they happened. B&w photos.