History isn’t just shaped by famous battles—it often turns on the hidden world of intelligence, near-misses and forgotten crises. Drawing on The Price of Victory, the final instalment of his authoritative trilogy on Britain’s naval history, N.A.M. Rodger uncovers five little-known episodes that were, or might have been, decisive in the Second World War. Discover the crucial difference between Huff-Duff and radar in the fight against U-boats; revisit the overlooked disaster faced by the Mediterranean Fleet in 1941 – 42; and explore the moment in 1942 when the British Eastern Fleet came within minutes of a nocturnal battle with Japan. From the audacity of Operation Ironclad—an amphibious mission to strike an enemy base 9,000-miles away —to the fragile lifeline of Mediterranean long-range communication cables, this talk reveals how close-run decisions and unseen technologies shaped victory.