Scope and Contents Prime Minister's printed personal minutes, March 1941.Includes texts of minutes from WSC (annotated with additional printed information) to: General Sir Hastings Ismay [Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence]; members of the Cabinet and other government ministers; the Chiefs of Staff; senior civil servants including Sir Edward Bridges [Secretary to the War Cabinet], Sir Horace Wilson [Permanent Secretary of HM Treasury and official Head of HM Civil Service], and Sir Alexander Cadogan...

Scope and Contents Prime Minister's printed personal minutes, September 1941.Includes texts of minutes from WSC (annotated with additional printed information and in one case later manuscript annotations by WSC) to: Desmond Morton and 1st Lord Cherwell [earlier F A Lindemann, Prime Minister's Personal Assistants]; members of the Cabinet and other government ministers; the Chiefs of Staff; senior civil servants including Sir Alexander Cadogan [Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs] and Sir...

Scope and Contents Letter from WSC to [Franklin Roosevelt] President of the United States, detailing secret military plans, reorganisation of command, and projected course of the war: Major-General Sir Claude Auchinleck [Commander-in-Chief, Middle East] to attack Cyrenaica [Libya], then advance on Tripoli; invasion of Norway has been planned as a cover; reports of German preparation for invasion of Britain over North Sea; seeks introduction of American troops to Northern Ireland; command. structure between the...

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Memorandum [submitted by Sir Edward Bridges, Secretary to the Cabinet] examining proposition by the Lord Privy Seal [Sir Stafford Cripps] for co-operation between the Services through an overall commander. [See CHAR 20/56B/129-134 for Cripps's proposition].

Scope and Contents Correspondence between Sir Stafford Cripps [Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons], WSC and Sir Edward Bridges [Secretary to the Cabinet] on memoranda by Cripps on subjects including: dissatisfaction in Parliament, the vote of censure against the Government and public opinion over progress of war in the Middle East, including leadership, weaponry, research and invention and the RAF; lack of public morale, the direction of the war and need for improved co-operation between the...

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Telegram from General Sir Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in- Chief, Middle East, to WSC on subjects including a tank encounter to the south of Agedabia [Ajdabiyah, Libya], the accuracy of RAF bombing and the movement of enemy ships from Ras el Aali.

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Telegram from Commanders in Chief (Middle East) to WSC giving details of German and Allied army strengths at the beginning of "Crusader" [codename for British North African operation], including details of losses on both sides and reasons for Allied success.

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Cabinet memorandum by Chancellor of the Exchequer [Sir John Anderson, later 1st Lord Waverley] on man-power in the second half of 1945, including as an appendix a memorandum by the Minister of Labour and National Service [R A Butler].

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Minute from "P J G" [Sir James Grigg], Secretary of State for War, (War Office) to WSC setting out his proposals for reducing personnel in the Middle East, commenting on internal security considerations, administrative implications, implications special to the RAF, and financial considerations. [initialled; flagged "E"].

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Appendix "A" [to a minute from Sir James Grigg, Secretary of State for War, to WSC, CHAR 20/232/58-70] giving details of proposed reductions in manpower in the Middle East. [flagged "B"].

Scope and Contents Minute from WSC to Chancellor of the Exchequer [Sir John Anderson, later 1st Lord Waverley], Minister of Labour [Ernest Bevin], Minister of Production [Oliver Lyttelton, later 1st Lord Chandos], Secretary of State for War [Sir James Grigg], and General [Sir Hastings] Ismay [Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence] for the Chiefs of Staff Committee, asking the Secretary of State for War to put forward proposals to reduce manpower in the Middle East, setting out the existing position, and...

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Memorandum from the Commander in Chief, Middle East Forces [General Sir Bernard Paget] (General Headquarters, Middle East Forces) marked "Top Secret" on manpower levels in the Middle East Base, prepared on WSC's verbal instructions, with an appendix table setting out the relevant figures.

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"Table 1" giving the "estimated strengths of imperial armed forces (white troops)" at approximately 1 May or 1 June 1945 and analysing the imperial army and air force by theatre at approximately 1 June 1945.

Scope and Contents Long galley proofs of a contemporary despatch by Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham [former Commander-in-Chief, Far East] covering the period 17 October 1940 to 27 December 1941, with sections on: the formation, problems, and work of General Headquarters, Far East; factors affecting the defence of Malaya and Borneo [later Malaysia], Burma [later Myanmar], and Hong Kong; neighbouring countries; the development of the British Air Forces in the Far East; army strength and requirements...

Scope and Contents Long galley proofs entitled "Air Operations in Burma and Bay of Bengal, January 1st to May 22nd 1942" reprinting a contemporary despatch by Air Vice-Marshal [Donald] Stevenson [Air Officer Commanding, Burma, later Myanmar] with sections setting out the situation, on Japanese air strength, the air superiority battle over and later evacuation of Rangoon, the land battle at Tenasserim, the withdrawal up the Prome Road, the reverse at Magwe, the withdrawal of the Burma Army to India, and...

Scope and Contents Telegram from WSC [in North America] to Deputy Prime Minister [Clement Attlee] and others concerned marked "From: Octagon" and "Gunfire No. 231" and "Personal and Top Secret" referring to "Cordite 159" and commenting on arrangements for the release of service personnel, drawing particular attention to the problem of men serving in the Far East and their probability of reemployment in the labour market, and the imprecise nature of the benefits to be given to personnel not serving in the...

Scope and Contents Letter from WSC to President [Franklin Roosevelt] outlining various plans and proposals concerning: attacking the German and Italian armies in Libya; French North Africa; Norway; British contributions to the Soviet war effort; defending Great Britain from a possible German invasion; placing United States forces in Northern Ireland [Ulster]; the command structure in the Middle East and the roles of the Air Force and Navy; the effect of victory in Libya on Italy and Turkey; landing tanks; the...

Scope and Contents Summary of events including: attempted landing at Dakar by General [Charles] de Gaulle; U boat activity in the North Atlantic and shipping losses; operations by German raiders; information about the disposition of German and Italian troops; events in Greece, Yugoslavia [later Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia], Bulgaria, the Mediterranean and the Middle East; air attacks on Germany (including Berlin) and on invasion ports in France and...