War Cabinet Minutes (HMSO), 1939-1945 is a themed microfiche collection containing copies of the minutes of the War Cabinet Meetings, Sep 1939-Jul 1945, and Cabinet Conclusions and Confidential Annexes, 1941-1945. Meeting minutes include British plans to create discord amongst the German High Command, Nov 1939; criticism of the military campaign in Norway, May 1940; First Lord of the Admiralty Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill's criticism of the Allied propaganda campaign in France, May 1940; speculation on the ability of the German population to sustain prolonged war, May 1940; reaction to the Allied withdrawals in France and Belgium, May 1940; the debate over the possible compromise peace with Germany, 26-28 May 1940; the decision to intern all enemy aliens in the United Kingdom; May 1940; Churchill's reaction to American isolationism, May 1940; the seizing of French warships in British and Egyptian harbours and the sinking of French warships at Mers-el-Kebir, Egypt, 23 Jun 1940; straining Anglo-French relations, Jul 1940; the Anglo-American 'destroyers for bases' agreement, Aug 1940; Churchill's attempt to take to court the Sunday Pictorial and the Daily Mirror over the newspapers' alleged anti-Government editorials, Oct 1940; preparations for the possible German invasion of the Britain, 1940; civil defence precautions in Britain, 1940; the British intervention in Greece, 1941; speculation on Soviet military collapses following the invasion of the Soviet Union by German armed forces, Jun 1941; Churchill's appeals to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for American intervention in the war, 1941; reaction over the fall of Singapore and Malaya to Japanese armed forces, Feb 1942; Anglo-American preparations for the invasion of North Africa, 1942; naval and air operations against France, 1943; the 'Beveridge Report' on social security in Britain, 1943; reports on Allied conferences at Casablanca, Jan 1943, and Washington, May 1943; the Allied decision to invade France made at the QUADRANT Conference, Quebec, Canada, Aug 1943; the planning and conduct of Operation OVERLORD, the Allied invasion of France, Jun 1944; the effect of the bombardment of London by German V1 pilotless aircraft and possible RAF reprisals against German civilian targets, Jun 1944; post-war reconstruction and rehabilitation in Europe, Jul 1944; plans for the Allied occupation of Germany and Austria, Nov 1944; British intervention in Greece in order to prevent a Communist take-over of the peninsula, Nov 1944; the establishment of the United Nations, 1945; arrangements for celebrating the end of the war in Europe, May 1945; the British General Election, Jul 1945.

Microfilm collection containing copies of meeting minutes of the major conferences of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, 1941-1945. Meeting minutes include those for the conference held at Washington, DC, codenamed ARCADIA, at which Anglo-American planners first formed a combined strategy for the prosecution of the war, 22 Dec 1941-14 Jan 1942; the conference at Casablanca, Morocco, codenamed SYMBOL, during which the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) first discussed the policies of German unconditional surrender, the Combined Bomber Offensive from Great Britain against Germany and the establishment of the French National Committee for Liberation, 14-24 Jan 1943; the Allied conference held at Washington, DC, codenamed TRIDENT, at which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Prime Minister Rt Hon Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS)discussed the decision to delay the invasion of France until May 1944, the Italian surrender, and the Battle of the Atlantic, 11-25 May 1943; the Allied conference at Quebec City, Canada, codenamed QUADRANT, at which the Allies endorsed a plan for the invasion of the Normandy coast in France, formed a new theatre of war, South-East Asia Command, with Acting Adm Lord Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander, and regulated the procedures for co-operation between Great Britain and the US regarding the development and production of the atomic bomb, 12-24 Aug 1943; the Allied conferences at Cairo, Egypt, codenamed SEXTANT, at which the Allies discussed combined operations in South-East Asia with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese forces, 22-26 Nov and 2-7 Dec 1943; the Allied conference at Teheran, Iran, codenamed EUREKA, during which the Allies first co-ordinated future strategy with Soviet Prime Minister Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, including plans to coincide military operations against Germany in France and the Soviet Union in May 1944, 28-30 Nov 1943; the conference at Quebec City, Canada, codenamed OCTAGON, at which the Allies discussed the post-war division of Germany and a plan for its de-industrialisation, 12-16 Sep 1944; the conferences at Malta and Yalta, Soviet Union, codenamed ARGONAUT, at which the Allies discussed the division of post-war Germany, the occupation of Germany and Austria, Soviet involvement in the war against Japan, and the future government and frontiers of Poland, 30 Jan-9 Feb 1945; the conference at Potsdam, Germany, codenamed TERMINAL, during which surrender terms for Japan were discussed, the boundaries and peace terms for Europe were determined and Poland's government and frontiers were debated, 16 Jul-2 Aug 1945. Conference minutes include references to Allied production and assignment of war materials; British and US merchant vessel losses; US policy concerning assignments of Lend-Lease military aircraft, naval vessels and munitions to Great Britain; Allied petroleum supplies; propaganda and unconventional warfare; war crimes and prisoners of war; operational reports concerning the planning and conduct of Allied offensive operations in Europe, including the invasion of North Africa, codenamed Operation TORCH, Nov 1942; the invasion of Sicily, Italy, codenamed Operation HUSKY, Jul 1943; the US preparation for the invasion of Europe, codenamed Operation BOLERO; and the Allied invasion of Europe, codenamed Operation OVERLORD, Jun 1944; operational reports concerning the Japanese war economy; Japanese Imperial Army logistical capabilities; locations and strengths of Japanese forces in the Pacific; British participation in long range bombing of Japan; Allied operational efforts in Burma, India, Malaya, and the Philippines; Soviet claims on the Sakhalin and Kuril islands; the co-ordination of Allied strategic plans for the defeat and occupation of Japan, 1943-1944; Soviet military action to facilitate Operation OVERLORD; liaison between Allied theatre commanders and the Soviet Army; Soviet capabilities with reference to the Far East; US Lend-Lease requirements for the Soviet Union; and estimates of Soviet post-war capabilities and intentions, 1943-1945.

Papers of Edgar Prestage, 1881-1949, largely relating to his work on the history of Portugal, 16th-19th centuries. Letters to Prestage from various correspondents, 1886-1948 and undated, relate to a variety of subjects pertaining to his work, publications and translations, sources and interpretation, and also to acquaintances and contemporaries, other publications, and some personal matters such as correspondents' health and families, and include six letters from Fortunato de Almeida, 1917-1933 and undated; 24 letters from Joao Lucio de Azevedo, 1914-1933 and undated; 13 letters from Pedro Augusto de S Bartolomeu de Azevedo, 1910-1927 and undated; six letters from Henrique de Gama Barros, 1908-1925; five letters from Carlos Roma du Bocage, 1915-1918; three letters from Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1888-1889, and 12 letters from Lady Isabel Burton, 1894-1896, relating to Sir Richard's translation of Camoens; 22 letters from Julio de Castilho, 1908-1918; nine letters from Harold Castle, 1903-1906; six letters from Fidelino de Figueiredo, 1911-1918 and undated; eight letters from James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, 1905-1919; five letters from Anselmo Braamcamp Freire, 1905-1919; two letters from Pieter Geyl, 1923, 1926; letter from William Ewart Gladstone, 1893, congratulating Prestage on Letters of a Portuguese nun ; ten letters from Edward Heawood, 1922-1933; letter from Benjamin Jowett, 1887, explaining entrance examinations at Oxford; five letters from Margery Lane, 1927 and undated; six letters from Manuel de Oliveira Lima, 1910-1927; two letters, 1928, 1932, from Manuel II, King of Portugal, concerning the monarch's bibliography of early Portuguese books; eight letters from Jacinto Octavio Picon, 1911-1920; seven letters from Jacinto Inacio de Brito Rebelo, 1895-1908; eight letters from Jaime Batalha Reis, 1894-1896, 1904-1905, 1922; 12 letters from Francisco Rodrigues, 1913-1918, 1930 and undated; two letters from John Ruskin, 1886 and undated, on the study of architecture; seven letters from Antonio Maria Jose de Melo Cesar e Meneses, 5th Conde de Sabugosa, 1905-1913; five letters from Luis Teixeira de Sampayo, 1921-1928; letter from Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, 1905, congratulating Prestage on Eca de Queiroz's The sweet miracle ; five letters from Georg Schurhammer, 1930-1936; five letters from Wilhelm Storck, 1894-1895; five letters from Herbert Thurston, 1905-1913; ten letters from Pedro Tovar de Lemos, 2nd Conde de Tovar, 1916-1927 and undated; 13 letters from Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcellos, 1895-1896, 1907-1922, and 11 letters from her husband, Joaquim de Vasconcellos, 1897, 1908-1925; six letters from Afonso Lopes Vieira, 1910, 1914, 1927 and undated; five letters from Tomas Maria de Almeida Manuel de Vilhena, 8th Conde de Vila Flor, 1925-1929 and undated; letter from Oscar O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, [1892], regretting he cannot send a copy of his unnamed play (perhaps Lady Windermere's Fan ) as it has not yet been published. There is also a letter of 1881 from Antonio Candido Goncalves Crespo to Maria Amalia Vaz de Carvalho (father and mother of Prestage's wife). Ephemera includes signatures of Gomes Eannes Azurara, William Wordsworth, [? Isaac] Disraeli and Samuel Wilberforce; Christmas cards; the visiting card of S T P Kruger, President of the Transvaal Republic, 1903; menus, including the House of Commons Coronation luncheon in Westminster Hall, 1902; a ticket to the coronation of Edward VII, 1902; and an invitation to a party at Windsor Castle, 1912. Otherwise the collection comprises research notes and transcriptions on various subjects and sources, including Restoration period Portugal; Sousa Coutinho; Portuguese in Africa, Brazil and Asia; the War of the Spanish Succession; 17th century Portuguese history, including diplomacy; the sermons of Father Antonio Vieira SJ; Portuguese bibliographies prepared by Prestage; annotated typescripts on the Portuguese in Abyssinia down to 1543, aspects and results of Portuguese colonisation, and Portuguese reminiscences (1948); Prestage's 'The Mode of Government in Portugal during the Restoration Period'; photographs of Portuguese fortresses in Morocco; notebook on 'Analyse das "Cartas Familiares" '; copies of letters of F de Sousa, including his embassies to France and Rome; copies of letters of Sir R Southwell, English ambassador to Lisbon; material relating to relations between Spain and Portugal; pamphlets and articles of Prestage; proofs for a chapter entitled 'L'Intevention Anglaise dans la Peninsule Iberique', in an envelope addressed to Prestage and labelled 'D Fernando & the Holy See by E Perroy'.

The MAGIC Documents: Summaries and Transcripts of the Top-Secret Diplomatic Communications of Japan, 1938-1945, is a themed microfilm collection relating to US deciphers of Japanese diplomatic codes through the use of MAGIC decryption, 1938- 1945. The collection contains copies of deciphered official and unofficial Japanese diplomatic communiqués sent from Japanese personnel stationed at embassies and consulates in the Far East, Europe and the Middle East, to Tokyo, Japan, 1938-1945, and includes material relating to Japanese civil, political and economic conditions and policies, military expenditures, strategy, tactics, and campaigns, and eventual peace initiatives and surrender, 1938-1945. Included in the collection are deciphered messages concerning Japanese perceptions of Allied strategy against Japan; the effect of Allied air raids on Japan; Japanese relations with the German Foreign Office; Japanese relations with the governments of Burma, Indo-China; Korea, Netherland East Indies, Siam, China, the Philippines; perceptions of Allied chemical warfare capabilities; perceptions of Allied Lend-Lease naval forces and strategy; British and French relations with colonies in the Far East; control of industry in Manchuria (Manchukuo); perceptions of Axis strategy and Japan's role within it; Japanese interest in Indian nationalism and the Indian Independence League; the Burma-Siam railway; Japanese attacks on the Burma Road, the supply route which connected Burma to Generalissimo Chiang Kai- Shek's nationalist forces in China; administration of the government of Japanese occupied Nanking, China; the Chinese Communist Party; the rationing of clothing and food in Japan; perceptions of the Soviet Comintern Pact; Japanese relations with German, European, and Chinese banks; Japanese relations with Spanish Gen Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the German High Command and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini; interpretation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere; concern for Japanese nationals abroad, 1937-1945; Japanese naval strategy and tactics; function of the Japanese Consular Police, China; territorial claims on the Kurile Islands; material relating to Japanese military campaigns during World War Two; Japan's search for strategic resources in the Far East; military strengths and dispositions of the German Armed Forces; the origins of the Russo-Japanese Neutrality Pact; Allied and Axis propaganda methods; the treatment of Allied prisoners of war; the surrender of Japanese armed forces in the Far East.

Bound ts diary of his service chiefly on the Western Front with the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery, 4 Aug 1914 – 25 Apr 1919.

Bound volume of items relating to his service as ADC to Gen Lord Rawlinson, Commander-in-Chief, British Military Mission to North Russia, Aug-Oct 1919, including: ts diary, 30 Jul – 14 Oct 1919; pasted-in samples of Russian banknotes and stamps; captioned photographs including Rawlinson, Col (William) Edmund Ironside and other British officers, Russian troops, Bolshevik prisoners, refugees, and views of the railway at Archangel and of the River Dvina (Severnaya Dvina).

Also loose items, including: US War Office printed briefing notes on North Russia, 1918; a War Office printed report, ‘Appreciation of the internal situation in Russia, April 1919’; a propaganda leaflet in English signed V Bourtzeff (Vladimir Burtsev), imploring Allied troops to aid Russia, Sep 1919; a nominal roll of officers in the British Mission to North Russia; ts notes, ‘Operations of the naval flotilla on the Dvina river, 1919’; ts text of a despatch by Rawlinson on Allied operations in North Russia, Aug-Oct 1919; sketch maps of Archangel; printed maps of Russia, some detailing Allied and Bolshevik positions, 1919; a printed report, ‘The evacuation of North Russia, 1919’ (HMSO, 1920).

Notes and papers relating to his military career, 1939-1940, written in [1939-1940], principally comprising: 'A record of visits to France and Belgium in May and June 1940 as DDMO', dated [1940]; written accounts of his work as Deputy Director of Military Operations, 1939, and his role in the British Military Mission to Turkey, May- Jun 1939, dated [1939-1940]; drafts of these three texts, heavily annotated by Daisy Allenby, wife of 2nd Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and of Felixstowe (then Mrs Daisy Neame), 1939-1940. Also: notes of anecdotes concerning Adolf Hitler, written by Lady Allenby in [1939-1940]; correspondence and papers concerning Sir Winston Churchill's 80th Birthday Presentation Fund, 1954, notably an account [by Lady Allenby] of a meeting with Churchill and his family on 29 Nov 1954, dated 1954.

Papers and photographs relating to Ebbutt's career, 1944-1946, including Senior Bombardment Liaison Officer's notebook containing manuscript accounts and technical notes on shore bombardment and targets engaged by ships lying off southernFrance, 1944-1945; Senior Bombardment Liaison Officer's diary, 1944-1945; notebook with manuscript notes by British Naval LiaisonOfficer [1944], with three photographs of a RN destroyer (Pennant number, G86). Printed booklet in French entitled 'La Première DivisionFrançaise Libre' [1945]. Citation of the award of the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star to Ebbutt, and related papers, 1945. Photograph of Ebbutt receiving the US Legion of Merit from US Col Claude M Thiele, Commanding Officer, US Army London Area Office, 1946, with related papers 1945. Copy of published booklet Soldier, sailor, compiled by Geoffrey Sanders (The Bombardment Units Association, Gloucester, 1946).

Typescript edited and unedited versions of memoirs of Lt Col John Alfred Codrington, [1947] entitled 'Gathering moss', 1898-1944, including account of service with British Mission Allied Armies of the Orient, Smyrna, Turkey, 1920, and as British Liaison Officer to French forces in Syria, 1926-1929. Photographs and papers, including notebook with manuscript notes on Regimental history of the Coldstream Guards, military training and preparations for deployment to France, 1917, eight watercolour paintings of churches in French towns, 1918, and photograph of Gen Sir George Wentworth Alexander Higginson at the unveiling of the Guards Memorial, St James's Park, London, 1926.

Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series 1, Volume 4, and, Series 2 Volume 2, are microfilmed copies of documents relating to British foreign policy, 1945-1950. Part of a larger collection encompassing British foreign policy, 1945-1955, the microfiche in this collection relate specifically to Anglo-American relations, Dec 1945- Jun 1950. This collection is in two sections. The first includes documents relating to the establishment of an Anglo- American Cold War strategy; the exchange of atomic information and technology between the US and Britain; the use of British mainland and colonial bases by US armed forces; and the allocation of American funds to Britain as part of the European Recovery Program. The second section relates specifically to Anglo-American strategic and defence conferences which took place in London, Jan-Jun 1950. Documents concern the exchange of nuclear technology between the two powers; British and American political and military support to nations wishing to prevent communist insurrection; US involvement in the Middle East; the security of British and American sectors in the Federal Republic of Germany; British and American relations with Western European nations; and the strengthening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).