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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.

Copies of papers, 1940-1982, including narrative manuscript diary covering service with 3 Div Royal Engineers, Belgium and France, May-Jun 1940, with printed map entitled Lille-Ghent, North West Europe, sheet No 2, scale 1: 250, 000 (GSGS 4042, War Office, 1938); narrative manuscript diary covering service with 51 Highland Div Royal Engineers, North West Europe, Oct 1944 and Feb-May 1945, with typescript nominal roll of officers, list of casualties between Jun 1944 and May 1945, and typescript programme for the 51 Highland Div victory parade, Bremerhaven, Germany, May 1945; five printed maps of North West Europe entitled 'Brussels and Liege', 'Walcheren and Amsterdam', 'Osnabruck', 'Hamburg', 'Hannover' (no publication details or scale), with printed map of the Rhine entitled 'Outline of 51(H) Div RE plan, Operation PLUNDER', annotated with dispositions of Royal Engineers units for the Rhine crossing, 1945; correspondence with Maj Karol John Drewienkiewicz, 25 Field Sqn Royal Engineers, 1982, concerning operations of 3 Div Royal Engineers (May 1940); typescript text of lecture, given at Antwerp, 1982, on operations to clear the Scheldt Estuary, 1944.

Typescript memoir, written in 1992, as Commanding Officer, 1 Bn, Herefordshire Regt, 11 Armoured Div, 21 Army Group, North West Europe, 1944-1945, entitled '1st Bn The Herefordshire Regiment route and battles from the Normandy bridgehead to the R Elbe in Germany, June 1944 to April 1945, including route maps and CO's pocket maps for specific incidents', with seven printed maps of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, annotated with routes taken and unit dispositions. Papers relating to Turner Cain's tenure as Chief Instructor, Tactical Wing, School of Infantry, British Army of the Rhine, Sennelager, Germany, 1946-1947, including typescript training notes on exercises, tactics of armoured forces and river crossing techniques, with manuscript explanatory notes written by Turner Cain in 1992.

Papers relating to Gallipoli (Faber and Faber, London, 1936), 1927-1967, principally comprising original typescript, [1936]; correspondence, 1927-1967, notably with Brig Gen Cecil Faber Aspinall-Oglander, 1933-1939, Gen Sir Ian (Standish Monteith) Hamilton, 1934-1941, Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, 1936-1937, AF Sir Roger John Brownlow Keyes, Bt, 1934-1939, and Maj Gen Arthur Cecil Temperley, 1935-1939; newspaper cuttings, [1915]-1966, including reviews of Gallipoli, 1936-1937, and cuttings relating to the Gallipoli campaign, [1915]-1966; 'Gallipoli', [script of radio programme] by Val Henry Gielgud, 1936; photographs of Gallipoli taken by North, [1936]. Papers relating to North West Europe (HMSO, London, 1953), 1943-1961, including original typescript, [1953]; correspondence, 1944-1957, notably with Liddell Hart, 1953-1954, and FM Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, 1954-1955; press cuttings, 1943-1961, comprising reviews of North West Europe, 1944-1945, dated 1953-1954, and cuttings relating to World War Two, dated 1943-1961; official US Government and HMSO publications relating to World War Two, 1945-1946. Papers relating to The Alexander memoirs (Cassell, London, 1962), dated 1941, 1945, 1946, 1948, 1959-1964, including draft copy, [1962], and published copy, 1962; correspondence, 1961-1964, notably with FM Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, 1961-1963, Liddell Hart, 1961-1962, and Montgomery, 1962; newspaper cuttings, 1945-1946, 1948, 1959-1963; photographs taken by North and Alexander on a visit to the Middle East and Italy, 1960. Other papers, [1931-1968], including articles by North, [1939-1966], notably concerning training, tactics and weaponry; correspondence, [1933-1960]; maps of UK and North West Europe, 1931-1944; press cuttings, 1939-1966, including reviews of Men Fighting (Faber and Faber, London, 1958), 1958-1959; 'Diary of the Belgian Campaign, May 1940', typescript text by AF Sir Roger John Brownlow Keyes, dated [1940].

Copy of official printed message by Gen Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, Commander in Chief, 21 Army Group, to British troops relating to the establishment of an Allied bridgehead in France, 10 Jun 1944; copy of official message by FM Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, Commander in Chief, 21 Army Group, to British troops relating to the liberation of Belgium and France, 17 Sep 1944

Letters dated 1909-1914 from FM Earl Haig, Chief of General Staff in India and Commander-in-Chief at Aldershot, including potential candidates for appointments and Indian Army policy including reorganisation and recruitment; letters dated 1914-1918 from Haig, General Officer Commanding 1 Corps and Commander-in-Chief, British Armies, France, referring to operations including Dardanelles, Verdun; letters dated 1914-1918 from FM Sir Henry Wilson, British military representative at SupremeWar Council, Versailles, including French war effort; correspondence dated 1915-1921 with FM Sir William Robertson, General HQ British Armies in the Field including shortage of supplies and troops; Kiggell's demi-official correspondence when Chief of General Staff, 1916-1919, with various commanders on subjects including administration, planned operations, supply of guns and ammunition to Belgium, France and Russia and staff appointments; recollections dated 1919 of Chantilly conference, Nov 1916, to consider planned operations in 1917.

Papers relating to his military career, 1944-1952, dated [1944-1953], [1960-1980], comprising account of advance of 2 Bn, Essex Regt through Northern France and Belgium, June-Oct 1944, notably covering the attack on Le Havre, 10 Sep 1944, written in [1945], with appendix dated [1960-1980]; account of withdrawal of 2 Infantry Bde from Belgium and Northern France, May 1940,culminating in their evacuation from Dunkirk on 1 Jun 1940, written in [1944-1945]; notes on the allotment and loading of vehicles, Operation OVERLORD, June 1944; map of German defences at Le Havre, issued by [the War Office], 1944; map showing position of 51 and 49 Div to the north of Le Havre, 7 Jun 1944, issued by the War Office, 1947; two accounts of the work of 1 Bn, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt, in Malaya, 1952, written in [1953].

Papers and photographs of Lt Christopher Michael Cadogan from his service on the 'Hopkinson Mission', May-Jun 1940, principally comprising an album of photographs taken by John Gabriel of the Hopkinson Mission in Belgium and the Dunkirk evacuation, featuring photos from the Hopkinson Mission of refugees, military personnel and events taken at Valenciennes, Warve, Aalst, St Trond, Neelanden, Waterloo, near Terneuzen, Gennape, Enghien, Beuvry, Douai, near Orchies, Armentieres, Dunkirk, Ypres, Ostend and photographs from the Dunkirk evacuation including of SS AKUBIR and SS MARQUIS; Cadogan's typescript "War Diary" 10-29 May 1940 as composed Oct 1940 covering the period of the Hopkinson Mission's operations until evacuation from Ostend, with handwritten comments and annotations by 'JPG' [probably John Gabriel]; typescript edition of Cadogan's pre-war letters and his war diary of 1940, edited by his widow, Stella Zilliacus.

Papers including maps, relating to operations of British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium, 1940-1941; Staff College study of Italian campaign, 1915; papers including those by Maj Gen G M Lindsay relating to armoured support for 7 Infantry Brigade, 1933-1934; appendix, including maps of Britain annotated for exercises including SPARTAN, 1943; correspondence dated 1977-1978 with Martin Alexander of St Antony's College, Oxford including Franco-British military relations, 1939-1940; notes of conversation in 1975 with Dr A W J Houghton relating to the evacuation of Dunkirk, 1940.