Showing 26 results

Memoir of Brig Derrick Baynham, 1939-1942, including descriptions of assisting in the evacuation of Dunkirk, 1940; work in the Local Defence Volunteers, 1941; Special Operations Executive (SOE) training, including resisting interrogation and handling explosives; preparation for mission to support agents in occupied France and identify targets for sabotage; account of the mission including encounter with Milice (Vichy police), liasion with sympathetic French locals in Limoges, recovery of radio transmission equipment from the Milice, establishment of permanent base station in Perigueux and return to England, 1942. Also accounts of the attempted rescue of the surviving crew member of a crashed British bomber off the coast of Anglesey, 1941, for which Baynham was awarded the George Medal, and account of his capture by German troops and subsequent escape, Germany, April 1945.

Papers used by Beevor during the preparation of Inside the British Army (Chatto Windus, London, 1990), including papers on Defence estimates; officer education; Army Personnel Research Establishment, with Sandhurst reports relating to social conditions; officer and other rank recruitment, bullying; the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; UK Land Forces; the Falklands Islands and BFFI (British Forces, Falklands Islands); Northern Ireland; the Intelligence Corps; women in the Army; medical and psychological services and facilities; punishment; the Army in the Field; officer careers; reduction in numbers of personnel; the Territorial Army. Papers used in the preparation of Crete: the battle and the resistance (John Murray, London, 1991), including retrospective personal accounts of operations in Greece and the evacuation of British forces in Apr 1941; the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Yak Mission to train Greek resistance forces; the defence of Crete during the German invasion, May 1941; retrospective personal testimonies of the land and sea battle for Crete, 1941, and typescript copy of the SOE final report on operations in Crete, 1945. Also, typescript text of lecture by Beevor, entitled 'The defence of Crete', given at National Army Museum, 1991, and paperback edition of Crete: the battle and the resistance (Penguin, London, 1992).

Papers of Lt Col Robert Verelst Boyle, 1897-1943, including: Battalion standing orders of the 1st Battalion The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) (Gale & Polden, Aldershot, 1930); notes and correspondence regarding the Combined Operations Training Centre, Comox, Vancouver Island, Canada, 1942-1943; papers relating to lectures given while GSO1, HQ Combined Chiefs of Staff, USA, including: text of lecture on commandos, Economic Society, Detroit, 4 May 1942; article on commandos in Military Review, Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Jul 1942; text of lecture considering how to attack a strongly defended coast, Junior Staff College, RMC Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Aug 1942; text of lecture on commandos given to the Annual Convention of American Newspaper Editors, New York, 1942; text of lecture on ship-to-shore operations, given at the US Army Amphibious Training Centre, 1942; text of lecture on preparations for the resumption of the land offensive, given to US Army Armoured Training Centre, 1942.

Formal photographs of Combined Chiefs of Staff events at Fort Benning and Fort Jackson, USA, including photographs of FM Sir John Dill, General George Marshall, Chief of Staff, US Army, Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, Lt Gen Mark Clark and Lt Col Dennis Price, meeting troops, watching parades, demonstrations and exercises, and inspecting weaponry. Also photograph labelled 'My official yacht whilst I started and commanded the Canadian Combined Operations Training Centre at Comox, Vancouver Island, 1942-43'.Photograph album, invitation and programme of events for the Presentation of New Colours to the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), in Famagusta, Cyprus, 7 Oct 1949.

Also items belonging to Boyle's father in law Lt Col Adrian Grant Duff: The Pathan Revolt in North-West India by H Woosnam-Mills (Civil and Military Gazette Press, Lahore, India, 1897) and Razmak station standing orders (Commercial Steam Press, Dera Ismail Khan, India, 1931).

Papers, photographs and maps relating to the invasions of Sicily and Italy, including the war diary of 41 Royal Marines Commando, 1943.

Copies of papers relating to his service with the French Special Air Service, France, 1944, some dated 1944, [1965] and 1987, principally comprising 'Looking back to the French SAS in Brittany, 1944', article by Cary-Elwes from the [Military Intelligence Review], 1947; pamphlet on Operation BONAPARTE, an operation to help Allied airmen to escape from occupied Europe, 1944-1945, published in the USA in [1965]; typescript text on the French Special Air Service, 1940-1946, written by [Cary-Elwes] in 1987; manuscript account of his service with Cary-Elwes and the French Special Air Service, Brittany, 1944, by Cpl Eric Mills, Cary-Elwes' batman, ND .

Papers principally relating to operations of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Italy, Greece, the Aegean and the Balkans, 1941-1945, including: SOE training manuals, and various SOE memoranda relating to the 'Rhine mine', poisons, inland waterways, and the 'New Zionists', 1941-1944; memoranda and directives on SOE infiltration of Italy and the recruitment of Italian agents, the production of propaganda for use in Italy, transcripts of subversive propaganda broadcasts to the Italian people via Radio Jerusalem, letters from Stefano Terra, regarding the activities of the anti-fascist group Giustizia e Libertà, 1940-1943; diary of Capt R Guy Turrall during his SOE sabotage mission to Crete, 1941-1942; papers concerning SOE Operations BASILIC and ERRATIC (infiltration of Scarpanto and Rhodes), 1943; papers concerning propaganda operations in conjunction with the Political Warfare Executive, particularly Operations KREIPE and KRIMSCHILD, May 1944, to demoralize German troops on Crete; reports, 1943-1945, relating to SOE activities on Crete, including reports on the kidnapping by SOE of German Maj Gen Heinrich Kreipe; appreciations of SOE activities in Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, 1943; correspondence of Headquarters Force 133 (SOE Cairo, Egypt) in regard to promotion, welfare, training, transfers and postings of personnel, including confidential reports on individual staff, 1944-1945; diary of Maj John Mulgan, British Liaison Officer in Greece, 1944; correspondence relating to the winding up of SOE organisation in Greece, 1944-1945; various other papers, comprising correspondence with Anne René Pleven, 1939-1941, on the German bombing of London and the reaction of the French people to German occupation and the Vichy government; report on René Pleven, French Minister of Defence, concerning Pleven's attitude to the French political situation, policy towards Indo-China and the French High Command, 1949; papers relating to the reorganisation of Lyons Silks Ltd, French Silhouettes and Arnold Securities, 1949-1950; newspaper article on German penetration of the SOE network in the Netherlands, 1942-1944, dated 1953.

Manuscript diaries, detailing his SOE training in Haifa, Palestine, Cairo, Egypt, his service as an instructor at the Allied Military Mission Commando School at Pendalophos, British relations with allied Greek partisan units, and SOE harassment and demolition activity prior to and during the German withdrawal from the Greek peninsula, 1943-1944; reports, mainly compiled byEvans as commander of the Vitsi sub-area, relating to intelligence, reconnaissance and demolition missions alongside Greek Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS) units, the pro-German infiltration of West Macedonia, and the conduct of Operation NOAH'S ARK; papers relating to SOE commando missions, including notes detailing weapons, ammunition and supplies used; lists of alliedPolish, Czech and French participants in the Allied Military Mission, autumn 1943; papers relating to the construction of the SOE airfield at Grevena, 1944; list compiled by Evans concerning hostile Armenian, Italian, German and Greek forces, 1944; notes detailing the nominal roll of partisan forces in the Vitsi sub-area, 1944; papers relating to SOE and ELAS border assaults into Yugoslavia and Albania, 1944; papers detailing the splintering of relations between British and Greek forces in Greece, 1944; booklets of deciphered signals messages received and issued by the Vitsi sub-area station, relating to the movement of German forces and Yugoslavian partisans, under the command of Marshal Josip Broz (Tito), and the execution of Operation NOAH'S ARK, 1944; correspondence with Lt ColArthur Edmonds, Officer Commanding Area 1, West Macedonia, Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Officer Commanding Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia, and allied British, American and Greek soldiers, 1944; policy and procedure papers, including his official secrecy declaration, 1944; papers relating to SOE technical training, finances and supplies; papers, in Greek, relating to combined operations between the Allied Military Mission and ELAS 9 Div, including command and control agreements and messages from Gen Karayannis, commander ELAS 9 Div, relating to German movements in the Vitsi sub-area; official report, in Greek, from theGreek government, detailing the history of Greek partisan forces in Greece, 1940-1944; Greek propaganda leaflets and newspapers relating to Greek partisan activity in West Macedonia, and Ellinikos Dimokratikos Ethnikos Stratos (EDES) and ELAS power struggles, 1944; German divisional daily order concerning the psychological state of German occupation troops; personal correspondence from German 1 Mountain Div soldiers; papers relating to the proposed publication of an account of Evans's career in the SOE; papers relating to the publication of Hammond's article, 'The Allied Military Mission in Northwest Macedonia', Balkan Studies (Volume 32), 1993.

Report by Gavin on 101 Special Training School, 1942, including details of its formation, organisation, training and operations in the Far East, May 1941-Mar 1942. The School aimed to train all types of personnel, whether military, civilian, European or native, in irregular warfare.

Papers, mostly photocopies, relating to Operation FRESHMAN, an abortive British-Norwegian assault on a heavy water plant at Vemork, Norway, Nov 1942, written in 1942-1945 and [1983], notably operation orders, Nov 1942; letter to Maj Pardon, dated Jul 1945, giving extracts from Henniker's report on the operation, written in [1942]; summary of information received about the movements of personnel from the crashed gliders, Jun 1945.

My long journey: a true story of World War II as seen through the eyes of a former commando soldier , typescript memoir by Colour Sergeant George 'The Joker' Jowett, including descriptions of training with King's Own Royal Border Regiment in Armagh, Northern Ireland and Liverpool, England; selection for Special Service as a Commando; training at the Commando Basic Training Centre, Achnacarry, 1942; D-Day preparations with 6 Commando, May 1944; D-Day landings and subsequent action, Normandy, June 1944; evacuation after being wounded and recovery in Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Gloret Auxiliary hospital, June-July 1944; return to service in Ostend, Jan 1945; serious injury while on patrol, Feb 14 1945; treatment and physical therapy in Lille, France; posting in Veroa, Greece, Famagusta, Cyprus and Tobruk with the King's Own Royal Border Regiment after the disbanding of the Commandos, 1946-1947; demobilisation, 1947. Also typescript memoir 'D Day: before and after', account of the Normandy landings June 1944 excerpted from 'My Long Journey'.

Personal and military papers of Major General Sir Robert Edward Laycock, 1923-1968, chiefly relating to service with Special Service Brigade and as Chief of Combined Operations, 1940-1946. Includes papers on volunteering for Special Service Brigade, including completed application forms for volunteer Commando officers, 1940. Papers on Special Service Brigade training 1940-1941, including gas, bayonet and signalling training. Memoranda, reports, instructions and other papers, 1940-1942, relating to LAYFORCE (commanded by Laycock in the Middle East), including papers on the Folbot Section (later to become Special Boat Service). Papers on Special Service Brigade, [1941-1946], including memoranda, reports, minutes, papers on their reorganisation, disbandment and the future of Combined Operations, also including papers belonging to Lord George Jellicoe relating to Special Service Brigade in the Middle East; reports and other papers on Special Service Brigade operations, notably Operation TORCH, (the invasion of North West Africa, Nov 1942) and Operation HUSKY, (the invasion of Sicily, Jun 1943). Laycock's official and personal correspondence,1923-1968, chiefly relating to Special Service Brigade. Lectures and speeches to and on Special Service Brigade, chiefly by Laycock. Draft publications, scripts and press cuttings relating to Laycock and Special Service Brigade. Memoirs and accounts of Commando action, including parts of Robert Edward Laycock's memoirs and memoirs of members of 'G' Troop, 7 Commando. Papers on Laycock standing as Conservative parliamentary candidate for Bassetlaw in the 1945 general collection and on his refusal to stand for the 1947 bye-election. Papers relating to Laycock's time as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta. Poems by Laycock.

Papers and photographs relating to his life and career, [1915]-1944, dated [1915-1920], 1930, 1944-1945 and 1963, principally comprising newspaper cuttings concerning his air crash in Burma, 1944, and letters of condolence to his wife, 1944.

Papers relating to operations of the Special Air Service (SAS) in France during World War Two and to its formation, 1944-1948; papers relating to the future role of the SAS following operations in Northern Europe, World War Two, 1945-1958; papers relating to lectures given by McLeod on the SAS, 1944-1962; maps and diagram relating to SAS operations in France, 1944.

Papers relating to his service with the Commandos, 1942-1945, dated [1942-1981]comprising:

papers on service with No.4 Commando, May-Dec 1942, principally on the Dieppe Raid, Aug 1942, including report by Mills-Roberts on training exercise on the Isle of Arran, 25-26 Jun 1942; reports on Orange Beach landing; report on destruction of 6 inch gun battery at Varangeville; detailed report 'Lessons Learned on Combined Operations'; and letters of congratulation on award of MC;

papers on service with No.6 Commando, Apr-May 1943, North Africa, including letters from General Dwight D Eisenhower and Maj-Gen Robert Laycock and letters of congratulation on award of DSO;

papers on service with 1st Special Service (Commando) Bde, Jun 1944 - May 1945 including: account of part taken by No 1 Special Service Brigade in Operation OVERLORD, 6 Jun - 26 Aug 1944; narrative by Mills Roberts on action from 16-21 Aug 1944; report of No 1 Special Service Bde operations around Dozule and L'Epine, 19-21 Aug 1944; report of operations by 1st Commando Bde east of the River Maas, 19 Jan - 1 Feb 1945; 'Five Rivers' - account of 1st Commando Bde in Germany, 1945, on the advance from the Meuse to the Baltic, crossing the Meuse, Rhine, Weser, Aller and Elbe; 'United We Stand' diary of L Cpl Cliff Morris, No 3 Troop, 6 Commando, detailed personal account of action from 6 Jun 1944 - 7 May 1945; papers relating to the arrest of FM Erhard Milch in 1945, dated 1946, 1969; maps of Ouistreham, St Aubin, Caen, Dozule;

papers on commando training, 1942-1950 including account of 6 Commando training by Mills-Roberts, 1943-1944;

manuscript of Clash by Night (William Kimber, London, 1956) and notes to Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser Lovat, 17th Lord Lovat, concerning Lovat's book March Past (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1978), dated 1977-1981;

photographs, 1942, 1944-1945, 1947, including German propaganda photographs of Dieppe Raid, 1942, and photographs relating to Commando service in World War Two, 1944-1945, dated 1944-1945, 1947, including Normandy, Jun 1944, and Germany, 1945.

Papers relating to his military career, 1914-1945, dated 1914, 1917-1918, [1945]-1978, principally comprising typescript texts of lectures, [1965-1975], on his service with the Australian Military Forces, 1937-1939, the planning and execution of Allied invasion of North Africa, 1942, and his service with the SOE, North West Europe, 1943-1945; correspondence with Sir ArthurWynne Morgan Bryant, 1978, concerning Mockler-Ferryman's service with Maj Gen John Greer Dill, Commandant, Staff College, Camberley, 1933, and Gen Sir Alan Francis Brooke (later FM Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke of Brookeborough), Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, 1940-1941.

Personal and military papers of Brig Gerald Charles Stokes Montanaro, 1938-1965. Comprising pocket diaries, 1938-1946, 1948, including detailed diaries for 1941-1945, of service with 101 Troop, Special Service Brigade (Commando Special Canoe Troop), 1941-1942 and as commander of MF Flotilla of large submersible diesel-engined craft designed for anti-submarine work, 1942-1945; correspondence and papers (3 files) on administration and training and operations of 101 Troop, Special Service Brigade, 1940-1942, comprising standing and daily orders, reports on training, including landing and anti-invasion exercises, shooting, map-reading and navigational work, swimming, canoeing, mountaineering, and signalling; chart of proposed general organisation for small boat operations; notes on proposed establishments for Special Boat Squadrons attached to the Royal Navy; memorandum 'Lessons from Crete, with points of particular interest to Commandos' by Brig Joseph Charles Haydon, Commanding Officer Special Service Brigade, Jul 1941; printed leaflet 'Commando Training Instruction No.1', Aug 1940; report on 101 Troop's raid on sinking of an oil tanker in Boulogne Harbour, Apr 1942, including correspondence about the raid with Maj Gen Ridley Pakenham Pakenham-Walsh, 1950; report on reconnaissance between Gravelines and Calais, France, Nov 1941; photographs (4 albums and 15 packets of loose photos) on personal and service subjects (1940-1945), including commando training construction and operation of midget submarines and photgraphs of girlfriends and family friends; propaganda material from Korea, 1952-1954; album of photographs of Montanaro's inspection of 653 Sqn, Army Air Corps, Aden, Feb 1965

Scrapbook of his service with SOE Force 133, North West Greece, 1943-1944, compiled in [1944] and [1977-1985], including copy of his official report on resistance activities, Sep 1943-Dec 1944, with particular reference to relations between the National Republican Greek League (EDES) and the National People's Liberation Army (ELAS), written in Dec 1944; essay on the political situation in Greece, 1942-1944, written in May 1944; typescript copies of messages sent by Nind to Force 133 HQ, Cairo, Oct 1944, copied in [1977-1985]; photographs, 1943-1944.

Papers mainly relating to the war service of Patrick O'Regan in France and northern Italy, especially with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), 1940-1981; including papers on SOE operations in Italy with details of partisan staff, operations, equipment, enemy strength, propaganda, personal correspondence with partisans and SOE members, photographs of street fighting, mountain warfare, groups of British and Italian soldiers, victory parades, funerals, operational maps of northern Italy and south-eastern France published and produced by Michelin and the War Office, memorabilia and printed guides to Italy and the German Army, including false identity papers, 1944-1945; papers on the service of O'Regan in France and northern Italy, 1943-1945; manuscript, typescript and copy correspondence between O'Regan and his mother and others including his wife and brother, mainly relating to his service with the 186 Field Ambulance Service, Intelligence Corps and from Ceylon, preparations for a parachute drop into France, the Political Warfare Executive, training in Algiers, account by O'Regan of his experiences with partisans near Turin and other parts of northern Italy, O'Regan's post-war political views, letters to Italian partisans in the aftermath of World War Two, application to Foreign service, 1940-1952; proceedings of a conference in Bologna relating to No 1 Special force and the Italian Resistance during World War Two, 2 vols, 1981; obituaries, 1961.

Prentice's manuscript diaries, mainly detailing his services at General Headquarters, Middle East Command, Cairo, Egypt, including mention of Long Range Desert Group operations in the Western Desert, 1942; manuscript diaries and notebooks kept by Prentice and Wickstead, mainly relating to SOE operations in West Macedonia, Greece, 1943-1944; reports, mainly compiled by Allied Military Mission personnel, detailing demolition, intelligence and reconnaissance missions in West Macedonia, combined missions with Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS) 9 Div, liaison operations with Raiding Support Regiment and US Operational Group 7 personnel, sabotage targets, and administrative and operational procedures, 1943-1944; papers, in Greek, mainly relating to ELAS partisan activities in West Macedonia, including a copy of the 'National Bands Agreement', memoranda to Allied Military Mission regarding struggles with Ellinikos Dimokratikos Ethnikos Stratos (EDES) factions, political proclamations and ELAS propaganda; papers, in Greek, relating to Greek partisan forces not under the jurisdiction of the Allied Military Mission, including memoranda, propaganda and military orders from the Ellinikos Ethnikis Stratos (EES) and Kommounistiko Komma Elladas (KKE) and official Greek government notices, 1943- 1944; maps and photographs of Allied Military Mission areas of operation, 1943- 1944; correspondence between Allied Military Mission commanders and sub-area commanders, 1943-1944, including correspondence between Greek partisan commanders and Prentice, 1944; personal letters from Allied personnel to Prentice, 1946-1955; correspondence between Wickstead, Officer Commanding Signals, Area 1, and Allied personnel, 1944; papers relating to wireless/telegraphy signals, Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; papers, relating mainly to the administration and supply of the Allied Military Mission; German papers, including German 1 Mountain Div operational orders, propaganda, personal letters from German soldiers to family members and German-language newspapers; Greek political papers, notably including propaganda newspapers and party leaflets, including letters to Maj Gen Arthur Wilmot Wadeson Holworthy, 1941-1946; Wickstead's post-war index of Allied Military Mission signals, [1989]; papers relating to post-war publications about SOE operations in Greece, including the working papers for Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond's, The Allied Military Mission and the Resistance in West Macedonia (Institute for Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, 1993); post-war Greek newspapers, leaflets and war memorial publications, 1945-[1991]. 3.3.4 Arrangement: Arranged in the following sections: diaries and notebooks of Maj Ronald R Prentice and Capt H Arthur Wickstead, 1942-1944; documents and papers relating to Allied Military Mission operations, West Macedonia, 1943-1944; papers relating to Greek partisan activities, 1943-1944; maps and photographs of Allied Military Mission areas of operations, 1943-1944; correspondence between Allied Military Mission commanders, 1943-1944 and former Greek partisans, 1946-1955; papers relating to wireless/telegraphy signals, Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; papers relating to the administration, finances and logistics of the Allied Military Mission, 1943-1944; German papers, documents and newspapers during the occupation of Greece, 1943-1944; Greek political papers, documents and newspapers, 1941-1946; Wickstead's post-war partial index of signals, Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia, [1989]; papers relating to post-war publications about the resistance movement in West Macedonia, [1989-1991]; post- war Greek newspapers, leaflets and war memorial publications, 1945-[1991].