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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.

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

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 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).

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.