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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.

Copy of 'Tim', a typescript account of Hely's life and career, 1902-1990, notably his service with 60 Field Regt in the Western Desert, including action around Sidi Rezegh, Nov 1941, and with 7 Indian Div in India, 1942 and Burma, 1943-1945, including the Japanese attack on 15 Indian Corps' administrative base at Sinzweya, Burma, Feb 1944, written in 1991 by 'L R L', Hely's Bde Maj, Royal Artillery, 7 Div, 1942-1944. Includes extracts from Hely's descriptions of actions at Sidi Rezegh and Sinzweya written for The Royal Artillery Commemoration Book, 1939-1945 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1950).

Papers relating to operations in the Western Desert, 1940-1941, especially Battles of Sidi Saleh, Beda Fomm and Operation BATTLEAXE, the attempt to relieve Tobruk, including typescript report by Lt Gen Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor on operations of 7 Armoured Div, Mechili, Cyrenaica, Libya, Feb 1941; typescript text of lecture by Creagh entitled 'Operations of the 7th Armoured Division in the Western Desert from June 1940 to March 1941' [1942]; typescript reports by unit commanders and Staff Officers on operations during First Libyan campaign, 1940-1941, including Lt Gen Sir Noel Monson de la Poer Beresford-Pierse, General Officer Commanding Western Desert Force, Lt Gen Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor, General Officer Commanding 13 Corps, Brig John Alan Lyde Caunter, commanding 4 Armoured Bde, Col George Edward Younghusband, 2 Armoured Div, Brig William Henry Ewart Gott, commanding Support Group, and Brig Hugh Edward Russell, commanding 7 Armoured Bde; typescript report by Creagh entitled 'The 7th Armoured Division', with five printed maps of North Africa, Nov 1943. Correspondence, 1942-1970, notably including letters from Lt Gen Giffard Le Quesne Martel, Commander Royal Armoured Corps, 1942, and Lt Gen Sir Richard (Alan) Fyffe, Col Commandant, 3 Bn, The Royal Green Jackets, 1970.

Published booklets from the General Staff, War Office, including two booklets entitled The German Army in Pictures and More Pictures of the German Army, detailing German Army weaponry, uniforms, and insignia, 1941; five guides to the Germany Army detailing the tactics and organisation of armoured divisions, infantry divisions, airborne troops, engineers, and reconnaissance units, 1941; A Guide to the Identification of German Units, detailing badges of rank and service German officers for the purpose of interrogation, 1942; five pamphlets relating to German infantry weapons, Italian infantry weapons, German light anti- aircraft and anti-tank guns, German infantry, heavy anti-aircraft, and divisional artillery; German infantry engineer and airborne weapons, 1941-1943; Periodical Notes on the German Army relating to tactics of the German tank regiment and tank battalion, German Army tactics in Libya, 1941, operations of German 11 Air Corps during the attack on Crete, May 1941, German artillery operations in armoured divisions, and the tactical handling of German armoured divisions, lorried infantry and motorcycle units, 1942; New Notes on the German Army, relating to the evolution of German armoured and motorised divisions, and German supply and administrative services, 1942-1943; two pamphlets relating to the German Army order of battle, 1942-1943; booklet designed to aid British personnel in the recognition of British and Allied Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs), 1942; booklet of vocabulary of German military terms, 1943.