Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1989 (Creation)
- 1939-1945 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
195 fiche
Scope and content
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.
System of arrangement
Arranged into chronological sections.
General Information
Repository
Custodial history
The National Archives (Public Record Office), Kew, Surrey
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies may be printed off the microfilm/microfiche for research purposes and are charged at cost.
Enquiries concerning the copyright of the original material should be addressed to The National Archives
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
This collection level description. The following published guide is available in the Reading Room: L D Freedman, M L Dockrill, M Roper (eds.), War Cabinet Minutes: The Microfiche Edition HMSO Books, London, 1989).
Existence and location of originals
The National Archives, Kew
Note
Compiled Sep 1999
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
- Armed forces
- Central government
- Civil defence
- Defence
- Diplomacy
- Foreign relations
- Government
- Government departments
- International conflicts
- International organizations
- International politics
- International relations
- Military engineering
- Military operations
- Military organizations
- Operation Overlord (1944)
- Organizations
- Public administration
- Social security
- Social services
- State security
- War
- Warfare
- World wars (events)
- World War Two (1939-1945)
- Wars (events)
People and Organisations
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.