Wartime diaries, typescript correspondence, memoirs and poetry by Victor West, concerning the campaign in Greece, Crete and as a prisoner of war during World War Two, with recent poetry, 1941-1999; notably including a bound typescript memoir, 'The loss of Creforce Reserve: "The side show"', written 1981, including list of officers and other ranks of 9 Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps, killed in Greece and Crete, 1941, and a copy article, 'The Rangers in Greece and Crete: a story of devotion and toil', printed 1941 in the house magazine of the Gas Light & Coke Ltd; 3 volume bound typescript memoir, 'Wash me in the water: a personal account of the first Greek campaign, 1941. The battle for Crete, including the story of the loss of Creforce Reserve', written 1983; bound typescript 1941 personal war diary, a transcription of West's original diary; bound typescript copy letters to West from a Spanish fellow POW, Sgt Basilio Marin, 1944-1945 and photocopy typescript and manuscript notes (untitled) on the Crete campaign, 1941; bound typescript 'We from Crete: Pep talks in Stalag 383', written 1982, relating to life in a POW camp (first and second drafts); bound typescript, 'Escape involuntary (we couldn't help it)', recounting West's escape from a POW camp, Germany, Apr 1945; Victor West, The horses of Falaise: poems on the experiences of a fighting soldier in World War II (Salamandar Imprint, London, 1975), bound photocopy; Victor West, Part 2 orders: WWII poems (Salamandar Imprint, London, 1999), bound photocopy; notes on West's career and on the history of 1 Rangers, King's Royal Rifle Corps; copy correspondence and illustrations relating to a painting by West presented to Winston Churchill, 1955.

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

Papers relating to Madoc's service in the Royal Marines and his imprisonment in Germany as a POW,1941-1945, including letter and postcard to his wife, Rosemary Madoc, from Crete, Apr 1941; letter to Rosemary Madoc from Maj Gerald Larsen, Royal Marines, Middle East Forces, relating to Madoc's capture, Aug 1941; two hundred and sixty five letters and postcards from Madoc to his wife, as a POW, 1941-1945; letters and postcards received by Rosemary Madoc from captured officers and troops relating to Madoc's bravery in Crete and to life in captivity, 1941-1944; manuscript account by Madoc of his service in the Royal Marines from embarkation with the MNBDO (Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation), his capture in Crete and subsequent imprisonment in Germany, 1941-1942, written on reverse of register of parcels received by prisoners, 1942; newspaper cutting oflocations of POW camps in Germany [1943]; Madoc's POW identity card, with photograph of Madoc and negative, 1941.

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.

Photocopy of typescript draft of 'Naval reminiscences, 1941-1944' covering his service in the Mediterranean, 1941 and 1943, notably the Battle of Crete, May 1941, and in the Arctic Ocean, 1942-1943, and his role in the construction of the Mulberry harbours, Normandy, 1944, written in [1978].

Liber in vinculis or the Mock Turtle's adventure , a meditation on his life and career, with particular reference to the Battle of Crete, 1941, written as a POW in Germany, 1941-1945, and including a short essay on the Battle of Crete, 1941, by Dr Mark Mazower, privately published by Trinity College, Cambridge in 1989.

Papers relating to his military service during World War Two, dated [1939-1945], 1948, 1965-1966, notably including account of the service of 1 Welch Regt in Crete, May 1941, written in 1966; silk map of North Africa and the southern Mediterranean, [1939-1945]; account of his imprisonment in Salonika in 1941 and his subsequent transportation to Germany, [1945]; typescript copy of 'Per anum ad astra', an account by Alexis Casdigli of the smuggling of maps from Oflag IX A-H to Oflag XII B in 1944 by a group of POWs, including Casdigli and Griffith, written in 1948, copied in 1965.

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.

Papers relating to service with the 12 (Prince of Wales's Royal) Lancers during World War One, notably relating the advance into Flanders, the first Battle of Ypres, and the advance to, and fighting around, Amiens, 1914-1935; the writing and publication of Charrington's book Where Cavalry Stands Today (Hugh Rees, London, 1927), 1927-1928; papers from a report by Charrington on the operations of the British Army in Eritrea and Abyssinia during 1941; correspondence, narratives, photographs and maps relating to Charrington's command of 1 Armoured Bde during operations in Greece and Crete, 1941, 1941-1962.

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.

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 principally comprising text of lecture on the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and China in 1937, including a detailed account of the Battle of Shanghai as witnessed from HMS DANAE, 1937; draft of lecture recounting his experiences on board HMS DIDO during the evacuation of Crete, Apr-Jun 1941, [1945].