Detailed memoir, 'I'd live it again', covering his life and military career, 1898-1945, notably his service in France, 1918, Egypt, 1919-1921 and 1939-1941 and East Africa, 1941-1942, written in 1947 and privately published in pamphlet form.

Typescript copy of Meteorological Office paper With Wind and Sword: the story of meteorology and D-Day, a detailed examination of the Meteorological Office's role in the preparation and execution of Operations NEPTUNE and OVERLORD, the Allied preparation and subsequent invasion of France, Jun 1944, including weather pattern charts, weather forecasts, and memoranda and reports from the Chief Meteorological Officer, Meteorological Office, to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). Collection also includes two copies of the Meteorological Office pamphlet, '6 June 1944: D-Day: the role of the Met. Office', (Meteorological Office, Bracknell, 1994)

Copy of official printed message by Gen Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, Commander in Chief, 21 Army Group, to British troops relating to the establishment of an Allied bridgehead in France, 10 Jun 1944; copy of official message by FM Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, Commander in Chief, 21 Army Group, to British troops relating to the liberation of Belgium and France, 17 Sep 1944

Notes on his war experiences, primarily concerning living conditions during his service in the trenches in France and Belgium, 1914-1918, but with occasional reference to his service in Burma, [1943-1945], written at the request of an American researcher in [1980-1981], with covering letter to the Centre, 1981.

Manuscript account 'From bombardment to island kingdom' by Admiral Sir John Hamilton, 1985, detailing his service, 1943-1946, including work as Commander, Gunnery Division, Admiralty, 1943-1945, planning naval fire support for Normandy landings (Operation OVERLORD), and subsequently compiling analysis of operations; Commander, Naval Bombardment, Force 'W', planning and training for planned invasion of Malaya (Operation ZIPPER), 1945; Senior Naval Officer, port of Sabang, Sumatra, 1945-1946.

Papers relating to Brig Harry Ewart Hopthrow's military career, 1914-1945, including memoranda, notes and correspondence on his service with Wireless Company, Corps of Royal Engineers, Western Front, World War One, [1914-1918]; typescript memoranda and correspondence as OfficerCommanding 107 Company, Corps of Royal Engineers (Reserve), Territorial Army, 1931-1935; notes and correspondence as Assistant Director of Works, General Headquarters, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), France, 1940; typescript memoranda, correspondence and notes as Director of Fortifications and Works, War Office, 1943-1945. Photograph album relating to 107 Company Royal Engineers, 1926-1933; group photographs, Inglis Bridge, Northern Command Tattoo, York, 1933.

Papers, photographs and publications of Gp Capt James Henry Iremonger, relating to his career, 1936-1959, including: orders for 1 Airborne Allied Army for Operation MARKET, Netherlands, 17 Sep 1944; Second Army intelligence summaries, 2-4 May 1945; 83 Group intelligence summaries, 34 May 1945; stereoscopic slides of aerial photographs showing results of RAF bombing raids over France and Germany, 1943-1944; copy pages from Iremonger's flying log book, 1936-1958; Bag the Hun! (Air Ministry, Apr 1943), a booklet of mathematical exercises for fighter pilots.

Anti-British propaganda leaflet, in Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu; anti-British propaganda leaflet calling for the Indian Independence League in East Asia to assist the Japanese in ridding Asia of all British influences; anti-French propaganda leaflet distributed in Indo- China announcing the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, 1942

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.

OSS/London: Special Operations Branch and Secret Intelligence Branch War Diaries is a themed microfilm collection relating to US Office of Strategic Services (OSS)intelligence analyses and special operations in Western Europe, Jun 1942-Jun 1945. The collection includes Special Operations Branch organisation charts and directives, orders and summaries, Jun 1942-Jul 1944; Special Operations (SO) Branch and OSS training schedules; papers relating to Special Operations Branch liaison with Scandinavian Special Operations Executive (SOE) Section; reports on military and strategic objectives relating to Operation OVERLORD, the Allied invasion of France, Jan-Sep 1944; estimates of Special Operations personnel strength, Apr-Jun 1944; reports on resistance movements in Norway, Denmark, and Poland; summaries of Secret Intelligence Branch Operations, Apr-Sep 1944; list of decorations, commendations, and payments to families of the Special Operations and Secret Intelligence Branch casualties; biographies of Secret Intelligence personnel; reports from Secret Intelligence Branch operations in the Netherlands, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia; Germany; Secret Intelligence Branch liaison with the OSS; photographs of American and British Special Operations Branch officers; photographs of Maquis, French resistance, operatives; report from the Special Mission on German Methods of Demolition and Sabotage, Sep-Dec 1944; reports on Polish resistance fighters in France, 1944; lists of code names and code words used by the Special Operations Branch; reports from military, demolition, intelligence gathering, and espionage missions in Western Europe, 1944; after action summaries from the OSS Reports and Registry Division, London, and the OSS Reports Board, Paris, France, 1 Jan-15 Jun 1945.

Collection includes four copies of printed leaflets, 'No 1 Workshop Group, REME, Chillwell', relating to the organisational structure of the Royal Electical and Mechanical Engineers, 1945; printed leaflet, 'The Part a British Oil Company played in the War', reprinted from the Petroleum Times, 28 Apr 1945, concerning asbestos compound waterproofing of Allied tanks and vehicles for Operation OVERLORD, the Allied invasion of France, 1944; reprint of photograph of US Sherman tank approaching French beachhead, 1944

Copies of typescript Indian Corps Intelligence Summaries, France, Aug 1915, and typescript account in French entitled 'Quelques faits importants de la Guerre par rapport a Merville', 1919. Papers relating to Sanderson's military intelligence work, 1940-1945, including typescript intelligence reports and summaries relating to the likely invasion of UK, 1940-1941, notably typescript Southern Command memorandum entitled 'Enemy craft likely to be used in invasion of UK and their employment', Jan 1941; typescript translations of German directives on the planned invasion of the UK, Operation SEELÖWE, 1940, taken from documents captured by the Allies in 1945; typescript copies, with translations, of Adolf Hitler's last will and his private and political testament, dated 29 Apr 1945. Printed volume, 'Notes on German preparation for invasion of the UK', prepared by General Staff, War Office, and issued to officers of MI14, Apr 1941. Printed volume in German entitled Informationsheft GB, produced by the Germans in World War Two as a manual on British life, customs, Government and administration [1940].

Collection consists of photocopies of a manuscript letter written by Col Günther Blumentritt, Senior Operations Officer, German Army Group A, relating to German operations in France, 25 May 1940; and Intelligence Branch, General Staff, German 26 Army Corps, memoranda and German Army witness statements relating to the killing of approximately 100 British prisoners of war from 2 Bn, Royal Norfolk Regt, at Long Cornet, France, by soldiers of the SS Totenkopf Div during the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), 28 May 1940.

The MAGIC Documents: Summaries and Transcripts of the Top-Secret Diplomatic Communications of Japan, 1938-1945, is a themed microfilm collection relating to US deciphers of Japanese diplomatic codes through the use of MAGIC decryption, 1938- 1945. The collection contains copies of deciphered official and unofficial Japanese diplomatic communiqués sent from Japanese personnel stationed at embassies and consulates in the Far East, Europe and the Middle East, to Tokyo, Japan, 1938-1945, and includes material relating to Japanese civil, political and economic conditions and policies, military expenditures, strategy, tactics, and campaigns, and eventual peace initiatives and surrender, 1938-1945. Included in the collection are deciphered messages concerning Japanese perceptions of Allied strategy against Japan; the effect of Allied air raids on Japan; Japanese relations with the German Foreign Office; Japanese relations with the governments of Burma, Indo-China; Korea, Netherland East Indies, Siam, China, the Philippines; perceptions of Allied chemical warfare capabilities; perceptions of Allied Lend-Lease naval forces and strategy; British and French relations with colonies in the Far East; control of industry in Manchuria (Manchukuo); perceptions of Axis strategy and Japan's role within it; Japanese interest in Indian nationalism and the Indian Independence League; the Burma-Siam railway; Japanese attacks on the Burma Road, the supply route which connected Burma to Generalissimo Chiang Kai- Shek's nationalist forces in China; administration of the government of Japanese occupied Nanking, China; the Chinese Communist Party; the rationing of clothing and food in Japan; perceptions of the Soviet Comintern Pact; Japanese relations with German, European, and Chinese banks; Japanese relations with Spanish Gen Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the German High Command and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini; interpretation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere; concern for Japanese nationals abroad, 1937-1945; Japanese naval strategy and tactics; function of the Japanese Consular Police, China; territorial claims on the Kurile Islands; material relating to Japanese military campaigns during World War Two; Japan's search for strategic resources in the Far East; military strengths and dispositions of the German Armed Forces; the origins of the Russo-Japanese Neutrality Pact; Allied and Axis propaganda methods; the treatment of Allied prisoners of war; the surrender of Japanese armed forces in the Far East.

Papers relating to his military career, 1940, 1943-1944, principally comprising unsigned draft report on Operation DRAGOON, Allied landings in the South of France, 1944; manuscript and typescript reports on training exercises undertaken by Tong and others, Camberley, 1940, written by [Tong and others], 1940.

One hundred and three photographs relating to Wardman's RAF service, [1932-1944], including eighty three, mostly captioned, aerial photographs of North West Frontier Province, India [1932]-1934; photographs of RAF aircraft including Westland Wapiti Mk IIA, Avro Tutor, Hawker Hector [1932-1939]; three photographs of Wardman in No 3 (Indian) Wing RAF sports teams, Quetta, India, 1934; group photograph with Wardman and RAF pilots '46th Flying Instructors Course, Central Flying School, September-December 1935'; group photograph captioned 'No 612 (County of Aberdeen) (AC) (Army Co-operation) Squadron, Auxiliary Air Force, July 1938'; group photograph captioned '1935 600 City of London Fighter Squadron', group photograph captioned 'Brough [Yorkshire], January 1939', group photograph in front of Bristol Blenheim bomber [1940], Airspeed Horsa upon Salisbury plain [1944], group photograph captioned '296 Sqn Airborne Forces Headquarters', photograph of 296 Sqn badge, group photograph of RAF officers 1944, group photo of RAF Officers with Italian badge captioned 'East Colne 1945', two photographs of Handley Page Halifax bombers from towing gliders on crossing of Rhine March 24 1945, group photo of Norway visit, photo of Halifax taking off captioned ''R' for Mo, Joe' [1945], group photo captioned 'Celebration! promotion to Wg Cdr'. Also small Union flag displayed on the first British truck taken to France, and later used by the French Army, Aug 1914, (the flag originally belonged to a relative of Wardman who worked for Vulcan Motor and Engineering Company, Crossens, Southport, Lancashire).

Microfilm collection containing copies of meeting minutes of the major conferences of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, 1941-1945. Meeting minutes include those for the conference held at Washington, DC, codenamed ARCADIA, at which Anglo-American planners first formed a combined strategy for the prosecution of the war, 22 Dec 1941-14 Jan 1942; the conference at Casablanca, Morocco, codenamed SYMBOL, during which the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) first discussed the policies of German unconditional surrender, the Combined Bomber Offensive from Great Britain against Germany and the establishment of the French National Committee for Liberation, 14-24 Jan 1943; the Allied conference held at Washington, DC, codenamed TRIDENT, at which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Prime Minister Rt Hon Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS)discussed the decision to delay the invasion of France until May 1944, the Italian surrender, and the Battle of the Atlantic, 11-25 May 1943; the Allied conference at Quebec City, Canada, codenamed QUADRANT, at which the Allies endorsed a plan for the invasion of the Normandy coast in France, formed a new theatre of war, South-East Asia Command, with Acting Adm Lord Louis (Francis Albert Victor Nicholas) Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander, and regulated the procedures for co-operation between Great Britain and the US regarding the development and production of the atomic bomb, 12-24 Aug 1943; the Allied conferences at Cairo, Egypt, codenamed SEXTANT, at which the Allies discussed combined operations in South-East Asia with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese forces, 22-26 Nov and 2-7 Dec 1943; the Allied conference at Teheran, Iran, codenamed EUREKA, during which the Allies first co-ordinated future strategy with Soviet Prime Minister Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, including plans to coincide military operations against Germany in France and the Soviet Union in May 1944, 28-30 Nov 1943; the conference at Quebec City, Canada, codenamed OCTAGON, at which the Allies discussed the post-war division of Germany and a plan for its de-industrialisation, 12-16 Sep 1944; the conferences at Malta and Yalta, Soviet Union, codenamed ARGONAUT, at which the Allies discussed the division of post-war Germany, the occupation of Germany and Austria, Soviet involvement in the war against Japan, and the future government and frontiers of Poland, 30 Jan-9 Feb 1945; the conference at Potsdam, Germany, codenamed TERMINAL, during which surrender terms for Japan were discussed, the boundaries and peace terms for Europe were determined and Poland's government and frontiers were debated, 16 Jul-2 Aug 1945. Conference minutes include references to Allied production and assignment of war materials; British and US merchant vessel losses; US policy concerning assignments of Lend-Lease military aircraft, naval vessels and munitions to Great Britain; Allied petroleum supplies; propaganda and unconventional warfare; war crimes and prisoners of war; operational reports concerning the planning and conduct of Allied offensive operations in Europe, including the invasion of North Africa, codenamed Operation TORCH, Nov 1942; the invasion of Sicily, Italy, codenamed Operation HUSKY, Jul 1943; the US preparation for the invasion of Europe, codenamed Operation BOLERO; and the Allied invasion of Europe, codenamed Operation OVERLORD, Jun 1944; operational reports concerning the Japanese war economy; Japanese Imperial Army logistical capabilities; locations and strengths of Japanese forces in the Pacific; British participation in long range bombing of Japan; Allied operational efforts in Burma, India, Malaya, and the Philippines; Soviet claims on the Sakhalin and Kuril islands; the co-ordination of Allied strategic plans for the defeat and occupation of Japan, 1943-1944; Soviet military action to facilitate Operation OVERLORD; liaison between Allied theatre commanders and the Soviet Army; Soviet capabilities with reference to the Far East; US Lend-Lease requirements for the Soviet Union; and estimates of Soviet post-war capabilities and intentions, 1943-1945.

Papers of ACM Sir Neil Wheeler including training account, report, press cuttings and photographs, 1939-1991, notably a comprehensive report on the Royal Air Force Operations in Malaya, June 1948-March 1949, produced by Air Headquarters, Royal Air Force Malaya, May 1949; text for talk by Wheeler on early aerial photographic reconnaissance, delivered at a Royal Air Force Historical Society seminar, 1991; undated detailed account of training for, planning and leading wing strikes against shipping convoys, 1942-1943. Cutting of article 'Cameramen of the Air: Photographing bomb damage - vital work of RAF PRU'S (Photographic Reconnaissance Units)', from The Times, 1 Sept 1943. Printed maps of Norwegian, English, French and German coastlines, [1942], with handwritten annotations. Album of Photographic Reconnaissance Unit photographs, 1940-1941, many with captions, showing locations in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway including: Brest harbour; anti-aircraft fire over Cherbourg; Morlaix; Brest; Chateau Bougon Aerodrome, Nantes; Nantes; St Nazaire; La Rochelle; La Pallice; Rochefort; Bordeaux; Dunkirk, showing wrecks on beaches; Le Havre; Zeebrugge; Boulogne; railway yards near Calais; Vlissingen Aerodrome; Antwerp; Ter Neuzen; Flushing; St Inglevert Aerodrome; Knickerbein W/T beam stations; Amsterdam; Ijmuiden; Gravelines; the Nordzee Canal; Caen; Schipol aerodrome; Stavanger; Bergen; Egersund Port; convoys in the Skaggerak area; Herl-Herdla Aerodrome; Lista aerodrome; Kiel; Bremerhaven; Brunsbuttel; Wilhelmshaven; The Hague; Dieppe; Rotterdam; Poix Aerodrome; Ostend; also photograph of shelling damage in Guernica, Spain, 2 Jun 1941; photograph of office showing maps and operations board for 8 Apr 1941; printed map with drawn annotations showing the ranges in nautical miles of medium range, long range, super long range and extra super long range Spitfires from Wick, St Eval and Heston. Loose photographs, 1939-1943, many with captions, showing: aircraft including a Maryland, a Swordfish, a Hawker Fury and a Heyford; Wheeler and colleagues at airfields in Wick, Scotland and St Eual, Cornwall, 1941; Wheeler and aircrew of 236 Squadron, 1943. Also painting of the insignia of 236 Squadron.

World War Two ordnance survey maps of the United Kingdom and Europe, mainly 1 inch, prepared by the Geographical Section, General Staff, and the War Office, for use by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), including 1:40,000 map of Antwerp, Belgium; 1:100,000 map of Brussels, Belgium; 1:5,000,000 map of South Africa; 1:250,000 map of Italy; and 1:50,000 map of Northeast France. Also included are German survey maps of North Africa and Northern Greece, and 1:300,000 map of the Netherlands with manuscript outline of German Army occupation districts, 1940-1943