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Military intelligence files: land, sea and air, 1938-1974

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Authored by British Online Archives (BOA)
Published on 10th August, 2018 1 min read

Military intelligence files: land, sea and air, 1938-1974

A black and white collage of Lancaster bombers from the Battle of Britain in World War Two, overlayed with typewritten text from various documents.

Part of British Online Archives's wide-ranging World Wars series, the resources contained within this collection shed light on the activities and attitudes of British military intelligence agencies during the Second World War and Cold War.

The majority of the documents are weekly, monthly, and quarterly intelligence summaries produced by the Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force. In addition, two volumes include records from the British Commanders’-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS), providing a fascinating insight into the internal politics and strategic calculations of Warsaw Pact countries.

The images were scanned from paper at the National Archives (UK), with Admiralty (ADM 223), Air Ministry (AIR 22 / AIR 40), Foreign Office (FO 371) and War Office (WO 208) files all featuring heavily. The collection is also accompanied by a contextual essay written by Dr. Stephen Twigge, the Head of Modern Collections at the National Archives (UK).

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Authored by British Online Archives (BOA)

British Online Archives (BOA)

British Online Archives provides unique collections of primary source documents for students and researchers studying the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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