********************************** PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE RECORDS INFORMATION Leaflet No: 89 ********************************** [Note: this and all other PRO Records Information leaflets are (c) Crown Copyright, but may be freely reproduced except for sale or advertising purposes. Copies should always include this Copyright notice -- please respect this.] (c) Crown Copyright 1993. ---------------------------- start of text ----------------------------- INTELLIGENCE RECORDS IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This leaflet describes records of intelligence sections of the service departments and some central government departments which are available for consultation at the Public Record Office. Further information on intelligence and security work in modern government will be found in the major series of departmental files. For the period before 1782 some intelligence correspondence can be found in the State Papers Domestic and State Papers Foreign classes held at Chancery Lane. 1. WAR OFFICE For a large part of the 19th century several separate departments within the War Office were given responsibility for different aspects of intelligence related work, particularly with maps. Centralisation was first carried out in 1873 when the Intelligence Branch was established and this became the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI ) in 1888 . In 1904 DMI became part of the Directorate of Military Operations (DMO); it was made independent in 1915 and then reunited with DMO in 1922. The two departments were again separated in 1939. The various sections of Military Intelligence (MI ) and Military Operations (MO) were kept distinct even when under a single head. DMO was responsible for outline operational planning up to the time when an operation Commander was appointed. It also collected information about British forces and the armed forces of close allies. DMI was concerned with the armed forces of enemy countries, distant allies and neutral countries. It was in close touch with military attaches and missions abroad and was interested not only in military details but also in more general historical, topographical and economic information. Until 1940, when a separate department was established for the purpose, DMI was also responsible for censorship. In addition to the departments in London, military intelligence had staff attached to missions overseas and field headquarters gathering local intelligence. WO 78 Maps and Plans 1627 - 1953 The class contains maps which are the result of intelligence gathering operations (for similar material relating to India, Persia and the Near East, contact the India Office Library and Records, 197 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NG). WO 106 Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence 1837-1960 The class contains military intelligence material to 1939. WO 157 Intelligence Summaries 1914-1921 The class contains daily summaries of information and reports on military, economic and political affairs. WO 208 Directorate of Military Intelligence 19l7-1956 The class contains intelligence material for the Second World War. 2. ADMIRALTY Long before intelligence was an organised function, officers of the Royal Navy were expected to report any information about the whereabouts and strength of hostile shipping. The first proposal for a specialist staff to co-ordinate this activity was made in 1879, but it was not until December 1882 that the Foreign Intelligence Committee was set up. This was replaced in 1887 by a new department of the Admiralty under a Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI). The DNI's department quickly became efficient and highly effective thus an influential voice within the Admiralty. It was concerned with all aspects of enemy and allied shipping, including the number of vessels, their types, armaments and so on+ It also plotted shipping movements, particularly of enemy surface cruisers and submarines. Information on the topography of foreign countries, particularly coasts, and on coastal defences was also collected. The department played a major part in signals intelligence work in both world wars (see 4 below). No peace time files of the Naval Intelligence Department (NID) have yet been released, although there are printed reports in ADM 231. ADM 231 Naval Intelligence Papers, 1883-1908 The class contains reports on foreign navies, coastal defences etc., produced by the Foreign Intelligence Committee, and from 1887 by NID. ADM 137 War of 1914-1918 The class includes papers of NID in ' Room 40 ', many of them on signals intelligence. ADM 223 Wireless News 1918-1921 The class is composed of summaries of decrypted signals circulated by NID and the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS); see also Signals Intelligence below. ADM 223 Naval Intelligence Papers 1939-1947 The class is composed of a wide variety of intelligence papers from the Second World War. 3. AIR MINISTRY Until 1918 responsibility for aerial warfare was divided between the War Office and the Admiralty. only when the Air Ministry was established in that year was a separate Directorate of Air Intelligence created. This became the Directorate of Operations and Intelligence in 1920 and it was not until 1939 that intelligence was made independent again when the work on operations passed to a new Directorate of Plans. Air Intelligence were interested in allied and enemy aircraft, their fuel systems and weaponry, and airfields . They also prepared analyses of bombing targets and appreciations of raids, much information coming from aerial reconnaissance, and studied enemy and allied air activity. The study of operational research was invented by the RAF, and this involved the creation of models (for example, theoretical or statistical) to discover the most effective solution to a problem. Much intelligence was also gained from prisoners of war in enemy hands, either by coded letters or by interrogation after escapes. AIR 1 Air Historical Branch 1862 - 1959 The class contains scattered intelligence papers of the First World War. AIR 40 Directorate of Intelligence 1926-1958 The class contains intelligence material including much on US Air Force operations and prisoners of war. 4. SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE On 5 August 1914, the cable ship Telconia lifted from the bed of the North Sea the German overseas telegraph cables. Thereafter German diplomatic communications had to go by wireless, as did signals to the High Seas Fleet and the U boats. These could be intercepted and so were sent by cypher. Cryptography had been subject to a lot of study in Britain before the War, particularly at Naval Intelligence Department, and as a result, specialists at NID were able to read many of Germany's diplomatic and operational signals. The knowledge thus gained gave NID much influence and the work was at times of major significance, leading, for example, to the entry of America into the War because of the interception of the notorious Zimmerman telegram. In 1919 the Cabinet established the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) to advise on the security of British codes and cyphers and to study the methods of cypher communications used by foreign powers. It was an inter-service organisation and was finally placed under the Foreign Office for administrative purposes in 1922. During the Second World War the School was based at Bletchley Park. German signals during this period were encyphered by a machine which had originally been developed for commercial use . The Germans improved its security and called it Enigma. At Bletchley Park, first using the 'Bombe' and then a computer called 'Colossus', GCCS decrypted the intercepted signals. The resulting intelligence was called ' X ' source or 'Ultra ' . The initial work of radio interception was the responsibility of 'Y' service . ADM 116 Admiralty Secretary's Department: Cases. Coding and Cyphering Committee, 1920-1926, records are in ADM | 116/2101. ADM 137 War of 1914 - 1918 The class includes papers of NID in 'Room 40', many of them on signals intelligence. ADM 233 Naval Intelligence Papers 1939-1947 The class is composed of a wide variety of intelligence papers from the Second World War. DEFE 3 Intelligence from Enemy Radio Communications, 1941-1945 The class is composed of translations of decrypted signals and summaries of intelligence from signals. Mainly German signals, a few Italian: the majority relates to naval activities. 5. FOREIGN OFFICE Funds for the collection of intelligence abroad had been voted by Parliament for much of the early modern period and were administered by the Secretaries of State. From 1782 the Foreign Secretary took on this role, with administrative responsibility being passed to one of the two Under secretaries at the Foreign Office in 1325. The Fund was used during the 19th century for a number of purposes, not all of them intelligence related. Records relating to the administration of the secret Service Fund, 1791-1909, can be found in the following: HD 1 Foreign Office: Expenditure of the Secret Vote Abroad: Correspondence and Papers. HD 2 Foreign Office: Consulate General Meshed: Monthly Accounts of Secret Service Payments. HD 3 Foreign Office: Permanent Under Secretary's Department: Correspondence and Papers. HD 4 Colonial Office: Secret Service Activities Abroad: Letterbooks. A fuller description is available in Top secret: An Interim Guide to Recent Releases of Intelligence Records at the Public Record Office (PRO Publications, 1993 ). 6. RECORDS OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE, JOINT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE AND OF INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY AGENCIES Most of the records of the United Kingdom intelligence and security agencies and material released by them to other government departments are retained by those organisations under section 3 (4) of the Public Records Act 1958 and are not open to the public. Records of the Special Operations Executive are in the process of transfer to the Public Record Office. So far records of SOE in the Far East have been released and placed in the class HS 1. Further details about these records can be found in SOE: Operations in the Far East An Introductory Guide to the Newly Released Records of the Special Operations Executive in the Public Record Office (PRO Publications, 1993). In the case of SOE records not yet in PRO custody, enquiries may be directed to the SOE Adviser, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Room 3/97, Old Admiralty Building, Whitehall, London SWlA 2AZ. Records of the Joint Intelligence Committee, first established in 1936 to co-ordinate the work of the separate intelligence services, are likewise retained by the department. FURTHER READING Christopher Andrew, Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community. F H Hinsley et al, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 5 vols; the third of which is in two parts (HMSO, 1979-1990). John Ferris, 'Whitehall's Black Chamber: British Cryptology and the Government Code and Cypher School, 1919-1929', Intelligence and National Security, vol. 2 (Jan. 1987). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LR. Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. Tel: +44 (0) 181 876-3444 Opening hours: 9.30am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday. Closed on public holidays and for annual Stocktaking (normally the first two full weeks in October). 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