The Waldegrave Initiative and secret service archives: New materials and new policies
Louise Atherton, Top Secret: An Interim Guide to Recent Releases of Intelligence Records at the Public Record Office (London: PRO Publications, 1993). Pp.32. £3.25. ISBN 1 87362073. Louise Atherton, SOE Operations in the Far East: An Introductory Guide to the Newly Released Records of the Special Operations Executive in the Public Record Office (London: PRO Publications, 1993). Pp.59. £3.25. ISBN 1 873162081. Louise Atherton, SOE Operations in Scandinavia: A Guide to the Newly Released Records in the Public Record Office (London: PRO Publications, 1994). Pp.34. £3.25. ISBN 1 873162154. FCO Historical Branch, Changes in British and Russian Records Policy: Occasional Papers No.7 (London: Historical Branch, LRD, 1993). Pp.42. FCO Historical Branch, FCO Records: Policy Practice and Posterity, 1782–1993 (London: Historical Branch, LRD, Second Edition, 1993). Pp.17.
RETURN TO NEVERLAND? FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND THE HISTORY OF BRITISH INTELLIGENCE*
ABSTRACT This article considers the use of the UK Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in order to explore the history of British intelligence. While the intelligence and security agencies are themselves exempt from the Act, releasing only such archival material into the public domain as they see fit, the article will argue that this does not mean that FOI cannot be used productively in this area. Rather, by adopting a wider definition of ‘intelligence’, as advocated by Wesley K. Wark in this journal in 1992, FOI can be used as part of a broader research strategy to secure the release of information that allows the archival study of intelligence to move beyond the material released by the agencies themselves. The article will illustrate this point by drawing on relevant examples of successful FOI requests, while also highlighting some of the related practical challenges and limitations that its use has revealed.
The Ultimate Enemy: British Intelligence and Nazi Germany, 1933-1939
Introduction: Naming the Enemy. 1. Entering the 1930s-the DRC Report. 2. Air Force and Aircraft Industry Intelligence, 1933-1936. 3. The Final Phases in Air Intelligence, 1936-1939. 4. Army and Armaments Industry Intelligence, 1933-1936 5. The Final Phases in Army Intelligence, 1936-.1939. 6. Naval Intelligence, 1933-1939. 7. The IIC and German Economic Preparations for War. 8. Four Strategic Appreciations of War against Germany in 1939. Conclusion: The Four Phases of Intelligence. Appendices: 1. The organisation of British intelligence, 1933-1939. 2. Principal senior military officers, attaches, and intelligence staffs. 3. The growth of the Luftwaffe, 1933-1939. 4. Squadron composition of the Luftwaffe. 5. Luftwaffe first-line strength in August 1938 and September 1939. 6. British long-range predictions of Luftwaffe first-line strength by 1939. 7. IIC estimates of monthly German airframe production (1933-1939) and of complete aircraft produced (1939). 8. IIC estimates of monthly German aeroengine production, 1933-1939. 9. IIC estimates of employment in the German airframe industry. 10. German army expansion, 1933-1939. 11. Comparative naval strengths of Britain and Germany, 1933 and 1939.