Description
Object description
British officer served as intelligence officer with 1st Armoured Div in GB, 9/1940-11/1940; served as staff officer with Headquarters, 9th Armoured Div in GB, 11/1940-5/1941; student with Staff College, Camberley in GB, 5/1941-9/1941; served as staff officer with General Headquarters Middle East in Cairo, Egypt, 10/1941-12/1942; served with Joint Intelligence Target Section, Headquarters, Allied Air Forces in Algiers, Algeria, 1/1943-5/1943; served staff officer with Joint Intelligence Committee for India and South East Asia Command at General Headquarters India in New Dehli, India, 6/1943-3/1944; served as Assistant Director, Military Intelligence with General Headquarters India in New Dehli, India, 1944-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as student with Trinity College, University of Cambridge in GB, 1935-1938: aid he gave to Jewish refugee; desire for military training. Aspects of period as academic and curator of Nicolson Museum at University of Sydney in Australia, 1937-1939: his fear of Germany and British defeat without fighting; decision to return to GB and volunteer for military service, 1939; attitude towards a British alliance with Soviet Union; reaction to Nazi-Soviet Pact, 8/1939; attitude towards British Empire.
REEL 2 Continues: return to GB, 9/1939. Aspects of enlistment and training as private, NCO and officer with Royal Warwickshire Regt in GB, 1939-1940: enlistment in British Army with aid of Australia House; enlistment in Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 10/1939; relations with comrades in regiment; progress from private to corporal; attending Officer Cadet Training Unit at Aldershot, 5/1940; his linguistically adept fellow officer cadets; his estimation of officer qualities.
REEL 3 Continues: his early interest in the First World War; attending intelligence course in Swanage including interrogation techniques. Aspects of period as intelligence officer with 1st Armoured Div in GB, 9/1940-11/1940: state of national morale, summer 1940; character of officers in division; his own resolution if GB surrendered; his personal conviction that Germany would not invade, summer 1940. Aspects of period as staff officer with Headquarters, 9th Armoured Div in GB, 11/1940-5/1941: posting to division.
REEL 4 Continues: staff work; effect of build up of forces; impressions of German Air Force bombing of Coventry, 11/1940. Aspects of period as student at Staff College, Camberley in GB, 5/1941-9/1941: opinion of course; value of and skills learnt on course. Recollections of period as staff officer with General Headquarters Middle East in Cairo, Egypt, 10/1941-12/1942: posting to Cairo, 10/1941; voyage from GB to Egypt; his intelligence assignment in Cairo; reaction to German invasion of Soviet Union, 6/1941; his estimate of possibility of Germans advancing down through Turkey; reasons why information from Ultra was known as 'Uncle Henry'; value of Ultra; work of Long Range Desert Group; problems of estimating qualities of different sources of intelligence.
REEL 5 Continues: how he became British Army member of Inter-Service Target Section, spring 1942; contrast between Egyptian and Indian attitudes towards British presence; burning of documents in Cairo during time of Axis advance, 6/1942; reconnaissance expedition to Qattara Depression with Long Range Desert Group, spring 1942; useful nature of Group Captain Bill Long's relations with Americans; destruction of German transport carrying prisoners of war; near blunder over General Erwin Rommel 'obituary'. Aspects of period as staff officer with Joint Intelligence Target Section, Headquarters, Allied Air Forces in Algiers, French Algeria, 1/1943-5/1943: reconnaissance for move to Algiers; his explanation of local time to United States Army Air Force personnel.
REEL 6 Continues: anecdotes illustrating character of Americans; change in intelligence problems; relations with Royal Navy personnel; clash with Major-General Sir Kenneth Strong; readiness of British Army to use talent wherever it could find it; how Major Straun came to join his staff; his carrying Ultra material across North Africa to Cairo, Egypt. Recollections of period as staff officer with Joint Intelligence Committee for India and South East Asia Command with General Headquarters India in New Dehli, India, 6/1943-3/1944: reasons for wanting transfer to Far East rather than Europe; his recruitment to Joint Intelligence Committee; relations with Major-General Walter Cawthorn; processing of decoded material on Japanese sea and air movements.
REEL 7 Continues: reasons for turning down job with South East Asia Command, 3/1944. Recollections of period as Assistant Director Military Intelligence with General Headquarters India in New Dehli, India, 1944-1946: use of Imperial Japanese Army list; creation of 'Yellow Book of Japanese Army'; ending of his work as Assistant Director Military Intelligence; his total absorption in Indian affairs and drafting of report on post-war Indian Army; travels around India on bicycle; attitude towards service in India; reflections on Indian National Army; memories of Major-General Orde Wingate; contrast in service in Egypt and India.
REEL 8 Continues: prior recollections of use of intelligence in North Africa; testing of intelligence conclusions; predicting Imperial Japanese Army strategy; contrast between estimates of Japanese and German forces; question of intelligence being a weapon of the weak; reflections on effect of war on political attitudes of British service personnel; reaction to results of General Election in GB, 7/1945; British Army method of inducing regimental pride; character of his war service.