Admiralty: Monthly Intelligence, 1938

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). 

This volume contains monthly intelligence summaries compiled by Naval Intelligence on behalf of the Naval Staff and Admiralty in the years immediately prior to the Second World War. The purpose of these summaries was to keep relevant personnel abreast of the political, diplomatic, and military situation. Although confidential (and later secret), they were intended to be read by all commanding officers and distribution was arranged as such. 

Each summary is divided into four sections: section one covers the international situation with an overview of recent events; section two includes short reports thought to be of interest to officers; section three consists of extracts from the press with the aim of informing officers without access to daily newspapers; and the last section features reviews of recently published naval and martial literature. 

The content of the summaries focuses on the threat posed by Nazi Germany, and not just in the realm of guns and gunboats—the plight of Jews is also reported, for instance. In addition, Japan’s ambitions in the Pacific receive a great deal of attention. 

Series: ADM 223 (Admiralty: Naval Intelligence Division and Operational Intelligence Centre: Intelligence Reports and Papers).