I’m happy to let you know that British Online Archives (BOA) have given us trial access to their digitised primary source collection Military Intelligence Files: Land, Sea & Air, 1938-1974. This collection provides access to secret British government files produced by the intelligence branches of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force and will be of particular interest to those of you looking at the Second World War or the beginnings of the Cold War.

You can access this online resource via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 9th May 2018.

Screenshot from Royal Air Force: Weekly Intelligence, Jul 1940-Feb 1941 (Military Intelligence Files, British Online Archives).

The material in this collection is taken primarily from records series held at The National Archives and brings together for the first time the intelligence reviews produced by the three individual armed services.

Military Intelligence Files covers the period from 1938, just prior to the start of the Second World War, to the high point of the Cold war in the mid 1970s. The three armed services and their respective intelligence branches were largely autonomous. This independence came to an end in 1964 when the three separate intelligence branches (army, navy and air force) were combined to form a unified Defence Intelligence Staff within the Ministry of Defence serving the whole of the British armed forces.

In this digitised collection you will find the weekly intelligence summaries produced by the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the Second World War (1939-1945) as well as monthly and quarterly summaries produced in the years after the War. It also includes papers and reports related to The British Commanders’-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS), with Foreign Office papers covering 1946-1966 and mission reports covering 1949-1974.

Screenshot from BRIXMIS personnel files, 1947-1970 (Military Intelligence Files, British Online Archives)

Access Military Intelligence Files: Land, Sea & Air, 1938-1974 via e-resources trials.
Access available until 9th May 2018.
Feedback welcome.

You can access all the digital primary source collections already available at the Library via the Primary Source databases list.

Access is only available to current students and staff at University of Edinburgh.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for History, Classics and Archaeology