Catalogue description Admiralty, Inter-service Topographical Department, and Ministry of Defence, Joint Intelligence Bureau Library: Surveys, Maps and Reports

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Details of WO 252
Reference: WO 252
Title: Admiralty, Inter-service Topographical Department, and Ministry of Defence, Joint Intelligence Bureau Library: Surveys, Maps and Reports
Description:

This series comprises reports, surveys, maps, plans, and photographs of places and areas in theatres of war in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. The reports were compiled for use in strategic and tactical planning, and comprise information on climate, health and medical resources, communications and transport facilities, and power supplies, including a series of oilfields investigation reports prepared for the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee.

The records of the Inter-service Topographical Department were transferred to the library of the Joint Intelligence Bureau in 1945, and records created for or collected by the Bureau were then added to these to form this series.
Date: 1913-1968
Related material:

For records of the Naval Intelligence Division see ADM 223

For other material produced by the Joint Intelligence Bureau see ADM 234
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Admiralty, Inter-service Topographical Department, 1941-1945

Ministry of Defence, Joint Intelligence Bureau, 1945-1964
Physical description: 1486 files and volumes
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

from 1977 Ministry of Defence
Accruals: Series is accruing.
Unpublished finding aids:

There is, in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew, a list of the sub-series found in the series.

Administrative / biographical background:

The Inter-service Topographical Department was operative from 1941 to 1945, and administered by the Admiralty, for the production of topographical information for the use of the service departments.

The Joint Intelligence Bureau was constituted in 1945, under the Ministry of Defence from 1947, to provide information for defence purposes. It was operative until 1964.

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