Focus on
Olga Gray and the Woolwich Arsenal Spy Ring
In 1938, thanks to years of work by a remarkable female agent, MI5 ensured a package of British defence plans stayed secret.
Series
Government Code and Cypher School: Diplomatic Section and Intelligence Exchange Section:...
Catalogue reference: HW 39
What's it about?
HW 39
This series contains a series of reports issued by the Government Code and Cypher School of selected decrypted foreign diplomatic telegrams compiled for their interest to military commanders, known as the STARK reports. The reports in this series...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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HW 39
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Title (The name of the record)
- Government Code and Cypher School: Diplomatic Section and Intelligence Exchange Section: Summaries of Messages of Political Interest for British and US Military Commanders
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Date (When the record was created)
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1944-1945
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Description (What the record is about)
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This series contains a series of reports issued by the Government Code and Cypher School of selected decrypted foreign diplomatic telegrams compiled for their interest to military commanders, known as the STARK reports. The reports in this series were mainly drawn from the BJ series (HW 12) and the COM series (HW 32).
The reports, mainly verbatim telegrams as intercepted, cover the final year of the war reported from German and Japanese sources, and contain detailed information of, particularly, the Soviet advance in Eastern Europe, the division and administration of occupied Germany, reparations, border adjustments and repatriation of prisoners, Japanese comment on post-war Europe and Japanese relations with the Soviet Union.
The records in this series were retained by the department until transferred to the PRO in 2001, when they were immediately open.
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Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
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The STARK reports are arranged in date order as issued according to their original serial numbers.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Former department reference (Former identifier given by the originating creator)
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ULTRA/ZIP/STARK 1 - 450
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
- Foreign Office, Government Code and Cypher School, 1922-1946
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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16 file(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
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Open
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
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In 2001 Government Communications Headquarters
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Accumulation dates (The dates the record was accumulated)
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Series ran 1944-1945
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Accruals (Indicates whether the archive expects to receive further records in future)
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No future accruals expected
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Selection and destruction information (Information about how the record was selected for archiving)
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Complete series selected. These records contain information significant in the conduct of the Second World War and have been selected for permanent preservation in accordance with the PRO acquisition policy (para 2.2.1.3).
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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The STARK reports (summary reports of intercepted diplomatic messages of political interest to US and UK field commanders) began in response to a request raised initially by the senior US liaison officer at Bletchley Park, Col. Telford Taylor, in February 1944. He had asked that the BJ series of diplomatic intelligence be made available to US commanders in the European and Mediterranean theatres. The STARK series was initiated in June 1944, having been delayed until after D-Day.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C15599/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
17,110 records
Within the department: HW
Records created or inherited by Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
You are currently looking at the series: HW 39
Government Code and Cypher School: Diplomatic Section and Intelligence Exchange Section: Summaries of Messages of Political Interest for British and US Military Commanders
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