Record revealed
Report on the British Indian Army, 1943
This Second World War War Office document assessed the British Indian Army's battle readiness and made recommendations for its development.
Series
Cabinet Office: Minister of Defence Secretariat: Records
Catalogue reference: CAB 120
What's it about?
CAB 120
This series consists of the files of the military secretariat of the Cabinet Office for the period that Churchill and Attlee successively combined the offices of Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. The files reflect the personal direction of...
Full description and record details
-
Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- CAB 120
-
Title (The name of the record)
- Cabinet Office: Minister of Defence Secretariat: Records
-
Date (When the record was created)
- 1938-1947
-
Description (What the record is about)
-
This series consists of the files of the military secretariat of the Cabinet Office for the period that Churchill and Attlee successively combined the offices of Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. The files reflect the personal direction of the war and its aftermath over the whole range of issues in which the minister involved himself and the machinery through which he operated.
Included are minutes by the Prime Minister, copies and relevant extracts of the Defence, Chiefs of Staff and other committees and sets of personal telegrams exchanged by Churchill and Presidents Roosevelt, Stalin and Inonu and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, and of telegrams of the British delegations at the war time meetings of allied heads of state.
-
Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
-
Arrangement
Chronological within original subject classifications
-
Related material (A cross-reference to other related records)
-
For papers of the Prime Minister as Minister of Defence see PREM 3
-
Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
-
Former department reference (Former identifier given by the originating creator)
- Known as the "PM files" within the Cabinet Office and quoted as such in official histories
-
Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
-
Language (The language of the record)
- English
-
Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
- Cabinet Office, Minister of Defence Secretariat, 1940-1945
-
Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 876 file(s)
-
Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
-
Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
-
From 1980 Cabinet Office
-
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))
-
Accruals (Indicates whether the archive expects to receive further records in future)
- Series is accruing
-
Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
-
When Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940, he also assumed the title of Minister of Defence. The scope and powers of this office were not defined, nor was it the subject of special legislation or the creation of a ministry; Churchill required only what he called a 'handling machine' and the military wing of the War Cabinet Secretariat fulfilled this function. Following the general election in 1945, Attlee continued to combine the office of the Minister of Defence with that of Prime Minister and this arrangement continued until December 1946, when A V Alexander was appointed as Minister of Defence.
-
Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C3927/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
134,977 records
Within the department: CAB
Records of the Cabinet Office
You are currently looking at the series: CAB 120
Cabinet Office: Minister of Defence Secretariat: Records
You may be interested in
-
-
Record revealed
Copy of Henry VIII's diplomatic assurances to João III of Portugal
Recently rediscovered, this letter offers new archival evidence into Britain and Portugal's shared history. -
Record revealed
A dramatic plea for Churchill’s help from Bletchley Park
In 1941, four Government Code and Cypher School cryptanalysts, including Alan Turing, made a stunning appeal directly to Winston Churchill.
Related records
Records that share similar topics with this record.