Directorate of Military Intelligence

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Directorate of Military Intelligence was a department within the British War Office [1] After the War Office was abolished in 1964 and replaced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), It was replaced by the Defence Intelligence Staff. There were many branches and subsections under the DMI, that changed by the month during wartime. It is a complicated history. Only the vestigal names MI5 and MI6 remain in use; these were actually hived off relatively early to the Home Office and Foreign Office respectively and were no longer part of the DMI structure under the WO. For a real understanding, the following list should be broken down into WWI, inter-war and WWII periods. However, a sampling of some subdivions is as follows with their change in meaning noted:

[edit] Sections

A list of sections and their roles:

  • MI1 - one sub section [MI-1b] was devoted to Code Breaking during World War I and later merged with similarly tasked agencies to become GCCS. Subsection [MI-1c] became MI-6, the SIS (see below)
  • MI2 - Russian and Scandinavian intelligence for the War Office and later merged with MI5
  • MI3 - Eastern European intelligence for the War Office and later merged with MI5
  • MI4 - British intelligence map support unit in World War II and WWI and later merged with MI5
  • MI5 - Security Service [SS] -renamed from subsection MO5g [responsible for internal UK and overseas British territories intelligence]
  • MI6 - Secret Intelligence Service [SIS] [responsible external intelligence]
  • MI7 - in WWI, Press Control: monitor propaganda and censorship for the War Office, section 7b was Propaganda: Lord Onslow (this predates Crewe House and Crewe House is later actually a cover for this) 7d was Foreign Press
  • MI8 - in WWII: British signals intelligence group (or Radio Security Service) ; in WWI: Cable Censorship: Chief Censor, War Office (Admiralty took care of wireless censorship)
  • MI9 - in WWII, Evasion and Rescue: aiding resistance fighters in Nazi-controlled Europe and recovering Allied troops (1940-1945); in WWI, Postal Censorship, for example subsection "a" was 9a: transit and detained mails (circa 1917)
  • MI10 - weapons and technical analysis during World War II; in WWI: Military Attaches and Visits of Foreign Officers
  • MI11 - Field Security Police
  • MI12 - military censorship
  • MI14 - intelligence agency for the War Office and once part of MI3 and replaced by MI6
  • MI15 - Aerial photography, later aerial defence
  • MI16 - Scientific intelligence
  • MI17 - secretariat for MI departments
  • MI19 - information from debriefing enemy prisoners of war and defectors during World War II, some allegedly extracted under torture, see CSDIC, Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centres

MI13 and MI18 are reportedly sections that went unused. [2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ History of the Ministry of Defence
  2. ^ SIS Records - War Office Military Intelligence (MI)Sections in the Second World War
UK Flag United Kingdom Intelligence Agencies edit UK Flag
Current: Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) • Security Service (MI5) • Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) • Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) • Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) • Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC)
Defunct agencies: MI1 • MI2 • MI3 • MI4 • MI7 • MI8 • MI9 • MI10 • MI11 • MI12 • MI13 • MI14 • MI15 • MI16 • MI17 • MI18 • MI19
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