Naval Intelligence Handbooks
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The British Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook Series was produced between 1941 and 1946. At 31 titles, encompassing 58 volumes, this is the largest single body of geographical writing ever published. The books were written to provide information for the Allied war effort. They were written by academics in two teams, one based in Cambridge and the other at Oxford. As lives depended on the information presented in the Handbooks, speed of production and accuracy of content were paramount. After the war, many of these handbooks were re-published, in modified form, as textbooks.
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[edit] Content
Although entitled Naval Intelligence Handbooks, the Handbooks were intended for use by all of the British Armed Forces, and covered whole countries, not just the coastal regions. Topics included relief, coasts, climate, peopling, history, administration, population geography (trends and migration), economic geography and transport geography. Additional information, such as vegetation zones and medical notes, was given in appendices.
[edit] The published Handbooks, year of publication and location of team
(30 volumes produced at Cambridge; 28 at Oxford. All were published by HMSO in London)
- Albania 1945 (Oxford)
- Algeria (2 vols: volume 1 1944, volume 2 1944) (Oxford)
- The Belgian Congo 1944 (Oxford)
- Belgium 1944 (Cambridge)
- China Proper (3 vols: volume 1 1944, volume 2 1945, volume 3 1945) (Cambridge)
- Corsica 1942 (Cambridge)
- Denmark 1944 (Cambridge)
- Dodecanese 1943 (Oxford)
- France (4 vols: volume 1 1942, volume 2 1942, volume 3 1942, volume 4 1942) (Cambridge)
- French Equatorial Africa and Cameroons 1942 (Oxford)
- French West Africa (2 vols: volume 1 1943, volume 2 1944) (Oxford)
- Germany (4 vols: volume 1 1944, volume 2 1944, volume 3 1944, volume 4 1944) (Cambridge)
- Greece (3 vols: volume 1 1944, volume 2 1944, volume 3 1944) (Cambridge)
- Iceland 1942 (Cambridge)
- Indo-China 1943 (Cambridge)
- Iraq and the Persian Gulf 1944 (Oxford)
- Italy (4 vols: volume 1 1944, volume 2 1944, volume 3 1944, volume 4 1944) (Oxford)
- Luxembourg 1944 (Cambridge)
- Morocco (2 vols: volume 1 1942, volume 2 1942) (Oxford)
- Netherlands 1944 (Cambridge)
- Netherlands East Indies (2 vols: volume 1 1944, volume 2 1944) (Cambridge)
- Norway (2 vols: volume 1 1943, volume 2 1943) (Oxford)
- Pacific Islands (4 vols: volume 1: General Survey 1945, volume 2: Eastern Pacific 1943, volume 3: Western Pacific (Tonga to the Solomon Islands) 1944, volume 4: Western Pacific (New Guinea and Islands Northwards) 1945 (Cambridge)
- Palestine and Transjordan 1943 (Oxford)
- Persia 1945 (Oxford)
- Spain and Portugal (4 vols: volume 1 1945, volume 2 1945, volume 3 1945, volume 4 1945 (Oxford)
- Syria 1943 (Oxford)
- Tunisia 1945 (Oxford)
- Turkey (2 vols: volume 1 1942, volume 2 1942) (Oxford)
- Western Arabia and the Red Sea 1946 (Oxford)
- Yugoslavia (3 vols: volume 1 1944, volume 2 1944, volume 3 1944) (Cambridge)
[edit] Team members (selected)
- Stanley H Beaver (Cambridge)
- RP Beckinsale (Oxford)
- AEP Collins (Cambridge)
- JW Crowfoot (Oxford)
- Henry Clifford Darby (Editor in Chief) (Cambridge)
- Dr JW Davidson (Cambridge)
- Elwyn Davies (Cambridge)
- Dr Margaret Davies (Cambridge)
- A Digby (Cambridge)
- Sir Raymond Firth (Cambridge)
- Walter Fogg (Oxford)
- Idris L Foster (Cambridge)
- DW Fryer (Cambridge)
- EW Gilbert (Oxford)
- CFWR Gullick (Oxford)
- Dr JV Harrison (Oxford)
- AH Hyamson (Oxford)
- JR James (Cambridge)
- HA Jensen (Cambridge)
- AF Martin (Oxford)
- Professor Kenneth Mason (Oxford)
- FJ Monkhouse (Cambridge)
- FW Morgan (Cambridge)
- Sir John Linton Myres (Oxford)
- AC O’Dell (Cambridge)
- EJ Passant (Cambridge)
- Brian B Roberts (Cambridge)
- KS Sandford (Oxford)
- Dr Hugh Scott (Oxford)
- Eileen Steel (Oxford)
- Robert Steel (Oxford)
- JC Stuttard (Cambridge)
- TG Tutin (Cambridge)
- Norman White (Oxford)
- Brigadier H St J Winterbotham (Oxford)
- Sir James Mann Wordie (Cambridge)
[edit] Sources
- Clout, Hugh and Gosme, Cyril (2003) 'The Naval Intelligence Handbooks: a monument in geographical writing' Progress in Human Geography 27(2):153-173 (online at http://phg.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/27/2/153.pdf)
- http://books.stonebooks.com/cgi-bin/foxweb.exe/base/pubbers?hmso
