History of the Second World War (Military Series)

History of the Second World War (Military Series)
Title	History of the Second World War (Military Series)
Author	Multiple (Committee of Imperial Defence; Sir James Butler; Sir John Grehan; others)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	World War II military history
Publisher	Her Majesty's Stationery Office; Longmans; Imperial War Museum
Pub date	1949–1993 (original volumes)
Media type	Print
Pages	Multi-volume

History of the Second World War (Military Series)

The History of the Second World War (Military Series) is the official British multi-volume account of World War II prepared under the authority of the Committee of Imperial Defence and associated with the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence. Commissioned in the aftermath of Second World War hostilities, the series aimed to document campaigns, operations, and policy decisions affecting the United Kingdom, the Allies, and adversaries such as Nazi Germany, Empire of Japan, and Kingdom of Italy.

Background and Commissioning

The series originated from wartime efforts by the Cabinet Office Historical Section and decisions of the British Cabinet influenced by figures including Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, and staff of the War Cabinet. Early impetus came from the precedent of the official First World War histories and the work of the Committee of Imperial Defence which coordinated postwar documentation alongside the Public Record Office and the Imperial War Museum. Key administrative actors included the Historical Section (British Cabinet), the Official Histories Committee, and senior civil servants such as Sir James Butler. Confidential access to records of the War Office, Admiralty, Air Ministry, the Foreign Office, and intelligence services like MI5 and MI6 shaped commissioning and editorial control. The British government negotiated evidence access with allied agencies including the United States Department of War, the Soviet General Staff, and Dominion administrations in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Scope and Volume Structure

The Military Series spans operational studies of campaigns and theatres including the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, the North African Campaign, the Italian Campaign, the Normandy landings, the Burma Campaign, the Malayan Campaign, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the Eastern Front insofar as British involvement permitted. Volumes address strategic planning during conferences such as Casablanca Conference, Tehran Conference, Yalta Conference, and Potsdam Conference and examine relations with allies like the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. The structure includes theater studies, campaign narratives, staff studies of the War Cabinet, force-specific accounts for the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, and British Army, and cross-cutting analyses of logistics, intelligence (including Enigma and Ultra), and civil defence in cities such as London, Coventry, and Hamburg.

Major Themes and Interpretive Approach

Authors emphasized documentary-based narratives rooted in archives from the Public Record Office, unit war diaries, and ministerial papers such as those of Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Harold Macmillan. Interpretive themes include coalition warfare dynamics among leaders like Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin; operational art illustrated by commanders such as Bernard Montgomery, Harold Alexander, Bernard Law Montgomery, Erwin Rommel, Isoroku Yamamoto, and Douglas MacArthur; and the interaction of technology exemplified by radar, cryptanalysis, and armored warfare seen at El Alamein and Kursk. The series balances narrative chronology with staff-level assessments of planning at Bletchley Park and strategic direction from the War Office and Admiralty, stressing continuity with precedent studies like the official histories of the First World War.

Contributions and Authors

Principal contributors included official historians and scholars such as Sir James Butler, Sir John Grehan, L.F. Ellis, A.F. Becke, C. B. Aspinall-Oglander, and H. C. O’Neill, supported by researchers from the Imperial War Museum and academia at institutions like King’s College London and the University of Oxford. Many chapters drew on testimonies from military leaders including Alan Brooke, Lord Mountbatten, Arthur Tedder, Hugh Dowding, Andrew Cunningham, and Bertram Ramsay. The series integrated material from Commonwealth authors in Canada (e.g., studies of the Royal Canadian Navy), Australia (e.g., accounts of Papua New Guinea operations), and New Zealand contributions. Technical and intelligence sections reflected input from specialists associated with Bletchley Park, the Signals Intelligence Service, and naval intelligence offices.

Reception and Scholarly Impact

Scholars and veterans recognized the series for its authoritative archival base and detailed operational accounts, influencing subsequent monographs by historians such as John Keegan, Richard Overy, Max Hastings, Gerhard Weinberg, David Eisenhower, and Antony Beevor. Criticisms concerned perceived establishment perspectives and delays in publication that limited early debate with revisionist studies by figures like A.J.P. Taylor and later reassessments from Soviet-bloc archives and works by Norman Stone and Christopher Browning. The series shaped professional military education at institutions like the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the United States Army War College and informed documentaries produced by broadcasters such as the BBC.

Publication History and Editions

Initial volumes appeared from the late 1940s through the 1950s, with later supplements and revised editions published into the 1990s by publishers including Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the Longman Group. Reissues and academic reprints incorporated forewords by figures like Mountbatten and editorial revisions reflecting declassified material from the National Archives (UK) and allied archives such as the National Archives and Records Administration and the Russian State Military Archive. The series remains available in research libraries, military study centers, and collections at the Imperial War Museum and continues to be cited in contemporary histories of World War II.

Category:Official histories Category:Works about World War II