Government Code and Cypher School: Signals Intelligence Passed to the Prime Minister, Messages and Correspondence

A file of signals intelligence reports, messages, and correspondence issued by the Government Code and Cypher School and sent by the head ('C') of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. This file contains a message from C to the Prime Minister (PM); and the following reports on Italy: battle reports for May 17, describing German withdrawals in the Liri Sector; a request for ground attack air support against strong tank concentrations; and the 51st Corps being subjected to violent artillery fire, which it expects is in preparation for an attack from the south; a report from the Naval Commandant at Elba, for May 15, noting heavy air raids on the area of Porto Ferraio, and that the rail bridge over the Arno at Pisa was damaged; that the Commander in Chief (CinC) for the South West, anticipating an Allied invasion on the eastern coast of Italy and the consequent withdrawal of army units from Istria at short notice, requests the Reichsfuehrer of the SS to provide reinforcements of SS and Police forces for the protection of valuable economic objects and other measures to pacify the country, on May 18; and a German intelligence report for May 15, stating that the French Expeditionary Force reached an area 2 km south of Esperia in a surprise thrust through almost impassable country past the Fammera Massif; on Western Europe: a report from the 3rd Air Fleet for May 16 and 17, noting that recent light Allied air activity is not explicable by unfavourable weather alone, concluding that the Allies are holding back to conserve their strength for some planned operation, and anticipating that preparations for a large-scale landing would involve a further series of raids on important rail junctions; Naval Headlines, covering that the 8th Destroyer Flotilla left Royan for exercises on May 17; that Northern waters U-boats were informed that their main task for summer 1944 is to attack Russian supply traffic, except in the event of Allied landings in Norway or in the Skagerrak area; and that the Japanese 1st Mobile Fleet was sighted en route from Singapore to Tawitawi, on May 14; from the Japanese naval attaché in Berlin, detailing a conversation with Admiral Doenitz, on May 10; and a German intelligence Sicherheitsdienst (SD) report from Lisbon on German negotiations for annual deliveries of Wolfram, on May 17.