Publications

The German High Seas Fleet’s sorties in strength after the battle of Jutland were few and inconclusive, but as a ‘fleet in being’ it remained a powerful threat. Britain’s Admiralty, alive to the tactical issues thrown up by Jutland’s titanic clash, was anxious to learn what had gone wrong. Luckily for the British, German veterans of the battle were progressively posted to U-boats and other units. As they were sunk their survivors began to find their way into the hands of Intelligence Division’s interrogators and yield a view from the other side of the mirror. This article identifies the interrogators and their subjects. It examines the quality of their evidence and provides additional insights into the action in the First and Second Scouting Groups and the Third, First and Second Battle Squadrons.

To glean as much intelligence from captured U-boat crews as possible, the Royal Navy’s interrogators employed almost every trick in the book – and added new techniques themselves. This lavishly illustrated article probes their methods.

An overview of the development of prisoner interrogation as an element of naval intelligence, based on Castaways in Question and incorporating some later research.

Sixty-two German U-boats made the perilous passage into the Mediterranean during the Second World War, nine were sunk trying to pass the Straits of Gibraltar and another ten were forced to abandon the attempt. None of the successful boats ever left, either being destroyed by the Allies or scuttled by their crews. By contrast the 32 Italian submarines of the Betasom flotilla operating from Bordeaux ran the Straits routinely, if not easily. What was the difference?

Starved of worthwhile targets, the submarines of 8th Flotilla operating from Fremantle in 1944 developed tactics for sinking coastal craft in shallow water by gunfire and demolition charge.

One such engagement by Sturdy led to the controversial death of women and children aboard a scuttled ship and was raised in Parliament over 40 years later. Declassified information and recently discovered evidence permit an open-minded review of the incident.

In World War II the UK Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centres (CSDICs) raised the combination of direct interrogation, eavesdropping, and stool pigeons (SPs) to a fine art. The roles of interrogator and listener in extracting vital intelligence from prisoners of war is justly celebrated; that of stool pigeon remains in the shadows.

Who were these people? What inspired them to change sides, to endure the mistrust of their new masters and the very possibly lethal disdain of their old comrades? What became of them afterwards?

Treasurer of Scotland during the brief English rule of 1295-6, Hugh de Cressingham was, perhaps fittingly, killed at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Fittingly because he had done more than anyone else to lose the battle for the English.

Who was he, how did he rise to a position of such influence, and what does his career tell us about the developing professionalism of medieval English administration? This article explores his life before the fatal flash of fame that brought him to the modern scholars’ and film makers’ attention.