linux wrote:How much of that material would relate to the technical history of British warships? I can understand that certain operational / political history would remain classified (e.g. to protect reputations or cover up mistakes), but I can't believe that much WW2-era technical history would remain too sensitive for the 30 year rule, apart from nuclear stuff.
But of course we don't know what we don't know!
Most technical design material for WW2 and the 1930s (which I assume is what you would be interested in?) is with the National Maritime Museum.
There are also records at Bath (RCNC) and Portsmouth (Naval Historical but also the Dockyard records).
Depends entirely on what your looking for.
When we consider the age of such works such as Roskill, Raven & Roberts, Hough, Dominy etc they don't have the benefit of signals intelliegence such as ULTRA and I also believe they were hampered with not having access to alot of material which since then has come to light.
Remember researching in-depth often involves being fed snippets to begin with and then once one knows what to look for one might stand a chance.
I suppose one academic from my university put it best its almost 'follow the thing' one lead leads to another which reveals something else which then might tell you what your looking for.
If one is suddenly made aware of something which ocurred operationally, or say a new photograph is discovered things set in motion and the above pattern occurs.
Further, I still believe there would be valuable material still in the possession of the RN on such topics as engineering, damage control, electronic warfare, radar which have yet to be cleared for depositioning with the NMM or NA through 'institutional lazyness' or red tape.
[quote="linux"]How much of that material would relate to the technical history of British warships? I can understand that certain operational / political history would remain classified (e.g. to protect reputations or cover up mistakes), but I can't believe that much WW2-era technical history would remain too sensitive for the 30 year rule, apart from nuclear stuff.
But of course we don't know what we don't know![/quote]
Most technical design material for WW2 and the 1930s (which I assume is what you would be interested in?) is with the National Maritime Museum.
There are also records at Bath (RCNC) and Portsmouth (Naval Historical but also the Dockyard records).
Depends entirely on what your looking for. :eyebrows:
When we consider the age of such works such as Roskill, Raven & Roberts, Hough, Dominy etc they don't have the benefit of signals intelliegence such as ULTRA and I also believe they were hampered with not having access to alot of material which since then has come to light.
Remember researching in-depth often involves being fed snippets to begin with and then once one knows what to look for one might stand a chance.
I suppose one academic from my university put it best its almost 'follow the thing' one lead leads to another which reveals something else which then might tell you what your looking for.
If one is suddenly made aware of something which ocurred operationally, or say a new photograph is discovered things set in motion and the above pattern occurs.
Further, I still believe there would be valuable material still in the possession of the RN on such topics as engineering, damage control, electronic warfare, radar which have yet to be cleared for depositioning with the NMM or NA through 'institutional lazyness' or red tape.