RAF Intelligence: A.I. 1(w)

[Nick Beale]

Having recently strayed from my 1944–45 comfort zone, I've run into references in 1940 to A.I. 1(w) but can't infer from the context what they did.

Can anyone tell me what this section's role was and whether it was later renamed?

[MW Giles]

John Stubbington's book "Kept in the Dark" Pen & Sword 978 1848841833 has quite a good coverage of Air Ministry Intelligence

p158 "The first year of the war saw rapid expansion in the number of personnel in Air Intelligence, growing from 40 to about 230. One new section that was created in May 1940 was AI 1(w), with the purpose of providing a group of Duty Officers for 24-hour coverage of Air Intelligence. Until that time, the night duty officer was provided from a roster of all sections. It became apparent as the war developed, just prior to the German invasion of France, that there was a need for a permanently staffed central office to deal with receipt, assessment and distribution of urgent signals and messages. Later AI 1(w) was re-titled as AI 3(a)(1) and maintained an unbroken watch until the end of hostilities in May 1945."

The (w) appears to stand for War Room

Regards

Martin

[Nick Beale]

Cheers Martin,

I never thought the "(w)" would actually stand for something, I just thought they used up a–v already!

[MW Giles]

I thought it was surprising too, not very secure. These are the parts of AI 1 that I can find from 1940/1:

(a) - Intelligence personnel & censorship, admin, intelligence summary printing, publications

(b) - AM Weekly Bulletin

(c) - Liaison

(d) - Liaison

(f) - Foreign liaison

(g) - Technical liaison with MAP

(k) - Interrogation of POWs

(s) - Security

(t) - Translation

(w) - War Room

(z) - Postal & Telegraphic censorship

More than a couple seem to give a clue to what they do. It could be just co-incidence, particularly if the other 15 letters were also used

Martin