Strategic Studies

Manuscript Collections

Military Personnel

MSS 183 - Papers of Lieutenant-General Sir Vernon Ashton Hobart Sturdee

Two notebooks and a correspondence book written by Captain Vernon Ashton Hobart Sturdee at Gallipoli in 1915. Also included is a notebook of his father's Colonel Alfred Hobart Sturdee, ink sketches and photographs, who was also present at the landing.

MSS 184 - Papers of Lieutenant-General E. K. Squires

British military officer appointed to the post of Inspector-General of the Australian Military Forces in 1938.

Example: Folder 1 Photocopies of diary volume 21, including a photocopy of a letter dated 18 May 1938, offering Squires the post of Inspector-General of the Australian Military Forces, 17/11/1937-24/12/1938

MSS 335 - Papers of Major D.C.L. Wilson

Correspondence, diaries, newspaper articles, other publications and personal documents and effects pertaining to Major D.C.L. Wilson's education at the Royal Military College, the LHQ Tactical School, Staff School, Australia and participation in World War II, particularly in the Pacific. Also includes various military training documents relating to training practices, orders and maps.

Example: Box 11/Folder 60 Military Documents – Orders, Reports, Training Instructions, etc: Confidential/secret papers concerning New Guinea, New Britain military operations (September 1943-May 1944); General Headquarters South West Pacific Area, Monthly Summary of Enemy Dispositions [Top Secret], Copy No. 65, Serial no. 23 (September 1944)

MSS 359 - Papers of Lieutenant-General John Sanderson

Documents Lieutenant General Sanderson's mission in Cambodia, when he was seconded to the Secretary of the United Nations to complete planning for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, 1992-1993.
Example: Box 1/Folder 6 Reports of meetings with: Mr Tep Khunnal (3 June 1992); General Son Sen (7 April 1992); Mr Soroj Chavahaviraj (12 May 1992), together with many other relevant primary sources through the collection.

Journalists

MSS 190 - Papers of Michael Richardson

Southeast Asia correspondent for The Age in the 1970s, comprising first-hand reports of the crisis, coup and invasion of Portuguese (East) Timor by Indonesia after the Portuguese withdrawal, 1970-2009.
Example: Box 16 Richardson's photographs of the Declaration of Independence, East Timor, 28 November 1975

MSS 374 - Papers of Peter Hastings

Editor of the Bulletin (1962-64), foreign affairs writer for the Australian (1966-70), and the Sydney Morning Herald (1970-74, 1976-90). Hastings was banned from Indonesia for reporting on its military preparation for the 1975 invasion of East Timor and in 1984 for reporting on the death of anthropologist Arnold Ap in Irian Jaya.

Example: Box 9/Folder 9 Correspondence 1980s, including important first-hand accounts of the military intervention from a variety of informants

Historians

MSS 164 Papers of Anthony Brettell Lodge

Manuscript papers and related material produced or accumulated by Brett Lodge for his book The fall of General Gordon Bennett, and 1987 PhD thesis 'Lieutenant-General Sir John Lavarack as military commander'.
Example: Box 6/Folder 24 Including: Lodge's working notes; Curtis Wilson papers 1: annotated typescript notes in diary form, possibly a semi-official diary kept for Lavarack, 2 January 1941 to 12 April 1943; War diary, 19 January to 14 March 1942, 5 p.

MSS 187 - Papers of Damien Fenton

Source material accumulated by military historian Damien Fenton for his PhD thesis 'Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation and the defence of Southeast Asia 1955-1965', including a large number of NAA and PRO (UK) photocopied files.

Example: Folder 1 Photocopies of archival primary sources, 1956-1966: National Archives of Australia SEATO search results lists x 2; Series A703/138, Item 607/2/2, Department of Air, correspondence files, 1959-1974: Series A816/1, Item 11/301/1089 part 2; Item/301/1114; A816/43, Item 44/301/212; A816/56

MSS 321 - Papers of Dr Frank Cain

UNSW academic with interests in Australian military and intelligence history, the Cold War, development of British missile technology, labour history, Jack Lang and the Great Depression, killings in Indonesia 1965, the French in Vietnam, Chinese Communist Party between the wars.

Example: Box 1/Folder 2 ASIO source materials, together with many other relevant items throughout the collection

MSS 355 - Papers of John McCarthy

Comprising photocopies of Australian government documents relating to World War II and research material for various publications by the historian and academic John Malcolm McCarthy.

Example: Box 7/ Folder 31-32 - Australian policy - general, includes manpower pre-1942, October 1939-December 1941

Box 8/Folders 35-37 - Policy/UK. Demands for information, June 1939-December 1940

MSS 366 - Papers of John Coates

Comprising research material used for Bravery above blunder: the 9th Division at Finschhafen, Sattelberg and Sio (1999), including photocopies of military archival sources held in Australia, the United States and Britain, detailing the Huon Peninsula Campaign in New Guinea in 1943-44; interviews with Japanese prisoners of war and, post-war Japanese commanders; audio cassette interviews with Australian commanders; and maps of the Huon Peninsula area.

Example: Box 1/Folder 2 Wartime translations of seized Japanese documents – Allied translator and interpreter section reports, 1942-1946. Indexes, pp. vii-xv; MacArthur archives record groups, 6p; US Army in Australia, WW II, a working bibliography of MHI sources, 2p.; Australian archives, ANGAM II, 16 April 1996, 15p.

MSS 371 - Papers of Professor Brian Beddie

Papers and reference material assembled by Professor Brian Beddie relating to Australian defence policy and administration.

Example: Box 30/Folder 3 Lever arch file containing indexed Defence Committee minutes 1940-41 CRS A2031

Politicians

NAA 001 - John Howard Collection

National Archives Australia collection of personal papers and associated Commonwealth records (1974- ). Custody transferred to Special Collections in a special partnership between the NAA and UNSW Canberra.
Comprising notes, personal papers, correspondence, early Commonwealth records, press clippings, transcripts of speeches and interviews, election pamphlets and other items covering the period 1974-1996.

Diplomats/Defence Personnel

MSS 196 - Papers of Sir Arthur Tange

Former Secretary of the Department of Defence 1970-1979 and External Affairs 1954-1965.

Folder 1 Typescripts: ‘Defence and Australian society of the late 20th century’; ‘The reorganisation of the defence group of departments - reflections ten years on’

Iraq War

MSS 366 – Papers of John Coates

Box 12/Folders 64-65, Box 13/Folder 66 & 73, Oversize 6 & 9 – Material on the Iraq War

Nuclear Warfare

MSS 346 - Papers of Herbert S. Johnson

An American soldier and eyewitness to the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing.

Folder 1 Text of ‘Hiroshima witness: an American combat infantry soldier's story’, correspondence, and photographs

MSS 374 – Papers of Peter Hastings

Box 23/Folder 1 - Material on nuclear weapons including press clippings, news service reports, and excerpts from published material

Vietnam War

MSS 010 – Papers of Edward H. Rodwell

Collection of newspaper cuttings relating to the Korean and Vietnam Wars compiled by Edward H. Rodwell

MSS 366 – Papers of John Coates

Box 10/Folder 49, Box 11/Folder 58, Box 13/Folder 72 - Material on the Vietnam War

Collated by Special Collections: August 2020
Last Updated: February 2024