Cabinet War Rooms [antikvár]

PREFACEjS3he Cabinet War Rooms are the surviving and most importantportion of the underground emergency accommodation pro-vided for Mr Churchill's Cabinet and its chief military advisers dur-ing the Second World War. It is fortunate indeed that this historicsite has remained more or less exactly as it was at the end of thewar and the Imperial War Museum is very pleased to be associatedwith the Government's project to restore the Rooms and to openthem to the public as a museum.The Imperial War Museum, which is the national museum respon-sible for recording the history of twentieth century conflicts involv-ing British and Commonwealth forces, has contributed historicaladvice and conservation expertise to the restoration work and hasundertaken to manage the Cabinet War Rooms on a day-to-daybasis as the agent of the Property Services Agency of the Depart-ment of the Environment.To preserve the historical integrity and unique atmosphere of theWar Rooms it has been decided to keep the number of explanatorylabels to a minimum. Essential information about each room is pro-vided in a guide-leaflet issued to every visitor at the beginning ofhis tour. The purpose of this booklet, which has been written bythe Museum's Historian, Mr Peter Simkins, is to provide our visitorswith a more detailed account of the history, origins and role of theCabinet War Rooms and to explain the development in Britain ofCabinet machinery for the higher direction of war during the firsthalf of the twentieth century. The booklet is based on extensiveresearch into unpublished documentary, photographic and per-sonal evidence.Visitors to the Cabinet War Rooms and readers of this booklet maylike to be reminded that they can pursue their study of the SecondWorld War and other conflicts since 1 91 4 in the exhibitions, refer-ence collections and archives of the Imperial War Museum at itsheadquarters in Lambeth Road, London SE1 and its outstations,HMS Belfast in the Pool of London and Duxford Airfield inCambridgeshire.