Beesly, Patrick (foreword by Admiral of the Fleet, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma KG, PC, GCB, OM, GCIE, GCVO, DSO), - VERY SPECIAL INTELLIGENCE - The Story of the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre 1939-1945.

Sphere, London, 1978, revised edn., paperback, 352pp, maps in text, lettered wrappers, an account of the nerve centre of the Admiralty, WW2, the Operational Intelligence Centre of the Naval Intelligence Division of the Royal Navy, where all aspects of information about German maritime operations were gathered, from decrypts of enemy messages received from Bletchley Park, direction-finding fixes of specific enemy vessels, photographic reconnaisance of ports, harbours and coastlines, reports from agents in enemy occupied territories, and interviews with POWs, etc., all of which were evaluated and assessed by experienced officers of the Operational Intelligence Centre. Summaries of the raw decrypts with the addition of OIC conclusions, named 'Ultra', were then distributed to a limited few on a 'need to know' basis. This account of the work of OIC includes coverage of the operations involving the Bismarck, the merchant raiders and their support vessels, the campaign against the U-boats, coverage of the Battle of the North Cape, the escape of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, PQ17, etc., light roll and faint vertical creasing to spine, a little rubbed at extrems, light creasing at cnrs., edges tanned, good plus,