The demise of an industrious intelligence centre: the re-organisation of economic intelligence at the end of the Second World War, 1943–1945

Abstract

During the Second World War, Enemy Branch of the Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) was responsible for providing economic intelligence which was used to guide the blockade and strategic bombing of Germany, as well as informing British planners about the enemy's war potential and its ability to equip and maintain its armed forces. Yet, despite its successful work and the realisation throughout Whitehall that economic intelligence would be needed after the war, Enemy Branch was wound down even before the conflict was over. This article seeks to answer the puzzling question of Enemy Branch's demise while the rest of the intelligence community continued to prosper. It puts the demise of Enemy Branch into the context of the ‘Cold War in Whitehall’, the quarrel between the Foreign Office and the Chiefs of Staff over British post-war policies towards the Soviet Union. The Foreign Office briefly took over Enemy Branch in the last year of the war to use its expertise in order to run the Economic and Industrial Planning Staff, but it had no long-term interest in this economic intelligence organisation. The military, on the other hand, had long-term needs for economic intelligence, but was loath to partake in an inter-departmental economic intelligence organisation, particularly when it was controlled by the Foreign Office. In the end, despite its good track record, Enemy Branch succumbed to bureaucratic infighting and the lack of a natural ally to shelter it.