ISSUE 1 : Nov/Dec - 1976 - Australian Defence Force Journal

A MUSKETRY COACHING AID USING VIDEO TECHNIQUES 49Fig. 3IWRE, Salisbury, SA)Typical sight picture on the TV Monitor screen.* * * *IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDONDEPARTMENT OF SOUND RECORDSThe Museum's oral history programme was set up in 1972 under the direction of DavidLance. With a collection now amounting to about two thousand recorded hours of interviews,it has become the largest and most varied oral history programme in Britain.The Imperial War Museum is concerned with the broad field of war in the 20th century.In organising its recording programme the Department of Sound Records has exclusivelyused a special project approach and. to date, has completed seven separate projects. Thegroups of people who have been interviewed divide evenly between service personnel andcivilians. Thus, on the one hand, there have been projects with military, naval and air forceofficers and other ranks. On the civilian side medical-welfare work, wartime industry,pacifism and conscientious objection, and war artists have been the main areas of research.The projects so far carried out have been mainly concerned with the First World Warperiod. Current work is concentrating on the inter-war years and the programme willeventually deal with the Second World War and post-war periods.In 1976 two projects, which have already begun, will be carried out. One will beconcerned with the British Army in India up to 1939 and the other with the mechanisationof the British Army during the same period. A third project on the Spanish Civil War willalso get underway. Future plans include a social history of the Royal Air Force and thedevelopment of radar before and during the Second World War.All the oral history projects are organised and carried out by Departmental staff —which includes three historians — who are supported by a small number of freelance interviewers.There are four other members of the Department who have special responsibilitiesfor technical processing, cataloguing and transcribing. Freelance typists are also used fortranscribing purposes.The oral history archive at the Imperial War Museum will be officially open for publicreference in 1977. but some specialised uses are already made of the collection. Recordingshave been incorporated into Museum exhibitions and educational services: transcripts canbe made available through the Museum library: and oral history tapes have been used innational, regional and local radio broadcasts. One forty-five minute radio programme,compiled and presented by David Lance, and created entirely from IWM recordings wasbroadcast nationally by the BBC in 1975. Further broadcasts are being scheduled. A fairlyactive publishing programming has been pursued. Three catalogues have so far been printedand several articles by the staff based on the Department's research work have been publishedin historical and professional journals. Plans are also advanced to publish a seriesof audio teaching cassettes in conjunction with the publisher Longman.