This series was started in 1943 by the Naval Historical Section to provide source material for the Official Naval History of World War II. The Naval Historical Section collected, examined, arranged and indexed primary source material from ships, shore establishments and overseas relating to naval aspects of the war, for use by the Official Naval Historian, G H Gill. 

Most of the material was compiled before 1950, but relevant material was subsequently added by the Historical Section for its own reference purposes. The series has now evolved into a reference collection for the purpose of answering both internal and external enquires.

The series contains a diverse range of material relating to the Navy. In addition to original research carried out by members of the Historical Section, there is material which was accumulated by other sections of the Navy Office and then forwarded to the Historical Section for retention during culling activities. Most of the files relate to World War II, but a proportion of the material deals with earlier and later periods.

The series consists mostly of files in a mixture of blue, green, and plain folders with the file title and number handwritten on the outside.

The files are grouped by subject. The system of arrangement is numerical with alphabetical suffixes, and the numbers have a rather flexible subject significance. When a new file on a related subject was raised it was given the same number with the next available alphabetical suffix, eg:

52    Java Sea Battle
52 A  Java Sea Battle
52 B  Java Operations Signals
52 C  Java Civil Situation at June 1944

However, the subject significance is not strictly adhered to, in the above example the topic 'Java' broadens to 'Malayan Campaign' and 52P is 'Singapore, Fall of - misc material'. A double suffix is added when the alphabet has been exhausted, eg 52AB 'Sumatra Japanese - Allied troops ops Jan-Feb 1942' As each new subject came into being it was allocated the next number in the numerical sequence. There were no pre-determined subject headings.

The Naval Historical Section has maintained subject index cards for the series (CRS B6170). Although new files and titles are raised, the index cards are no longer created having been automated using Microsoft Excel database. The Victorian Office of the Australian Archives holds a copy of the subject index cards current at 1975. 

The Naval Historical Section also kept a numerical register/index for the series, but it has not been maintained since 1975.

During culling by the retired Naval Historian, Mr J K Ware, in 1975 files considered to be of no historical value were destroyed. In most cases the subject index cards (B6170) were amended to indicate this, the relevant file titles being crossed out. Some new files were also created as a result of these culling activities.

Any registry files found amongst the historical files have been extracted and transferred to the Archives in their original series. Furthermore, two categories of files, biographical files (B6161) and ship history files, have been removed to form separate series.

Two further groups of files have been kept separately, though retaining the same numerical sequence as the main run of files, and seem to have been incorporated into this series. These files are 'Plan files' from the Staff Planning Section and 'Shipping files' - mostly ship movement files.

A proportion of the files in this series are retained in the custody of the Naval Historical Section in Canberra. Access to these files can be gained by contacting the Naval Historical Section directly.

The records formerly held in accession series MP1587/1 have been physically converted to B6121/3 as of September 2001.