Notes
Prologue
1 Helen Kenny, Chooks at Chermside (A CB Mystery); Chermside & District Historical Society, Chooks and Tags.
2 Earlier histories of the code-breaking effort in the Pacific gave the credit to breaking JN-25 entirely to the United States Naval units at Hawaii and the Philippines, but it is now clear that the original break came from John Tiltman, and was delivered by Malcolm Barnett. Michael Smith makes this case in The Emperor’s Codes.
Chapter 1: The fires of a distant war
1 Spain and Portugal were also ruled by fascist governments, but they did not join the Axis alliance and remained neutral until the end of the war. Thanks to Peter Donovan for suggesting that I clarify this point.
Chapter 2: Tropical sickness
1 The Far East Combined Bureau, like the Middle East Combined Bureau, was controlled by the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS), which for most of the war was based at Bletchley Park, England. The GCCS is often informally referred to as ‘Bletchley Park’.
2 Nave’s involvement in more traditional espionage activities including human intelligence in Hong Kong is clear from his memoirs, which are in the Australian War Memorial.
3 John Ferris, Worthy of Some Better Enemy? The British Estimate of the Imperial Japanese Army 1919–41, and Timothy Hall, The Fall of Singapore, p. 252.
4 Timothy Hall, The Fall of Singapore, pp. 6–9.
5 Eric Nave, Personal Memoirs, p. 405.
6 Nave left Singapore in February 1940, according to Peter Donovan and John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific, p. 72; see also David Jenkins, ‘Our War of Words’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 1992.
Chapter 3: Code club
1 John Mack, ‘Room, Thomas Gerald (1902–1986)’; Paul Halmos, I Want to be a Mathematician, pp. 280–1; University of Sydney Faculty of Arts, ‘Dr Paul Scully-Power AM, DSM, NSM’.
2 J. Hirschfeld & G. Wall, Thomas Gerald Room 1902–1986.
3 Peter Donovan & John Mack, 2014. Code Breaking in the Pacific, pp. 52–3.
4 Graeme Cohen, Counting Australia In: the people, organisations and institutions of Australian mathematics, pp. 136–7.
5 Richard Johnson, Trendall, Arthur Dale (1909–1995).
6 Desmond Ball & Keiko Tamura, Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes: David Sissons and D Special Section during the Second World War, p. 6.
7 David Jenkins, ‘Our War of Words’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 1992.
8 NAA: A6923 37/401/425, CGS Branch — Military Intelligence — Special Intelligence Section, pp. 278, 283, 286.
9 The couple in question were Phyllis Malley, married to RAAF officer and former WWI pilot, Garnet Malley. The British officer in Shanghai was Sir Frederick Maze, and was the Shanghai inspector-general of customs.
10 Ball and Tamura, Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes, p. 22.
Chapter 4: Sailor Jack
1 Jean Hillier, No Medals in This Unit, p. 17.
2 Bob Hartley, The History of the Australian Special Wireless Group, 1939–1947, p. 47.
3 Barbara Winter, The Intrigue Master: Commander Long and naval intelligence in Australia, 1913–1945, p. 52; Stanley Clark, Oral History.
4 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
5 Bob Hartley, The History of the Australian Special Wireless Group, 1939–1947, p. 56.
6 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
7 Victor Lederer, personal communication.
8 Bob Hartley, The History of the Australian Special Wireless Group, p. 44.
9 ibid., p. 57.
Chapter 5: A wireless unit in Greece
1 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service: The Story of Australia’s Signals Intelligence Operations During World War II, p. 3.
2 Geoffrey Ballard, in On Ultra Active Service, refers to this as the British Air Ministry W/T Section in Heliopolis; Peter Donovan informs me that it was also the headquarters for Combined Bureau Middle East (CBME). The CBME would have been responsible for the training that Ballard and Inglis received.
Chapter 6: A purple jacket on Crete
1 John Gallehawk, How the Enigma secret was nearly revealed. Report No. 11. The Bletchley Park Trust Reports, p. 10.
2 Miriam Perlberg, Intelligence Lessons Learned from the Battle of Crete, 1941, Naval War College, Newport, RI. On page 4, Perlberg describes the dire situation that Freyberg found himself in, which I have described. Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service had published his book in 1991, the year before Perlberg’s article, but the role of Australian signals on Crete, as elsewhere, was not well known among historians at the time.
3 Antony Beevor, Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, p. 40.
4 See, for example, Ron Palenski, Men of Valour: New Zealand and the Battle for Crete: ‘The original liaison officer appears to have been George Beamish, the senior air officer, but he lasted only until a specialist arrived.’
5 National Archives of Australia (henceforth NAA), B883, SX11231, Sandford Alastair Wallace, Service Record.
6 Australian War Memorial (henceforth AWM) 52 7/39/41, 4 Special Wireless Section War Diary, December 1940 to December 1941.
7 William Hill, A Wireless Section of Greece and Crete, p. 27.
8 ibid., p. 28.
9 This was told to me by Vic Lederer, who worked in Four Special Wireless Section with Sandford.
10 Denis Lenihan, ‘The Battle of Crete 1941: the poverty of Ultra’, p. 16.
11 Antony Beevor, Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, p. 161.
12 Denis Lenihan, ‘The Battle of Crete 1941: the poverty of Ultra’, p. 41.
13 The entire message, codenamed OL 2/302, can be found in Bliss, Major James, The Fall of Crete 1941: was Freyberg culpable? pp. 145–6.
14 Hellenic Foundation, ‘Battle of Maleme, Crete’.
15 Lieutenant Hill describes this and other experiences on Crete in a lively and readable way in his memoir, A Wireless Section of Greece and Crete. This memoir is, sadly, unpublished but is available in physical format at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
16 John Gallehawk, How the Enigma Secret was Nearly Revealed, p. 13.
17 ibid., p. 14.
Chapter 7: Mrs Mac and her girls in green
1 Newman’s visit occurred in late January 1941; the exact date is unknown. I’ve added some colour to this section by briefly describing the weather, based on Bureau of Meteorology historical data. There was only one day of heavy rainfall, 26 January, a Sunday. As Mrs Mac’s school did not run on Sundays, Newman did not visit in the rain. Late January was otherwise mild and sunny.
2 NAA: A2585, 1939/1941/ Reference Copy, Naval Board Minutes, 1939–1941, p. 270.
3 Ann Howard, You’ll be Sorry! How World War II changed women’s lives, p. 8.
4 Dictionary of Sydney, ‘Violet McKenzie’.
5 ibid.
6 Michael Nelmes, ‘McKenzie, Florence Violet (1890–1982)’.
7 ‘Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps’, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 May 1939.
8 Catherine Freyne, Signals, Currents, and Wires: the untold story of Florence Violet McKenzie.
9 ibid.
10 Shirley Huie, Ships Belles: the story of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service in war and peace 1942–1985, p. 27.
11 Admiral Sir Ragnar Musgrave Colvin was First Naval Member of the Australian Naval Board. See Royal Australian Navy, ‘Admiral Sir Ragnar Musgrave Colvin’.
12 NAA: A2585, 1939/1941/ Reference Copy, Naval Board Minutes, 1939–1941, p. 270.
13 ibid., p. 276.
14 B. N. Primrose, Colvin, Sir Ragnar Musgrave (1882–1954); NAA: A6769, Durnford John Walter.
15 NAA: A2585, 1939/1941/ Reference Copy, Naval Board Minutes, 1939 – 1941, p. 284.
16 ibid., p. 293.
17 Royal Australian Navy, ‘HMAS Harman’.
18 NAA:A2585 1939/1941/Reference Copy, Naval Board Minutes 1939–41, pp. 306–307
19 June Stone, ‘Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) (1941–1947)’.
20 Australian War Memorial. ‘Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) and Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC)’.
21 Catherine Freyne, Signals, Currents, and Wires.
Chapter 8: Fabian’s tunnel
1 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater: An Oral History of the Men and Women of CBB and FRUMEL, p. 75.
2 Rudolph Fabian, Interview, pp. 9–10
Chapter 9: Stone frigates
1 Joan Duff interview with David Dufty in Albury, NSW, October 2014.
2 Barbara Winter, The Intrigue Master, p. 4.
3 ibid., p. 7.
4 NAA: A3978, NEWMAN J B Officers (RAN) personal record — Jack Bolton Newman. Virtually all of his six-monthly reviews in the inter-war years make mention of his superior intellect.
5 Ian Pfennigwerth, A Man of Intelligence: the life of Captain Eric Nave, Australian codebreaker extraordinary, p. 159.
6 ibid., p. 156.
7 Barbara Winter, The Intrigue Master, p. 26.
8 ibid.
9 ibid.
10 NAA A6923 SI/10 p. 310 for the full Menzies rejection letter.
11 Barbara Winter, The Intrigue Master, p. 49. See also Ian Pfennigwerth, A Man of Intelligence and Ian Pfennigwerth, ‘No Contest! The US Navy Destroys Australia’s Special Intelligence Bureau’, both of which refer to Nave meeting Long and Newman.
12 The seven RAAF personnel were Clarrie Hermes, S. ‘Snow’ Bradshaw, G. ‘Taffie’ Davis, Ted Cook, Alf Towers, B. ‘Bing’ Crosby, and J. Wilson. The Army personnel were Robert ‘Bob’ McGhie and one other individual, whose name has not been located. Snow Bradshaw was the NCO in charge of the unit when they went to Darwin. They would go to receivers installed at nearby Mont Park, tune it to the Japanese Navy HQ frequency and ‘pip’ it through to Victoria barracks, where the others could practise their interception skills. (Clarrie Hermes, ‘First and Last but Not Oldest’; and Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 7).
13 Clarrie Hermes, ‘First and Last but Not Oldest’.
14 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 11.
15 Shirley Huie, Ships Belles, pp. 69–70.
Chapter 10: The Special Intelligence Bureau
1 Peter Donovan and John Mack, ‘Sydney University, T.G. Room and Codebreaking in WW II’.
2 ibid.
3 Ian Pfennigwerth, A Man of Intelligence, p. 154.
4 Eric Nave, An Australian’s Unique Naval Career, p. 409.
5 ibid.
6 J.W.P. Hirschfeld and G.E. Wall, ‘Thomas Gerald Room, 1902–1986’.
7 See Desmond Ball & Keiko Tamura, Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes, p. 1, and Joe Straczek, ‘Listening for the Empire’.
8 Barbara Winter, The Intrigue Master, p. 52.
9 Ian Pfennigwerth, A Man of Intelligence, p. 166; Frank Cain, ‘Signals intelligence in Australia during the Pacific War’, p. 43.
10 Timothy Wilford, ‘Decoding Pearl Harbor: USN cryptanalysis and the challenge of JN-25B in 1941’. See page 27, referring to the 45-sign code as the latest flag officer’s code, which the Americans could not break either.
11 The Merchant Shipping Code was known to the Americans as JN-40.
12 Peter Donovan & John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific, pp. 45, 73. Barbara Winter, The Intrigue Master, p. 52.
13 David Jenkins, ‘Our War of Words’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 1992.
14 Peter Dunn, ‘Combined Operational Intelligence Centre (Coic) in Australia During WW2’.
15 Eric Nave, An Australian’s Unique Naval Career, p. 411.
Chapter 11: East wind, rain
1 ‘US Not Hopeful About Talks’, The Mercury, 20 November 1941.
2 Eric Nave, An Australian’s Unique Naval Career, p. 331. For the United States navy translation, see Robert Hanyok & David Mowry, West Wind Clear: Cryptology and the Winds Message Controversy: a documentary history, p. 120.
3 Eric Nave, An Australian’s Unique Naval Career, p. 334.
4 H. Hewitt, Pearl Harbor Attack: Report of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt to Secretary of Navy, dated July 12, 1945, p. 37.
5 Franklin Roosevelt, ‘Pearl Harbor Speech: Day of Infamy’, http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1082.
6 Robert Hanyok & David Mowry, West Wind Clear, p. 225.
Chapter 12: West wind, clear
1 ‘Tim Vigors Obituary’, The Telegraph, 19 November 2003.
2 http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/RN/BS-14_POW+Repulse/index.html
3 John Curtin, ‘The Task Ahead’, The Herald (Melbourne), 27 December 1941.
Chapter 13: Escape from Manila Bay
1 Joe Richard, ‘Memories of Central Bureau (Part 1)’.
2 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 88.
3 Naval History and Heritage Command, ‘Casualties: US Navy and Coast Guard Vessels, Sunk or Damaged Beyond Repair during World War II, 7 December 1941–1 October 1945’.
4 Peter Chen, ‘Invasion of the Philippine Islands: 7 Dec 1941–5 May 1942’.
5 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 89.
6 [Author name redacted]. ‘The Origination and Evolution of Radio Traffic Analysis: World War II’, p. 26.
7 Diane Hamm, Military Intelligence: its heroes and legends.
8 ‘I came through, I shall return’, The Advertiser, 31 March 1942.
9 Geoffrey Perret, Old Soldiers Never Die: the life of Douglas MacArthur.
Chapter 14: Beirut bookshops
1 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 136.
2 ibid.
3 Shane Maloney and Chris Grosz, ‘Thomas Blamey & Douglas MacArthur’.
4 Hiroshi Masuda, MacArthur in Asia: the general and his staff in The Philippines, Japan and Korea, p. 14.
5 NAA: A6923, SI/2, p. 285.
6 Leon Stubbings, Simpson SO-in-C, pp. 60–5, 71.
7 NAA: A6923, SI/2, p. 249.
8 Peter Dunn, ‘RAN/USN Fleet Radio Unit, Melbourne – FRUMEL’; Corinne Fenton, ‘Arthur Cooper and his Pet Gibbon Ape’; David Jenkins, ‘Our War of Words’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 1992.
9 It has been suggested that the named may have been inspired by Franz Kafka’s novel The Castle. However the Central Bureau technical records are clear that the reason was primarily to obscure the purpose.
10 Rudolph Fabian, Interview.
11 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part A, p. 6.
Chapter 15: The secrets of the Coral Sea
1 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 56.
2 ibid., p. 90.
3 Joan Duff interview with David Dufty.
4 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 48.
5 [Author name withheld by journal]. ‘Now Playing: Churchill as Pearl Harbor Villain’, p. 20.
6 Duane Whitlock, ‘Station “C” and Fleet Radio Unit Melbourne (FRUMEL) Revisited’.
7 [Author name redacted]. ‘Now Playing: Churchill as Pearl Harbor villain’, p. 14. It turned out that 20 per cent was the tipping point, after which ‘book building’ sped up and became much easier.
8 NAA: B5555, 3, FRUMEL records (incomplete) of communications intelligence relating to the Coral Sea Battle, p. 5.
9 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 90.
10 NAA: B5555, 3, FRUMEL records (incomplete) of communications intelligence relating to the Coral Sea Battle.
11 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 38.
12 Peter Donovan & John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific, p. 343.
13 Joan Fairbridge interview with David Dufty. Mr Moto was a Japanese character in a comedy show in America in the 1930s; thus a Japanese male was often referred to as Mr Moto.
14 Patrick Lindsay, The Coast Watchers, pp. 224–5.
15 Jozef Straczek, ‘Battle of the Coral Sea’.
16 Ric Pelvin, ‘Battle of the Coral Sea, 4–8 May 1942’; Josef Straczek, ‘Battle of the Coral Sea’.
17 Peter Donovan & John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific, p. 343.
18 For intercepted messages, see NAA: B5555, 3.
19 Craig Symonds, The Battle of Midway, p. 388.
20 Duane Whitlock, Interview, p. 68.
21 Navy Department Library: Naval History and Heritage Command. 2015. Battle of Midway: 4–7 June 1942. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/b/battle-of-midway-4-7-june-1942.html. Accessed 5 November 2016..
22 David Jenkins, ‘Our War of Words’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 1992.
23 ibid.
24 David Jenkins, ‘Kokoda Blunder Cost Thousands of Lives’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 August 1992.
25 David Jenkins, ‘Invasion Warnings Were Ignored’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 August 1992.
Chapter 16: Cranleigh
1 NAA A6923 /SI/2 Staffing, p. 229.
2 Desmond Ball & Keiko Tamura, Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes, p. 22.
3 James McNaughton, Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II, pp. 80, 245
4 Abraham Sinkov, Interview. On page 31, Sinkov says that Nave solved the air-to-ground codes. Joe Richard, ‘Inside Central Bureau: a first person account’ states that Nave broke the army and navy air-to-ground codes.
5 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 164.
6 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part B - Naval Air - Ground communications, p. 5.
7 ibid., pp. 7, 9. Page 7 displays the burnt, recovered cage, while page 9 shows the picture of a reconstructed cage.
8 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part B - Naval Air - Ground communications, p. 8.
9 There was also a third kind of code — Romaji codes — that spelled out words using Japanese representations of English letters. But Romaji codes were not used as a complete code system; they were typically incorporated into other codes and ciphers to represent placenames.
Chapter 17: Morse and Kana code
1 Bob Hartley, The History of the Australian Special Wireless Group, 1939 to 1947, p. 180.
2 Having the numbering of Army wireless sections start at 51 lessened confusion with other units, including the Four Special Wireless Section and the RAAF’s ‘wireless units’, which were numbered consecutively from 1 onwards.
3 Jean Hillier, No Medals In This Unit, pp. 24–5.
4 Jean Bou, MacArthur’s Secret Bureau, pp. 12, 13.
5 Bruce Penny, The Army at Bonegilla, 1940–71.
6 Jean Hillier, No Medals In This Unit, p. 13.
7 The exact number of characters in the Kana code is difficult to ascertain. A copy of Keith Falconer’s Kana Code sheet, created in WWII, has 75 characters plus ten ‘short symbols’ for Universal Morse code numbers, making 85 characters. Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service included two images of the Kana code; one has 69 characters and one has 72. The reason for the variations is not clear at present.
8 NAA: A69233, SI/2 Staffing, p. 218.
9 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 216; Bob Hartley, The History of the Australian Special Wireless Group, 1939 to 1947, p. 212.
10 The practice is still operating with his name in Crow’s Nest, North Sydney.
11 Jack Bleakley interview with David Dufty.
12 ibid.
13 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part A — Organisation, p. 6.
14 Allan Norton interview with David Dufty.
15 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 58.
16 Allan Norton interview with David Dufty, 3 August 2015.
17 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 223.
18 Colin Brackley interview with David Dufty.
19 By coincidence, one of Bletchley Park’s celebrated code-breakers was also named William Clarke and also went by the nickname ‘Nobby’, a situation caused in part by the fact that, in those days, ‘Nobby’ was the default nickname for a man with the surname ‘Clarke’.
To add to the confusion, there was another William Clarke in Central Bureau, Squadron Leader W. J. Clarke, known as Bill. Bill Clarke established the Signals for Number 4 Fighter Sector in Port Moresby, and was commanding officer of signals at Milne Bay during the battle of Milne Bay, and received an MBE for his efforts. Bill Clarke’s obituary can be found in Central Bureau Newsletter, 2006, June, p. 7.
Chapter 18: Traffic
1 John Prados, Islands of Destiny: the Solomons campaign and the eclipse of the Rising Sun, p. 17.
2 John Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded, p. 382. Vandergrift’s intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Frank B. Goettge, liaised closely with MacArthur’s headquarters in the planning. Stan Clark, in his Oral History, says that the Tulagi landings, in particular, being completely free of bloodshed were what earned him the MBE on the recommendation of Admiral Halsey — although, as Halsey took command in October, the most likely scenario is that either Vandergrift or Turner, or both, told Halsey about the high-quality intelligence they had been receiving.
3 Military Factory, Kawanishi H8K (Emily) Reconnaissance / Bomber Flying Boat Aircraft (1942).
4 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
5 John Wukovit. ‘The Ill-Fated Goettge Patrol’.
6 Derek Dalton, ‘Contemporary Signals Intelligence: Speech for the Central Bureau Commemoration’.
7 Although it was not of interest to the traffic analysts, another feature of the preamble was of great interest to the code-breakers — the indicators. This was a key that gave the recipient specific information about how to unlock the message using the codebooks supplied. Once the operator had used a codebook to encode the message before sending, there would often be a second level of obfuscation using an additive book. The indicators told the recipient which section of the additive book, down to the page number, row and, column that the message had been encrypted with.
8 Example courtesy of Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. ix.
9 [Author name redacted], ‘The Origination and Evolution of Radio Traffic Analysis: World War II’.
10 ibid., p. 27.
11 Edward Drea, MacArthur’s Ultra, pp. 37–8.
12 ibid., p. 40.
13 ibid., p. 42.
14 ibid., pp. 46–7.
Chapter 19: Leaks
1 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 29.
2 ibid., pp. 69–70.
3 Desmond Ball & Keiko Tamura, Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes, p. 23; Peter Donovan, personal communication.
4 Jess Bravin, ‘Echoes From a Past Leak Probe: Chicago Tribune reporter targeted after World War II scoop on Japanese navy codes’. Wall Street Journal, 7 August 2013; see also Peter Donovan & John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific, pp. 322–3.
5 ‘Breaking the Code on a Chicago Mystery from World War II’, Chicago Tribune, 21 November 2014.
6 Peter Donovan & John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific, pp. 318–21.
7 ibid., p. 311.
8 Ian Pfennigwerth, ‘No Contest! The US Navy Destroys Australia’s Special Intelligence Bureau’. Pfennigwerth writes, ‘Evidence has now been discovered in British and US archives clearly showing that up until the day before he was removed from ‘Monterey’ Nave and his staff were contributing ideas on solutions to this major code.’
9 NAA: A6923, SI/2, p. 12.
10 ibid., p. 11.
Chapter 20: Nyrambla
1 Peter Dunn, ‘Central Bureau in Australia during WWII’; Peter Dunn, ‘Eagle Farm @ War’. Ascot is a confusingly similar name to the Melbourne suburb Ascot Vale, where the Royal Australian Air Force had been running their Kana Code training in the showgrounds.
2 F. Lord, Brisbane’s Historic Homes: XCIX — Nyrambla.
3 Lynda Long, ‘Ballroom Has Harmony Restored’.
4 Desmond Ball & David Horner, Breaking the Codes, pp. 39–40; Australian War Memorial, Honours and Awards: Robert Arthur Little.
5 Gordon Gibson interview with David Dufty.
6 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 139.
7 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records — H Traffic Analysis. See section 8.b on p. 21 (p. 23 of the electronic version), in which it is clear that Central Bureau was the central repository for Allied call signs. Given the amount of work done with paper documents and that Central Bureau was the main recipient of intercepts, no other arrangement would have been feasible. See also on the following page of the same document, ‘technical studies were handled mainly by CB’. While this is in the context of the contribution of field sections, it nonetheless names a location that the technical studies occurred in.
8 Edward Drea, MacArthur’s Ultra, pp. 33–5.
Chapter 21: Wet boots
1 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. 27.
2 Bob Hartley, The History Of The Australian Special Wireless Group 1939 to 1947, Annex A, p. 8.
3 ibid.
4 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau technical records J – field sections.
5 Thanks to Gordon Gibson for this amusing snippet.
6 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 201.
Chapter 22: Sausages and sandshoes
1 History.com Staff, ‘Battle of Stalingrad’.
2 Edward Drea, MacArthur’s Ultra, p. 63.
3 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 176.
4 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records – H Traffic Analysis, p. 11.
5 ibid., p. 6.
6 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
7 NAA: B883, VX21132, Clark, Stanley Robert Irving.
8 Sandford was ‘mentioned in dispatches’ for his work in the Middle East, and received a medal from the American army in 1947, described in Chapter 49.
Chapter 23: Planes in daylight
1 NAA: A6923 16/6/289, Australian Military Forces — Central Bureau — Administration of, pp. 67–8.
2 ibid.
3 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, on page ix, mention Room’s contribution.
4 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Tecords Part C — Army Air-Ground Communications, p. 13.
5 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part E — Naval Short Weather Synoptic weather reports — JN36, pp. 5, 17.
6 Judy (Roe) Carson interview with David Dufty.
7 Peter Dunn, 51 Wireless Section: ‘Australian Special Wireless Group, in Australia During WW2’.
8 NAA: A11093 334/81J Part 1, RAAF Command Headquarters GHQ – Committee ‘I’ – Signal Intelligence, p. 68.
9 ibid., p. 66.
Chapter 24: Computing machines
1 Joe Richard, ‘Inside Central Bureau: a first person account’.
2 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 31.
3 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. x.
4 Eve Scott, Interview.
5 Stephen Dunwall, ‘World War II Code-Breaking Exploits Unveiled By Retired IBM Engineer After 50 Years Of Secrecy’.
6 ibid.
7 Doug Pyle interview with David Dufty.
8 Stephen Budiansky, ‘Codebreaking with IBM Machines in World War II’.
Chapter 25: Killing Yamamoto
1 The letter E designated the codebook being used; the E codebook first came into use two months earlier.
2 Katsuhiro Hara & Shinzo Kitamura, Ango ni yabureta nihon: Taiheiyo senso no meian o waketa beigun no ango kaidoku.
3 John Winton, Ultra in the Pacific, p. 107; Joe Richard, ‘The Yamamoto Saga’; NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records PART J — Field Sections, p. 15. The section on 1 Wireless Unit makes it clear that 1 Wireless Unit was exclusively intercepting Japanese naval air-to-ground signals until August 1943, when it took responsibility for army air-to-ground from 55 Wireless Section based nearby.
4 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 95; Mac Jamieson, ‘Mac Jamieson Writes’; See also NAA: A1969/100 No 1 Wireless Unit 1/2/Air Part 3 Advance Unit Port Moresby, which states that the personnel in Port Moresby were 12 kana operators and two officers; no I staff were attached. See also Jack Brown, Katakana Man, p. 29, who confirms this detail.
Although it is not certain, the person who processed the message at Townsville was probably Alan Marsland. See Helen Kenny, Vale Alan Marsland.
5 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records — Part A Organisation, p. 10. Section 4, ‘Intelligence Production in the Field,’ states that field sections could bypass Central Bureau and pass important messages directly to the top of command. In addition, 1 Wireless Unit had a close working relationship with the United States Army signals corps stationed there, so that there was a direct channel to the American chain of command.
6 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 75.
7 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 95.
8 William E Clarke, ‘The Quiet Heroes Make Some Noise’; Helen Kenny, ‘The MacArthur Museum’; and Roy Inches, ‘Some Serious Eavesdropping (Sigint)’; ‘Use of outdated code led to ambush that killed Yamamoto, U.S. files show’, Japan Times, 29 September 2008.
9 Don Holloway, ‘Death by P-38’.
10 Steven Maffeo, US Navy Codebreakers, Linguists, and Intelligence Officers against Japan, 1910 –1941.
11 In Japanese, the Navy Kō Incident is rendered as 海軍甲事件
12 Jean Bou, MacArthur’s Secret Bureau, pp. 6, 10.
13 Peter Donovan & John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific, p. 157.
14 John Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded, p. 459.
15 Duane Whitlock, Interview, pp. 67–8.
16 Jack Brown, Katakana Man, p. 39.
Chapter 26: Noon positions
1 Joe Richard, ‘Joe Richard’s Written Legacy’.
2 Doug Pyle interview with David Dufty.
3 Joseph Richard, ‘The Breaking of The Japanese Army’s Codes’, p. 296.
4 Peter Donovan, personal communication. See also Peter Donovan & John Mack, Code Breaking in the Pacific.
5 ibid., pp. 233–40. In the chapter The Indicators of Cipher 2468, Donovan and Mack explain how the Water Transport code worked, what its weaknesses were, and exactly how Central Bureau broke it.
6 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. 8.
7 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 32.
8 Edward Drea & Joseph Richard, ‘New Evidence on Breaking the Japanese Army Codes’.
9 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 36.
10 Edward Drea, MacArthur’s Ultra, p. 62.
11 ibid., p. 76.
Chapter 27: Kaindi
1 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records J — Field Sections, p. 10.
2 Victor Lederer, A Span of Years.
3 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records — J Field Sections, p. 3.
4 NAA: A705 132/12/20, Visit of Squadron Leader Pask RAF to SWPA.
5 Jack Bleakley interview with David Dufty.
Chapter 28: Joe Sherr’s final flight
1 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records — Part A Organisation, p. 12.
2 Peter Dunn, ‘126 Signal Radio Intelligence Company: Us Army Signal Corps In Australia During WWII’.
3 Gil Murray, The Invisible War, p. 118.
4 Military Intelligence Network Hall of Fame (United States Army), 1988. Colonel Joe R Sherr US Army (Deceased); Stanley Clark, Oral History..
5 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. x.
6 [Author redacted], The Origination and Evolution of Radio Traffic Analysis: World War II. On page 26, in a footnote, this article says ‘SRH 045, p. 56. As a Lieutenant Colonel, Brown was later in charge of radio intelligence in the Southwest Pacific Theater as a member of MacArthur’s signals staff.’ See also Ronald Lewin, The American Magic: codes, ciphers and the defeat of Japan (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982), p. 126.
7 Ernest Sidney L Goodwin was his (almost) full name.
8 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
9 Rudolph Fabian, Interview, pp. 26–7.
10 ibid., p. 62.
11 ibid., p. 27.
12 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 81.
13 Pfennigwerth, Missing Pieces, p. 308.
Chapter 29: Cartwheels
1 Edward Drea, Macarthur’s Ultra, pp. 83–5.
2 George Odgers, Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Volume II – Air War Against Japan, 1943–1945, p. 70.
3 Jack Brown, Katakana Man, p. 40.
4 ibid. p. 48.
5 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 122.
6 Jack Brown, Katakana Man, p. 55.
7 ibid., p. 48.
8 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 123.
Chapter 30: The Sio box
1 David Dexter, The New Guinea Offensives: Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 1—Army. Volume VI, p. 735.
2 ANGAU is an abbreviation for Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (thanks to Steve Meekin for this information).
3 David Dexter, The New Guinea Offensives, pp. 736–7.
4 Graham McKenzie-Smith, ‘The Other Dick Smith and the Sio Code Books’.
5 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 110.
6 Peter Dunn, ‘Tighnabruaich’.
7 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 28.
8 Edward Drea and Joseph Richard, ‘New Evidence on Breaking the Japanese Army Codes’, p. 72.
9 ibid., p. 73
10 Peter Donovan & John Mack give a detailed description of the process in Code Breaking in the Pacific, p. 190.
11 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 26.
12 ibid., p. 28.
13 ibid.
14 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 126.
15 ibid.
16 All these intercepts come from Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 128.
Chapter 31: Pappy Clark goes to Washington
1 Colin MacKinnon, ‘Bletchley Park Diary: William F. Friedman’.
2 James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace, p. 315.
3 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records — Part A Organisation, p. 11.
4 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
5 ibid.
Chapter 32: Hollandia
1 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 141.
2 CriticalPast, Allied forces capture Hollandia in New Guinea during World War 2 HD Stock Footage, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YAh5DVr40o
3 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 239.
4 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 143.
5 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 239.
Chapter 33: The Yoshimo Maru
1 Gordon Gibson interview with David Dufty.
2 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 29; Hyperwar, The Official History of the US Navy in World War II, Chapter VI, 1944. There has been some confusion about the identity of this ship, due to misspellings in various sources. The Central Bureau Technical Records misspell the name of the ship as the ‘Yoshino Maru’, which is the name of a different ship that was sunk near the Philippines later in the year. Sharon Maneki’s book, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, also misspells it, using different spellings at different places in the book.
3 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 41.
4 ibid., p. 29.
5 B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records — Part A Organisation, p. 12.
6 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 37.
7 ibid., p. 29.
Chapter 34: Biak
1 Edward Drea, MacArthur’s Ultra, pp. 129–30.
2 Don Laidlaw, Anecdotes of a Japanese Translator 1941–1945.
3 J. Rickard, ‘Battle of Biak Island, 27 May–29 July 1944’.
4 Alan Axelrod & Jack Kingston, Battle of Biak Island.
Chapter 35: A view of Humboldt Bay
1 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 243.
2 ibid.
3 ibid.
4 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 19.
5 ibid., p. 30.
6 The anecdotes about this voyage were told to me by Bill Rogers, a Central Bureau traffic analyst on board the van Swoll. They also appear in Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience.
7 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. 46.
8 ibid., p. 55.
9 Anecdote told to me by Bill Rogers.
10 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 19.
Chapter 36: The Battle of Morotai
1 D-Day Museum, ‘D-Day and the Battle of Normandy: Your Questions Answered’.
2 Arthur Herman, Douglas MacArthur: American warrior, pp. 519–20.
3 ibid., p. 520.
4 Francis Pike, Hirohito’s War: the Pacific War, 1941–1945, p. 786.
5 Even then, many of the Japanese defenders retreated into the island’s rugged interior. The last remaining soldier, Teruo Nakamura, was captured on Morotai in 1974, his last orders being to ‘fight on,’ which he did.
6 Thanks to Professor Peter Donovan for making this point, about how Central Bureau prevented several battles, and thus, in a sense, saved lives — on both sides. Donovan described Halmahera as ‘The Battle that Never Happened’.
Chapter 37: Akin’s secret unit
1 Geoffrey Ballard, On Ultra Active Service, p. 246.
2 Jack Brown, Katakana Man, pp. 69, 73. A ‘Dakota’ is the nickname for the ‘Douglas C-47 Skytrain’ aircraft, a fast passenger aircraft used extensively during WWII.
3 Cannon, M. Hamlin, Leyte: The Return to the Philippines, https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Return/USA-P-Return-4.html
4 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, pp. 176–7.
5 Alfred Bobin, Bobin, Alfred (Leading Aircraftman, 1 Wireless Unit, RAAF).
6 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 57.
7 Alfred Bobin, Bobin, Alfred.
8 Robert Nichols, ‘The first kamikaze attack?’
9 Alfred Bobin, Bobin, Alfred.
10 ibid.
11 Alf Davis, ‘A few words from Alf Davis, ex Fl/Lt RAAF’.
12 Alfred Bobin, Bobin, Alfred.
13 The History Channel, ‘I Have Returned’ MacArthur Returns to the Philippines.
14 Harry Popham, ‘Eyewitness to a tragedy: Death of USS Princeton’, HistoryNet,http://www.historynet.com/eyewitness-to-tragedy-death-of-uss-princeton-may-97-world-war-ii-feature.htm. Accessed 8 August 2015.
15 Alfred Bobin, Bobin, Alfred.
16 NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part C - Army Air-Ground Communications, p. 15.
17 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, pp. 202–3, has an early intercepted message about this.
18 David Jenkins, ‘Discreet Reminder of Japanese Zeal, And Valour’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 September 1988.
19 Geoffrey Ballard, On Active Ultra Service, p. 251.
20 ibid., p. 298.
Chapter 38: Spies
1 Frederick Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret, p. 172.
2 Desmond Ball & David Horner, Breaking the Codes: Australia’s KGB network, 1944–1950, p. 77.
3 ibid., p. 21.
4 ibid., p. 84.
5 NAA: A6923, SI/3, pp. 63–5.
6 NAA: A6923, SI/8, p. 82.
7 Desmond Ball & David Horner, Breaking the Codes, p. 105.
8 ibid., p. 132.
9 ibid., p. 343.
Chapter 39: Lingayan Gulf
1 Alf Davis, ‘A few words from Alf Davis, ex Fl/Lt RAAF’.
2 C. Peter Chen. ‘Philippines Campaign, Phase 2: 12 Dec 1944 – 15 Aug 1945’.
3 Seth Mydans, ‘Japanese Veteran Writes of Brutal Philippine War’, New York Times, September 2.
4 AWM Number 4 Wireless Unit History, p. 1 (see also Hartley History of No 4 Wireless Unit, p. 44); NAA: B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part C — Army Air-Ground Communications, p. 16.
5 NAA: MP150/1, 404/201/691.
Chapter 40: The expanding web
1 Paul Hetherington, The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 2, p. 247.
2 Joan Carolan, ‘Vale Keith Carolan’.
3 ibid.
4 ibid.
5 Keith Carolan, ‘Labuan Revisited’.
6 Victor Lederer interview with David Dufty; Victor Lederer, A Span of Years.
7 Gil Murray, The Invisible War, p. 19.
8 ibid., p. 132.
9 ibid., p. 135.
Chapter 41: The paper war over women
1 Bob Hartley, Central Bureau Complete History, p. 682.
2 ibid., pp. 681–2.
3 ibid., pp. 687–8.
4 NAA: MP729/8, 41/431/18, Allied Central Bureau —Transfer to Manila, p. 3.
Chapter 42: Tarlac
1 B5436, Central Bureau Technical Records Part C — Army Air-Ground Communications, p. 16.
2 Allan Norton interview with David Dufty.
3 ibid.
4 Every single Central Bureau veteran I spoke to who was posted at San Miguel spent time in the hospital for dysentery, malaria, or some other serious illness.
5 The anecdote about the brothel was told to me by Bill Rogers.
6 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. 64.
7 ibid., p. 66.
8 Anecdote from Bill Rogers.
9 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, pp. 71–2.
10 Gordon Gibson interview with David Dufty.
11 Edward Drea, ‘Were the Japanese Army Codes Secure?’
Chapter 43: The Garage: a cryptological love story
1 Alexandra Patrikios, ‘WWII Codebreakers Were “Slent Heroes” Operating out of an Ascot House’, Brisbane Times, 11 July 2015.
2 Helen Kenny, ‘Vale Captain Ian Allen’.
3 Doug Pyle & Nell Pyle, The Ultra Experience, p. 62.
Chapter 44: All eyes on Kyushu
1 Douglas MacArthur, Reports of General MacArthur: the campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific, Volume I, p. 410.
2 Military History Now, Operation Downfall — The Campaign to Conquer Japan Would Have Dwarfed the D-Day Landings.
3 Edward Drea & Joseph Richard, ‘New Evidence on Breaking the Japanese Army Codes’, p. 79.
4 Edward Drea, MacArthur’s Ultra, p. 219.
5 ibid.
6 WGBH, The American Experience: victory in the Pacific.
7 Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the surrender of Japan, p. 270.
8 Col Brackley interview with David Dufty.
Chapter 45: The mushroom cloud
1 Paul Ham, ‘The Bureaucrats Who Singled Out Hiroshima for Destruction’.
2 Avalon Project, Yale Law School, ‘The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; 29 June 1946’.
3 Edward Drea, MacArthur’s Ultra, p. 219.
4 Wilson Miscable, A Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the atomic bombs and the defeat of Japan, p. 86.
5 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, 219.
6 There are many vivid examples in Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers.
7 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 221.
8 Wilson Miscable, A Most Controversial Decision, p. 96.
9 ibid., pp. 96–7.
Chapter 46: A message for the emperor
1 Bill Rogers interview with David Dufty.
2 ibid.
3 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 223.
4 Morton Sontheimer, ‘The Radio Drama of V-J Day’.
5 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
6 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 222.
7 Sharon Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater, p. 45.
8 ‘Australia Wants Japanese Emperor Tried As War Criminal’, The Mercury, 14 August 1945.
9 Stanley Clark, Oral History.
10 NAA B883, VX21132, Clark, Stanley Robert Irving, p. 18.
Chapter 47: Peace in the Pacific
1 Jack Bleakley, The Eavesdroppers, p. 225.
2 ibid., p. 222.
3 Australian War Memorial, The Burma–Thailand Railway.
4 This anecdote about the trip to Tokyo was told to me by Gordon Gibson and Brian Walsh in separate interviews, and parts of it can also be found in Helen Kenny, ‘Taking Off for Tokyo’.
5 Booth’s presence in Japan is given by a letter from Sandford to Rogers, see Bob Hartley, Central Bureau Complete History, p. 807.
Chapter 48: Radio silence
1 Told to me by Bill Rogers.
2 Helen Kenny, ‘Book Review: Anecdotes of a Japanese Translator, 1941–1945, by D.H. Laidlaw, A.O.’
3 NAA: A6923 SI/2, Staffing, p. 77.
4 ibid., p. 63.
5 NAA: A649, 82/605/25, pp. 6–7 and 9. The IBMs were the most expensive item installed at Central Bureau’s headquarters.
6 NAA A6923, SI/2, Staffing, p. 47.
7 ibid., p. 33.
8 NAA: A6923, SI/2, Staffing, p. 21. Sandford misspelt Ayre’s first name: it was Denys (not Dennis).
9 Jean Bou, MacArthur’s Secret Bureau, p. 112.
10 NAA: A6923, SI/2, Staffing, p. 22.
11 Julius Allain Cohen, who changed his name to Richard Kingsland in 1947, had a fascinating Second World War career that is unable to be covered by this book.
12 The first page of the minutes can be found in the Australian National Archives in A6923 SI/2, Staffing. It is page 4 of the electronic version that can be viewed online through National Archives record search.
13 NAA: A6923 SI/7, p. 5.
14 Two other CB originals that stayed on were ‘Mos’ Williams and Bob Botterill.
15 Helen Kenny, ‘Chooks at Chermside (A CB Mystery)’.
16 A comparison of a map of the Chermside barracks from 1945 with a modern map of Chermside shows that the discs were buried right in the middle of the AWAS grounds.
17 Clarrie Hermes, ‘First and Last but Not Oldest’.
Chapter 49: Secret medals
1 NAA: A816, 66/301/232, Proposed Awards of US Decorations to Lt.Col. A.W. Sandford and Maj. S.R.J. Clark, AMF & to W/Cdr. H.R. Booth, RAAF.
2 ibid., p. 12.
3 ibid., p. 11.
4 ibid., p. 4.
5 ibid. pp. 6–7.
6 ibid., p. 2.
7 NAA: A6923, 16/6/289, Australian Military Forces — Central Bureau — Administration of, p. 4.
8 ‘Obituary: Joseph Eugene Richard’, Washington Post, 13 April 2005.
Chapter 50: Return to Nyrmambla
1 Steve Meekin, ‘Address by Mr Steve Meekin’.
2 Derek Dalton, ‘Contemporary Signals Intelligence’.
3 Doug Pyle interview with David Dufty.
4 ibid.; Brian Walsh interview with David Dufty.
5 Jack Brown, Katakana Man, p. 150.
6 Madeline Chidgey, ‘Bicentennial Activities’.