A short history of the Australian Intelligence Corps
Introduction -- Federation -- Formation of the Corps -- World War 1
Between the World Wars -- World War 2 -- Asian Engagements -- Vietnam
Peacekeepers -- Reservists, Regulars & The Future
Official Contributers
World War 2
Within twelve hours of the announcement by the Prime Minister that Australia
was at war, Army intelligence personnel working in close cooperation with State
Police forces rounded up nearly three hundred of those most sympathetic to the
cause of Nazi Germany. As the War developed, similar operations occurred
when Italy, Japan and other nations joined the fight against the Allies.
With the declaration of war, mobilisation was ordered including the formal re-establishment
of the Australian Intelligence Corps in October 1939, intially as part of the Citizens Military Force (Amendment to Australian Military Regulations and Orders, 1927, Para 1055 (R.601), notified in AAO 299/1939, dated 31 Oct 1939). For home service Corps
personnel were appointed to intelligence staff positions on headquarters at
brigade and above in the field Army. Those officers in intelligence staff functions
at Military District and at Army Headquarters were transferred to the Australian
Intelligence Corps. For the rest of the War, within Australia, the Corps was
responsible for:
- general intelligence
- passport control
- port security
- military censorship
- assistance to the Security Service
- management of the clandestine Military Reporting Officer organisation
- collation of State infrastructure directories
At the end of 1939, a German internee Siegfried Karl Kast
escaped from the internment camp at Gaythorne, Queensland. He had escaped by
hiding, in the late afternoon, in a piece of hessian which had been left in
the camp recreation compound, and getting through the barbed wire under cover
of darkness. His absence was noted by the camp staff roll call immediately prior
to lights out. Despite an immediate search he remained at large for two days.
Lieutenant Matthew Bigge, his Intelligence Corps case officer, was of the opinion
that Kast was being hidden by some of his friends in the Brisbane metropolitan
area. Lieutenant Bigge succeeded in circulating a message through the German
community, that a German farmer living in the country was prepared to give Kast
asylum and would have a covered truck outside the entrance to the Woolworths
store in Adelaide Street, Brisbane, at a certain time in the afternoon. Naively,
Kast appeared at the appropriate time and as he made for a truck which had been
parked outside Woolworths by Intelligence Corps personnel, he was arrested by
Lieutenant Bigge and returned to Gaythorne Camp
In March 1941, the Commonwealth Security Service (the forerunner of the Australian
Security Intelligence Organisation) was formed to take responsibility for internal
security within Australian territory. Due to the expertise of the Australian
Intelligence Corps and despite severe manning pressures, the Army provided substantial
Australian Intelligence Corps manning and other assistance to the Security Service.
When Japan entered the War, the Corps undertook much of the work involved in
the Army's responsibility for civilian security north of the Tropic of Capricorn.
Like their predecessors in World War 1, the Security Service and the Australian
Intelligence Corps gave Australia a secure environment from which the Allies
could prosecute the war against the Axis forces.
Overseas, Corps personnel served in the Second Australian Imperial Force in
the Middle East. Initially, personnel served mainly on headquarters staff at
various levels of command. In 1942 the Australian Corps Field Intelligence Police
followed the British model and formed Field Security Sections for each division
and corps headquarters. In the Middle East campaign, the most significant intelligence
related event involving the Australian Army was the capture on the 10th July
1942 of the German Afrika Korps' 621 Signal Company. This highly experienced
signals intelligence unit was captured by the 2/24 Australian Infantry Battalion at Tel el Eisa. The real
significance of this capture and subsequent exploitation of the documentation
and prisoners by Allied intelligence is cited by the Germans themselves, who
are of the firm belief that the loss of 621 Signal Company was the turning point
of the campaign in North Africa. It is recorded that the Commander of the Afrika
Korps, General Erwin Rommel on hearing that his signals intelligence company
had been captured, had to sit down, and was then heard to murmur 'They have
plucked out my eyes and ears'.
Artillery leaflet shells being packed with PSYOPS leaflets, these shells "airburst"
over the target showering the area with the leaflets
The entry of Japan on the side of the Axis forces in 1941 led to a significant
expansion of the Army and consequently the Australian Intelligence Corps. Australia
itself was directly threatened and its people suffered numerous attacks by Japanese
aircraft and sporadic naval bombardments. The damage done to the Army's intelligence
effort by the economic effects of the inter-war years came home to roost. A
realistic assessment showed that the pre-war struggle to maintain information
databases on Australia, its dependencies and surrounding areas had produced
mainly superficial information. The depth of information required by mid-20th
Century high intensity land operations was not there. Immediately a monumental
effort was begun by the Allies to secure Australia as a base area in preparation
for an impending drive to recapture lost areas and to defeat the Japanese.
Allied Translator and Intepreter Service Detachment, Bougainville 1945.
Note the group is multinational and combined service, including
Australian Army, RAN Volunteer Reserve and US Army Nissei Japanese linguists
Australian intelligence personnel had a significant impact on the Allied effort
to defeat the Japanese. Their early estimates of enemy courses of action were
remarkably accurate. Australian intelligence predicted the disastrous consequences
of dispatching troops to Malaya and Netherlands East Indies (modern day Indonesia).
They accurately predicted the path of the Japanese move against Port Moresby
over the Owen Stanley Ranges in New Guinea. Unfortunately, circumstances were
against field commanders and many Australian and Allied personnel, both military
and civilian were to suffer before the tide was turned.
LT Cathie, marking the map in the Intelligence Room of Advanced Land Headquarters,
Brisbane, Australia.
CAPT Burr looks on and comments
Nevertheless, it is remarkable how quick the Allies were to exploit two of the
most unheralded intelligence coups of the war against Japan. Australian intelligence
personnel were directly involved in the capture and exploitation of two sets
of documents which became pivotal to the future intelligence effort. The capture
and translation of the Japanese Officer List enabled the Allies to develop a
detailed understanding of the command structure of the entire Japanese Army.
Australian Order of Battle analysts, working on translations of this and other
documents became the acknowledged international experts on the order of battle
of the Japanese Army. The other really significant operation occurred in 1943
when the Japanese 20th Division's tactical codes were captured and subsequently
translated. This action was described as the 'seminal moment' in the history
of the Allied signals intelligence organisation in the South West Pacific Area,
known as Central Bureau.
Under the protective gaze of Papuan soldiers,
CPL RB Walden, escorts Japanese PW into the POW Compound at Rabaul, 1945.
In 1942, the Corps was boosted by the formation of the Field Security Wing and
the raising of specialist units for field censorship, air photographic interpretation
and the establishment of a full time intelligence training school. In the context
of Allied cooperation, the Army commander, General Blamey (a former intelligence
officer of the 1st Australian Division at Gallipoli in World War 1) suggested
the formation of a combined intelligence organisation to bring together the
naval, land and air intelligence services of the Allies involved in the fight
against Japan in Australia's region. The merit of the suggestion was immediately
acted on and the various intelligence assets operating in Australia were merged
under the umbrella of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, the head of which was
to be an Australian Army officer. The charter of the Allied Intelligence Bureau
was to obtain and report information of the enemy, to hinder the enemy by sabotage
and destruction of morale, and to lend aid and assistance to local efforts to
the same end in Japanese territory. Captain Peter Figgis was awarded the Military
Cross for his command of a party which operated in areas held by Japanese forces.
The presence of this party became known to the Japanese whose reconnaissance
planes and land parties searched continuously in an endeavour to locate it.
With total disregard for this threat, Captain Figgis continued to report enemy
movements until he was ordered to withdraw inland so as to evade capture, and
be available to resume his assigned role when opportunity offered. His party
evaded capture and were eventually extracted to continue the fight in other
operations.
The Corps grew to a previously unimaginable size as the campaigns against the
Japanese ensued. By the end of War, Corps personnel were serving in:
- force, brigade, division, corps and army level intelligence sections
- the various echelons of Land Headquarters
- Lines of Communication intelligence sections
- Central Bureau (signals intelligence)
- Allied Translator and Interpreter Service
- Allied Geographic Section
- Combined Operations Intelligence Centre
- Far Eastern Liaison Office (a psychological operations unit controlled by the Director of Military Intelligence)
- the Security Service
- Army air photographic interpretation units
- the 1st Australia Field Censorship Company (a unit unique in concept and execution to Australia)
- the special operations elements of the Allied Intelligence Bureau
- prisoner of war and alien internment camps
- seconded to Allied intelligence headquarters and units as far afield as India and the Philippines.
Introduction -- Federation -- Formation of the Corps -- World War 1
Between the World Wars -- World War 2 -- Asian Engagements -- Vietnam
Peacekeepers -- Reservists, Regulars & The Future
Official Contributers
|
|
