Intelligence and Special Operations in the Southwest Pacific, 1942-45

Abstract

When Gavin Long published the seventh volume of the official history Australia in the War of 1939–1945: The Final Campaigns in 1963, he ventured where few had gone before publicly by including an appendix on the Allied Intelligence Bureau – a secretive body responsible for some spectacular intelligence and special operations. Until then, few Australians knew much about the world of intelligence and special operations outside the closed circle of practitioners. But even then, while certain aspects of the special operations realm were revealed, significant elements of the Allied wartime intelligence apparatus remained largely unheralded. Sworn to secrecy, insiders understood that the secret of success lay in keeping successes secret. One of the ironies of this was that for decades afterwards historical accounts were incomplete and analysis of Allied victories deeply flawed. As a result, for generations few would really understand the wartime role played by the intelligence and special operations domains.