MacArthur’s Secret Bureau: The Story of the Central Bureau, General MacArthur’s Signals Intelligence Organisation

Among the first things General Douglas MacArthur did in Australia – after escaping the Japanese onslaught in the Philippines – was to see to organise his own signals intelligence code-breaking unit. This organisation, called ‘Central Bureau’, was up and running by mid-1942. It worked until the end of the war in the Pacific to gather intelligence on Japanese operations by eavesdropping on their communications and breaking their codes. Staffed predominantly by Australians and Americans, it also had British, Canadian, and New Zealand staff. This equivalent of the now-famous Bletchley Park operated from the Brisbane suburbs and from remote locations across Australia and the Pacific. The bureau was stunningly successful and the intelligence that it gathered played an important role in operations to win the war. This account was written to fulfil the Australian War Memorial’s commitment to the Centrual Bureau Intelligence Association to produce the Central Bureau’s history and to bring an important study of this Allied signals intelligence organisation to greater prominence. pp. x, 132 illusts First Edition. FINE copy (booklabel on prelim). #1020