Central Bureau - Background

Background

General Douglas MacArthur had his own signals intelligence unit, Station 6, while he was in command in the Philippines before the War started, and was not fully dependent on the U.S. Navy for that type of information. However, most of the signals intelligence he received was from the Navy unit, Station CAST, originally at Cavite in the Manila Navy Yard, and evacuated to Corregidor Island after Japanese successes. Prior to the war, it had to be sent by courier, which caused some delay and annoyance.

General Douglas MacArthur escaped from Corregidor in the Philippines in a PT boat to Mindanao and flew to Australia from Del Monte on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. He made his way to Melbourne, arriving there on 22 March 1942.

The Signals Intelligence units operating in Australia at the time of MacArthur's arrival in Melbourne were as follows:

• No. 4 Australian Special Wireless Section at Park Orchards near Ringwood in Melbourne
• A small Diplomatic and Press intercept section at Park Orchards
• A Diplomatic cryptographic and intelligence section at Victoria Barracks, Melbourne
• Some British Army Signals personnel from the Far East Combined Bureau who had escaped from Java
• A small RAAF Intercept section in Darwin
• A small RAN intercept and Direction Finding (D/F) organisation
• A small RAN cryptographic and intelligence section at the Navy Office in Melbourne

and, eventually, after evacuation from Corredigor by submarine,

• the personnel of Station CAST, the US Navy SIGNIT group in the Far East

One of his first decisions when he arrived in Melbourne was to expand the SIGINT operations already existing in Australia. Some personnel of the United States Navy crypto group in the Philippines, evacuated in early January 1942, was operating in Melbourne. They were responsible for channeling all SIGINT information to OP-20-G in Washington.

MacArthur was not happy to depend on the Navy's discretion in handling his SIGINT requirements. He felt he had experienced problems with such an arrangement when he was in Manila. MacArthur's Intelligence Officer (G-2) was Major General Charles A. Willoughby.

Brigadier General Spencer B. Akin, MacArthur's Chief Signals Officer held discussions with Major General Colin Simpson. They agreed that a Research and Control Centre to handle Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) was needed. MacArthur subsequently issued orders for the formation of two complementary groups:

• An Intercept Organisation known initially as No. 5 Wireless Section
• A Research and Control Centre known as the Central Bureau.