Superior agency unregistered

15 Apr 1942-by 1946: General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area

Summary heading

Abolition

Creation

General Douglas MacArthur established the Central Bureau on 15 April 1942 as part of General Headquarters South West Pacific Area (GHQ SWPA) located in Melbourne Victoria.

Functions and activities

Central Bureau's overall mission was to obtain intelligence from Japanese military communications, protect the security of Allied communications, work with Arlington Hall in Washington, D.C., to solve Japanese military (especially army and air) cryptographic codes, and to support the U.S. Navy and British commands in nearby theatres as appropriate.

Central Bureau was a joint organisation made up of the U.S. Army, Australian Imperial Forces (AIF), and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). MacArthur's chief signals officer, Major General Spencer B Akin, was the Director for Central Bureau.

A joint committee of each of the three services determined Central Bureau policy. The three commanding officers who sat on this policy committee were Colonel Joseph Scherr, U.S.A.; Captain A W Sandford, AIF; and Flight Lieutenant H R Booth, RAFF. After the death of Colonel Scherr in 1943, Colonel Abraham Sinkov sat on this joint committee for the remainder of the war.

From its inception, MacArthur intended that as a support organisation, Central Bureau should be close to its general headquarters. In July 1942 General MacArthur's general headquarters moved from Melbourne to Brisbane. In September 1942 Central Bureau moved to Brisbane. By the end of the war, the scope of Central Bureau activities covered an area from Okinawa in the north to Brisbane in the south, as far west as Guam and as far east as Borneo.

Central Bureau was drastically reduced in the immediate post-war period with the departure of Allied Service personnel and the demobilisation of many Australians. The AIF component of Central Bureau returned to Melbourne in 1945 and was attached to the Directorate of Military Intelligence. The RAAF Wireless Units were disbanded progressively from mid 1945 to March 1946 to be later re-established as part of the post war RAAF organisation.

Principal records of the Central Bureau WWII operations were repatriated to the United States along with those of the GHQ SWPA. The Central Bureau records have been accessioned into the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) series: RG 457 Military; and RG 111 Office of Chief Signals Officer 1940-1954 (Suitland Ref Branch).

National Archives of Australia (NAA) holds a small collection of Central Bureau records. These records can be located under Commonwealth Records Series (CRS): A10908 (Canberra); B5435 (Melbourne) and B5436 (Melbourne).

Legislation administered

Administrative structure

Historical agency address

State/regional structure

Records created by the agency

Additional information

End notes

Sources