Code Breakers by Craig Collie

Author:Craig Collie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2017-02-10T05:00:00+00:00

Through 1942, Mic Sandford had kept regular contact with FRUMEL’s Jack Newman. The pair dined occasionally with Ath Treweek and his wife at their Jolimont house. When the Holden Agreement was under discussion, Sandford was well placed to know that the Special Intelligence Bureau was to be absorbed into FRUMEL and Eric Nave recalled to the Royal Navy. Nave had phoned Little, seeking a meeting about his unwelcome relocation to London, and this was doubtless passed on to Little’s contact in Brisbane. Keenly aware of the value of Nave’s training at Cranleigh earlier in the year, Sandford got on the phone and arranged a meeting.

The two met in late October, and Nave agreed to be loaned to the Australian Army if that could be arranged with the relevant hierarchies. At Sandford’s request, Robert Little asked General Ken Smart at the Australian Military Mission in London to seek Admiralty approval of the loan of Nave to Central Bureau, Little passing on Joe Sherr’s advice to Sandford that General MacArthur ‘desires that steps be taken to obtain Commander Nave’s services’. Whether MacArthur actually expressed such a desire is a moot point.

Nearly two months passed without a response to the November request, although assurances came from several quarters that when it did arrive it would be positive. Smart reported on 16 November that he had been given to understand that the Admiralty would approve. Captain Foley of the Australian Navy Board told Little that agreement was anticipated but was delayed because some paperwork—he didn’t say whose—had been mislaid. Cocky Long, the constant networker, was also assured by his Royal Navy counterpart that the Australian request would be approved. With the agreement seeming only a formality, Nave moved to Brisbane on 20 December when his leave expired and began working at Central Bureau. Four days later—on Christmas Eve—the Admiralty declared that the recall of Nave to the Royal Navy would stand.

A desperate military went into combat mode. Australia’s Chief of Staff, General John Northcott, asked Smart to put the case to the Admiralty for a continued loan as strongly as possible. Nave’s service with Central Bureau, Smart was to stress, was ‘PROVING OF GREATEST VALUE ON ACCOUNT OF HIS VAST KNOWLEDGE OF CIPHERS AND JAPANESE. IT WOULD BE LITTLE SHORT OF DISASTER IF ADMIRALTY ADHERE TO THEIR DECISION TO RECALL NAVE.’

During the wait for an amended response, the water was muddied when General Sutherland asked that London be advised that GHQ had withdrawn its support for retaining Nave. It’s not clear who initiated that—it’s not a matter Sutherland would have had a strong view on—but Northcott duly advised London, adding: ‘MY REPRESENTATIONS DEFINITELY REMAIN UNCHANGED.’ In the end, the interference made no difference. On 20 January, Smart cabled Northcott that the Admiralty had finally agreed that Nave could stay in Australia so long as two British diplomatic translators working in Melbourne were allowed to return home. The fight for the pioneer Australian code breaker had been won.

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