page_title: Central Bureau
section_title: Central Bureau's origins
hierarchical_section_title: Central Bureau / Central Bureau's origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Brisbane, Qld. 1944. Executive directors of the Central Bureau of Intelligence with Captain Clarence S. Yamagata after he had received his US Legion of Merit award. The bureau was involved in the interception and decoding of Japanese military signals and Captain Yamagata was a top translator from US Army Signal Corps attached to the bureau. Left to right: Wing Commander H. Roy Booth, RAAF, deputy director of the bureau; Colonel A. Sinkov, USA, senior executive officer, Captain C. S. Yamagata, Colonel H. Erskine, USA, deputy director, Colonel A. W. Sanford, AIF, deputy director.
context_page_description: The Central Bureau was one of two Allied Signals intelligence organisations in the South West Pacific area during World War II. Central Bureau was attached to the Headquarters of the Allied Commander of the South West Pacific area, Douglas MacArthur. Central Bureau's role was to research and decrypt intercepted Imperial Japanese Army traffic and work in close co-operation with other SIGINT centres in the USA, United Kingdom and India. Air activities included both army and navy air forces, as there was no independent Japanese Air Force.
  The other unit was the joint Royal Australian Navy/United States Navy Fleet Radio Unit, Melbourne, which reported directly to CiCPAC in Hawaii and the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington.
context_section_description: Central Bureau was a joint US-Australian signal intelligence organisation, established on 15 April 1942 under the command of US Army Major General Spencer B. Akin, with headquarters in Melbourne.
  General MacArthur advised Washington of his decision in a dispatch on 1 April 1942. He described the role of the group as "the interception and cryptanalyzing of Japanese intelligence".
  A small Naval cryptographic group also became part of the secret new unit. It was led by Commander Eric Nave, who with Professor Dale Trendall had been working on Japanese diplomatic and naval codes at Victoria Barracks.
  Central Bureau was established in a gabled, ivy-clad mansion called "Cranleigh" in Domain Road, at South Yarra, Melbourne.
  Central Bureau's role was to research and decrypt army and air intercept traffic and work in close co-operation with other SIGINT centres in the USA, United Kingdom and India. Mic Sandford was appointed AIF Commanding Officer at Central Bureau.
  Major General Akin's Executive Officer, Major (later Colonel) Joe R. Sherr had been evacuated from the Philippines (Station 6). He was responsible for arranging for the first group of US "SIGINT" personnel to come to Australia, and as Akin's control was indirect he was responsible for day-to-day running of the bureau. He was killed when returning from a liaison visit to the wireless Experimental Centre in India, when his aircraft crashed 3 km from Calcutta airfield on 21 September 1943. Sandford had wanted to send "Pappy" Clark to the conference but Akin said that MacArthur would not agree to send Clark (only a major) and so sent Colonel Sherr instead.
  He was succeeded by Major Abraham "Abe" Sinkov, a mathematician, who was appointed assistant director of Central Bureau. Sinkov had previously been a senior cryptographer in the US Army Signals Intelligence Service under William F. Friedman. Sinkov had previously been in charge of an intercept station in Panama. He had visited Britain in 1941 to facilitate the exchange of cryptographic information.
  With Sinkov (US Army), the three assistant directors were Australians Alistair "Mic" Sandford (Major then Lt-Col, Second AIF) and Roy Booth (Squadron Leader then Wing Commander, RAAF). They acted as head of their respective service organisations; with Sandford the bureau executive officer under Sherr, then Booth from 1944. The bureau functioned well and harmoniously, with job demarcation as Australian experience was from wireless interception and traffic analysis in the Middle East and the Americans in breaking codes and cyphers, although this "broke down" as the war went on. Signals organisations tend to be "meritocratic" rather than on rank.
  Experienced intercept Kana operators from a Royal Australian Air Force unit at Townsville were assigned to the new Central Bureau. The RAAF at the time had a number of Kana operators being trained and were about to train a further 13 WAAAF personnel. (Katakana is one of the syllabic forms of written Japanese).
  The cryptanalysts who had operated from the Malinta Tunnel during the Battle of Corregidor got out to Australia by submarine in two groups. Their equipment was pushed into Manila Bay. They were used to assist the Australian Wireless Group units. A group of cryptographic, cryptanalytic and translator personnel from the Japanese section of the Washington Signal Intelligence Service were also moved to Australia. More Australians were also recruited to Central Bureau after it was established.
caption: Directors of the Central Bureau in Brisbane in 1944. Sinkov is second from the left.
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