Secret Intelligence Australia

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Secret Intelligence Australia (SIA) was a British World War II intelligence unit led by Captain Roy Kendall, reporting directly to MI6 in London. Known as Section B of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, it operated independently from Australians and Americans. Its two main roles were to handle subversion in highly organized, industrialized areas rather than in the Pacific, and to keep a low profile to protect its British parent organization. Allied General Headquarters in the South West Pacific allowed SIA to work largely on its own, with minimal records.

Early operations tried to recruit native religious leaders to gain intelligence and, by promoting Islamic solidarity, counter Japanese propaganda. Hajji pilgrims from Mecca were used, following advice from the Rajah of Sarawak. The effort was risky, and many agents were captured or disappeared. Some later managed to gather useful information around the Halmahera area, including Morotai. SIA helped develop the Celebes coastwatcher network under the Allied Intelligence Bureau plan called “Co-monitor.” Its teams operated in the Banda Sea, signaling to net control stations at Biak and Darwin, and its communications worked with the Dutch net. In 1945, just before Japan surrendered, SIA established five secret information and weather stations in the Java area, including near Soerabaja and the Sunda Straits, plus three stations on Java’s perimeter islands. These stations remained active at the end of the war to track Japanese renegade forces. SIA operatives trained at Caboolture, Queensland, and at the Z Experimental Station in Cairns. The headquarters were at “Craigroyston” in Bowen Terrace, New Farm, Brisbane.