For a long time, the Australian Signals intelligence (or Sigint) story has been kept secret. Until now… Why does Australia have a national signals intelligence agency? What does it do and why is it controversial? And how significant are its ties with key partners, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, to this arrangement? Revealing Secrets is a compelling account of Australian Signals intelligence, its efforts at revealing the secrets of other nations, and keeping ours safe. It brings to light those clever Australians whose efforts were for so long entirely unknown or overlooked. Blaxland and Birgin traverse the royal commissions and reviews that shaped Australia’s intelligence community in the 20th century and consider the advent and the impact of cyber. In unearthing this integral, if hidden and little understood, part of Australian statecraft, this book increases our understanding of the past, present and what lies ahead. ‘George Orwell famously wrote during World War Two, “we sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm”. Reading this superb history by John Blaxland and Clare Birgin on Australia’s involvement with Sigint and cyber we can contemplate a new formula. We sleep safer because 24/7 intelligent, technologically competent patriotic men and women who work for our agencies, develop and work our electronic defence and offence capacities at worldclass standard. This in a world now in which we are constantly under attack. The work so secret it is proving impossible to produce an official history. This is the closest we can get and it is very good. If you are seriously interested in our defence and survival, or you would just like a good read, this belongs on your bookshelf.’ — Kim Beazley, former Defence Minister ‘A meticulous compilation of the largely unsung past achievements of our most consistently productive intelligence source. And a thoughtful analysis of how to approach the extraordinary challenges posed by the new cyber universe. Blaxland and Birgin make an important contribution to our understanding of issues needing much more open debate than our own and allied governments have traditionally allowed or encouraged.’ — Gareth Evans, Former Australian Foreign Minister ‘Australia has been part of sigint since the practice began, which has shaped its history in ways that Australians know little about. Their government likes to keep things that way. Revealing Secrets overcomes efforts to keep Australians ignorant about their sigint history, by discussing everything that can be said about it without access to secret records. Anyone interested in the past and future of Australia has much to learn from this book.’ — John Ferris, author of Behind the Enigma, The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain’s Secret Cyber Intelligence Agency ‘The most comprehensive and best-informed account we have had of the history of signals intelligence in Australia. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not just our country’s past, but Australia’s strategic future as well.’ — Allan Gyngell, author of Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942 ‘Revealing Secrets tell the remarkable but little-known story of how a small, back-room military office grew into a major Australian government agency. Deeply researched, authoritative and accessible, it is a valuable and timely contribution to understanding issues that have never been more important to national security.’ — Emeritus Professor David Horner, author of The Spy Catchers

Describes the work and personalities of the codebreakers who deciphered Japanese codes despite vast linguistic differences between English and Japanese, and explains their contributions to Allied success during World War II.

A groundbreaking work of Australian military history, The Code-Breakers of Central Bureautells the story of the country's significant code-breaking and signals-intelligence achievements during the Second World War. It reveals how Australians built a large and sophisticated intelligence network from scratch, how Australian code-breakers cracked Japanese army and air force codes, and how the code-breakers played a vital role in the battles of Midway, Milne Bay, the Coral Sea, Hollandia, and Leyte. The book also reveals Australian involvement in the shooting down of Admiral Yamamoto near Bougainville in 1943, and how on 14 August 1945, following Japan's offer of surrender, an Australian intelligence officer established the Allies' first direct radio contact with Japan since the war had begun. This is a rich historical account of a secret and little-understood side of the war, interwoven with lively personalities and personal stories. It is the story of Australia's version of Bletchley Park, of talented and dedicated individuals who significantly influenced the course of the Pacific War.

What does Australia’s military history reveal about us? In Beyond The Broken Years – fifty years after The Broken Years, Bill Gammage’s classic on World War One soldiers, was published – provocative military historian Peter Stanley argues why it’s vital for Australians to understand how our military past has been created. By whom, how and with what consequences. Stanley explores military history and the storytellers – from historians Charles Bean, Henry Reynolds, Joan Beaumont and David Horner to ‘’storians’ Peter FitzSimons and Les Carlyon. And grapples with what it means to write military history, its different approaches, the rise of popular writers and much more. He asks readers to consider a genre that plays a central role in the Australian identity, but many take for granted. ‘An unflinching and insightful tour through the evolving landscape of Australian war history, led by one of the country’s most trusted guides. This impressive blend of scholarship and reflection is crucial reading for anyone wanting to understand the place of war in Australian history.’ – Kate Ariotti, University of Queensland ‘All historians of Australian military history will be indebted to Peter Stanley for this virtuoso commentary on the books of the field, written with his characteristic flair, insight and delight in controversy.’ – Emeritus Professor Joan Beaumont, Australian National University ‘Peter Stanley’s evocation of Australia’s military history is not to be missed. Half a century after Bill Gammage’s superb book The Broken Years was published, Stanley has cleverly drawn on the cream of Australian military historians to underline the key elements of Australia’s military past. However, it is Stanley’s own analysis of the importance of Australia’s military past that has given new meaning to the importance of Australians at war. Remarkably, Stanley has researched 1300 books written by Australian authors since 1974. The result is a gripping overview of our military history that should not be missed.’ – The late Tim Bowden AM, author, radio and television broadcaster, producer and oral historian ‘Peter Stanley is surely the military historian’s historian. This book is an extraordinary achievement, both knowledgeable and eminently readable. It should take pride of place in any military history library.’ – Mike Carlton, author, broadcaster and journalist ‘In engaging prose, and with a light touch, Stanley analyses the military history boom of the last fifty years, pondering the rise and rise of Anzac commemoration, and making a strong claim for better representation of frontier wars at the Australian War Memorial. Beyond The Broken Years will be devoured by those who enjoy military history and will endure as the authoritative account of how Australians have understood our experience of war.’ – Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University ‘For more than a century Australia’s military experience has been central to the nation’s identity, and the bedrock of understanding that experience has been the published histories, academic studies and personal stories. Peter Stanley’s book is a brilliant, erudite, and insightful examination of the books that have enlightened, strengthened and at times challenged our understanding of Australia’s military history in the past fifty years. Beyond The Broken Years is a reminder that there are multiple strands to Australia’s military history. This is not just because Australia continues to go to new wars, but also because our understanding of the impact of war continues to grow.’ – David Horner, Emeritus Professor, Australian National University ‘As an exceptional historian and a generous patron and mentor, Peter Stanley is ideally placed to analyse the last 50 years of Australian military historiography. This brilliant and original book will entertain and inform readers at all levels of expertise. Beyond The Broken Years will inspire all readers to read (or write) more Australian military history.’ – Mark Johnston, Head of History and Classics, Scotch College Melbourne ‘Aficionados of Australia’s rich military history will enjoy reading this latest work by prolific military author and historian, Peter Stanley. Beyond The Broken Years will stimulate reading, and further analysis and research on Australia’s military history, which is important, as Australia’s military history reveals much about us. I commend this book to you.’ – Paul Irving, MAJGEN (Ret’d) AM PSM RFD, Manager, Royal United Services Institute NSW Ursula Davidson Library ‘Another Stanley original. Inspiring, thoughtful, provocative and personal, this book will have you reaching for your pencil to jot down titles for your next library visit. Essential reading for all Australian military history enthusiasts.’ – Professor Emerita Melanie Oppenheimer, Australian National University and Flinders University ‘A spirited romp through the annals of Australian military history. Searching, sceptical, self-reflexive and engaging, Peter Stanley vigorously ponders the past and future of the discipline.’ – Professor Bruce Scates, Australian National University

'Puts Richard Kerbaj in the front rank of modern authors on espionage. It is, by turns, gripping and shocking and sheds completely new light on the most important intelligence alliance in the world' -- Tim Shipman, author of All Out War The Secret History of The Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network, is a riveting and exclusive narrative of the most powerful and least understood intelligence alliance, which has been steeped in secrecy since its formation in 1956. Richard Kerbaj, an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker, bypasses the usual censorship channels to tell the definitive account of authoritative but unauthorised stories of the Western world's most powerful but least known intelligence alliance made up of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. As Kerbaj shows, spy stories are never better than when they are true - and these span from 1930s Nazi spy rings to the most recent developments in Ukraine and China. Through personal interviews with world leaders - including British Prime Ministers Theresa May and David Cameron - and more than 100 intelligence officials, this book explores the complex personalities who helped shape the Five Eyes. They include a Scotland Yard detective who became a spymaster and inspired the first exchanges between MI5 and the FBI. An American home economics teacher who helped create one of the most effective programmes to counter Soviet espionage. The CIA's lone officer in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution. GCHQ's chief during the Edward Snowden intelligence leak. And the Australian politician turned diplomat whose tip-off to the FBI instigated the inquiry into Russia's meddling in the US presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Richard Kerbaj is able to draw from deep inside the secret corridors of power and his unparalleled access spans all 5 countries. Some of the people he has interviewed include former GCHQ director Sir Iain Lobban, CIA director General David Petraeus, MI5 director-general Eliza Manningham-Buller, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers, British National Security Advisor Kim Darroch, ASIO chief Mike Burgess, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's chief Richard Fadden, and Ciaran Martin, the official who oversaw Britain's assessments on whether the Chinese telecoms firm, Huawei, should have had a role in the creation of the UK's 5G network. This page-turning book will lift the lid on spy stories from across the English-speaking world, question the future of the alliance, and our place within it.

When Japanese signals were decoded at Bletchley Park, who translated them into English? When Japanese soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, who interrogated them? When Japanese maps and plans were captured on the battlefield, who deciphered them for Britain? When Great Britain found itself at war with Japan in December 1941, there was a linguistic battle to be fought--but Britain was hopelessly unprepared. Eavesdropping on the Emperor traces the men and women with a talent for languages who were put on crash courses in Japanese, and unfolds the history of their war. Some were sent with their new skills to India; others to Mauritius, where there was a secret radio intercept station; or to Australia, where they worked with Australian and American codebreakers. Translating the despatches of the Japanese ambassador in Berlin after his conversations with Hitler; retrieving filthy but valuable documents from the battlefield in Burma; monitoring Japanese airwaves to warn of air-raids--Britain depended on these forgotten 'war heroes'. The accuracy of their translations was a matter of life or death, and they rose to the challenge. Based on declassified archives and interviews with the few survivors, this fascinating, globe-trotting book tells their stories.

How does coding change the way we think about architecture? This question opens up an important research perspective. In this book, Miro Roman and his AI Alice_ch3n81 develop a playful scenario in which they propose coding as the new literacy of information. They convey knowledge in the form of a project model that links the fields of architecture and information through two interwoven narrative strands in an “infinite flow” of real books. Focusing on the intersection of information technology and architectural formulation, the authors create an evolving intellectual reflection on digital architecture and computer science.

The Civil War and the World War II stand as the two great cataclysms of American history. They were our two costliest wars, with well over a million casualties suffered in each. And they were transforming moments in our history as well, times when the life of the nation and the great experiment in democracy--government of the people, by the people, for the people--seemed to hang in the balance. Now, in War Comes Again, eleven eminent historians--including three Pulitzer Prize winners, all veterans of the Second World War--offer an illuminating comparison of these two epic events in our national life. The range of essays here is remarkable, the level of insight consistently high, and the quality of the writing is superb. For instance, Stephen Ambrose, the bestselling author of D-Day, June 6th, 1944, offers an intriguing comparison of the two great military leaders of each war--Grant and Eisenhower. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Robert V. Bruce takes a revealing look at the events that foreshadowed the two wars. Gerald Linderman, author of Embattled Courage, examines the two wars from the point of view of the combat soldier. And Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., describes how both Lincoln and FDR went around strict observance of the Constitution in order to preserve the Constitution. There is, in addition, a fascinating discussion of the crucial role played by spying during the two wars, by Peter Maslowski; a look at the diplomacy of Lincoln and Roosevelt, by Howard Jones; and essays on the impact of the wars on women and on African Americans, by D'Ann Campbell, Richard Jensen, and Ira Berlin. In perhaps the most gripping piece in the book, Michael C.C. Adams offers an unflinching look at war's destructiveness, as he argues that the evils we associate with "bad wars" (such as Vietnam) are equally true of "good wars." And finally, in perhaps the most provocative essay in the book, Russell Weigley, one of America's most eminent military historians, maps the evolution of American attitudes toward war to our present belief that the only acceptable war is one that is short, inexpensive, and certain of victory. Would any great commander, Weigley asks, would a Lee or a Grant or a Marshall, refuse to fight unless he knew he couldn't lose? "Is not a willingness to run risks for the sake of cherished values and interests close to the heart of what defines greatness in a human being or in a nation?" Another Pulitzer winner and World War II veteran, Don E. Fehrenbacher, concludes War Comes Again with a very personal look at two common soldiers who have no monuments, who have not been mentioned in previous histories, but who point at the essence of these two wars and are "embedded in the very structure of the enduring nation and the world we live in."

This book reveals the historical context and the evolution of the technically complex Allied Signals Intelligence (Sigint) activity against Japan from 1920 to 1945. It traces the all-important genesis and development of the cryptanalytic techniques used to break the main Japanese Navy code (JN-25) and the Japanese Army’s Water Transport Code during WWII. This is the first book to describe, explain and analyze the code breaking techniques developed and used to provide this intelligence, thus closing the sole remaining gap in the published accounts of the Pacific War. The authors also explore the organization of cryptographic teams and issues of security, censorship, and leaks. Correcting gaps in previous research, this book illustrates how Sigint remained crucial to Allied planning throughout the war. It helped direct the advance to the Philippines from New Guinea, the sea battles and the submarine onslaught on merchant shipping. Written by well-known authorities on the history of cryptography and mathematics, Code Breaking in the Pacific is designed for cryptologists, mathematicians and researchers working in communications security. Advanced-level students interested in cryptology, the history of the Pacific War, mathematics or the history of computing will also find this book a valuable resource.