Code of Silence: How Australian women helped win the war

A number of books have been written about the importance of codebreaking to win the Second World War. In Code of Silence Diana Thorp has written an informative account of the importance of Australian women during World War II who carried out top secret work for the military in the efforts to defeat the Japanese advance towards our country.

The book is based on interviews and written accounts by women who secretly worked in many locations throughout the country. The women were involved in collecting and deciphering messages intercepted from the enemy and passing them on to authorities. Some worked in intelligence, others worked in logistics or various supporting roles. They were all aware of the importance of secrecy and were careful to never discuss their work, including with family.

The book also provides background information about the effect of war on Australia as well as on the lives of some of the women when the war ended. This book is an important contribution to understanding the history of Australia during the Second World War as well as the role of women in the twentieth century. Detailed bibliography and notes are at the back of the book. 

The author ends her book with the following:

The small number of women in this book represent the thousands who voluntarily transformed their lives to take on unprecedented roles in the fight for their country. Their contributions were extraordinary, yet most remain unknown. This book is an attempt to reclaim, and to remember, these women's place in our history. 

The secret code-breakers of Central Bureau

I recently came across the Central Bureau and the codebreakers who worked there when reading The Codebreakers by Alli Sinclair. The Central Bureau was a secret organisation established to monitor and decode Japanese messages during World War II. Established in Melbourne sections were later set up in Brisbane, then in northern Australia and islands further north as the Allies moved closer to defeating the Japanese invasion.

David Dufty has written a detailed account of what is known of the chronological history of the Central Bureau. Although this was a secret organisation and much of the documentation was destroyed at the end of the war, the author has still managed to compile an informative and comprhensive account not only of the the work of the codebreakers and other signals-intelligence workers at the Central Bureau but also a history of the War in the Pacific. The book also discusses the reluctance of governments and military services in the deployment of women, regardless of their competence and expertise.There is also discussion about tensions at times between Australian and American oersonnel.

One of the chapters in The Secret Code-breakers of Central Bureau refers  to the work of Florence McKenzie who trained many women and men in the use of morse code, an important tool for intelligence workers. David Dufty has written another book, Radio Girl, on this topic. 

At the end of the book there is a detailed notes section, a comprehensive bibliography and a dictionary of names of people mentioned in the book. The Secret Code-breakers of Central Bureau is essential reading for anyone interested in Australia's involvement in the Pacific War.

The Codebreakers

Last month I read The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, a novel based on the secret life of women working to break enemy codes at Bletchley Park in England during the Second World War. In Australia the Central Bureau was created in Brisbane to perform a similar function. Between 1942 and 1945 codebreakers, including a group of women who used TypeX machines, deciphered Japanese coded messages. Staff working at these establishments all signed the Official Secrets Act and were sworn to secrecy about what they did. The period of this secrecy extended for many years after the end of the war.

Alli Sinclair has written The Codebreakers, a novel about women working in a section of the Central Bureau. 

Ellie O'Sullivan worked at Qantas Empire Airways when she was approached to attend an interview and be tested for a secret position. It was not until she had signed a copy of the Official Secrets Act that she learned that she was now in the Australian Women's Army Service and would be working with a group of women assisting in the decoding of military messages from Japan.

Ellie joined the Central Bureau in April 1943 when war was still raging in Europe as well as closer to home. Ellie's brother had been killed in battle - in fact most of her friends had loved ones who had lost at least one family member during the war. The girls that she worked with were pleased to be able to actively help the war effort however the stress of having to lie to family and friends about what they actually did often took its toll.

The twelve members in Ellie's group called themselves the Garage Girls as they worked in a garage at the back of a large house in Ascot. They lived together in army accommodation so consequently came to know each other well, often socialised together and shared experiences in good and bad times. This novel explores the lives of Ellie and her friends, their role in the war effort, how the war affected those who stayed at home, issues such as tensions between Australian servicemen and their US counterparts stationed in Brisbane as well as how Australians adapted to 'normal' life after the war. This novel covers another fascinating part of Australian history.

A number of books have been written about the work carried out at Bletchley Park.

Mention in the novel is made of Mrs Mac who set up a centre in Sydney to train women, and later men, to become morse code operators. The book, Radio Girl by David Dufty, provides an account of the work of Mrs Mac.

Khaki Town by Judy Nunn and Meet Me at Lennons by Melanie Myers are two other novels about life in Queensland during the Second World War.

Central Intelligence Bureau Headquarters - Queensland World War II History

Charleville Airfield - Queensland World War II History

Discovering Charleville's War Secrets - Queensland Times 21 April 2015

The Rose Code

On a holiday in England in 2015 we visited Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. During the Second World War thousands of people working at Bletchley Park were sworn to secrecy about the work carried out at that establishment. This code of secrecy continued well after the war. Bletchley Park is where staff worked to break enemy codes. It is a fascinating place to visit.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn is the story of three women, Osla, Mab and Beth, from very different backgrounds who are sent to Bletchley Park. The three women work in different sections using their skills to contribute to the war effort. Beth is a code breaker working initially on Italian then German codes. However when she comes across Russian files that her former mentor was working on, she decides to continue his work uncovering a traitor passing on information to the Russians.

Generally I really enjoyed reading this book, especially the sections on Bletchley Park, however I felt that it was too long and some sections could have been omitted or reduced. No doubt some other readers would enjoy the sections about the realtionships of the women more than the historical content. It is a book worth reading and provides an insight into what it was like living in England during and immediately after the Second World War.

Much of the book is factual and at the end of the novel the author explains which sections of the book and characters are based on actual events and people and where she has used her imagination to tell the story. There is also a guide for book clubs.

Radio Girl

The subtitle of Radio Girl by David Dufty is 'The story of the extraordinary Mrs Mac, pioneering engineer and wartime legend'. This is truely the story of an incredible woman.

Florence Violet Granville was born in Melbourne in1890 and known as Violet though later in her life she was always referred to as Mrs Mac. The author records not only the story of Mrs Mac's life but also her importance in promoting equal rights for women when choosing the career they want. The book also provides valuable information about the role of signaling systems during the Second World War, particularly the use of Morse code.

Violet was initially a maths teacher but she wanted to be an electrical engineer which was an unacceptable career for a woman. She eventually managed to enrol in a course at Sydney Technical College obtaining her diploma in 1923. Meanwhile she managed a radio sales and repair shop where customers introduced her to crystal sets and amateur radio. She also increased her interest in Morse code. This led to her becoming the first female certificated radio telegraphist in Australia, the first woman in Australia to hold an amateur wireless licence and the first female member of the Wireless Institute of Australia.

In the 1930s Mrs Mac set up The Electrical Association for Women (Australia) where women could safely learn to use electrical appliances. She wrote a cookbook containing basic recipes for cooking on electric appliances as well as articles and a children's book promoting safety around electricity.

With the onset of war Mrs Mac established the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps to train women to become telegraphists. Much resistance was encountered in the acceptance of these women in military service but Mrs Mac persisted and eventually the WRANS was established allowing trained female telegraphists to assist in the war effort. The WESC also trained many servicemen, particularly potential airmen, to use Morse code and other signaling methods. Some American servicemen also attended her course. After the war she concentrated on teaching merchant seamen signaling systems.

The work done by Mrs Mac and her team during the Second World War was voluntary. Eventually the value of her work was recognised when she received an OBE in 1950. Mrs Mac died in 1982.

Until this book was published earlier this year the value of Mrs Mac's contribution to the Australian services during the war and her pioneering work in promoting safe use of electricity in this country was largely forgotten. Hopefully this book will help promote the legacy of a remarkable and determined woman.

Extensive notes, bibliography and index.

Australian Dictionary of Biography article

Turing's Cathedral

The subtitle for this book by George Dyson is The Origins of the Digital Universe. It is largely a study of major research establishments in the USA, such as the Institute for Advanced Study, established in the twentieth century for the study of advanced science, especially mathematical sciences. Prior to the Second World War a number of prominent scientists left Europe to live and work in America and these became an important part of the teams that worked on improved weapon capabilities during and after the war as well as furthering the development of  what became computer science. One of these men was John von Neumann who was from Hungary.

After the war a group of mathematicians, including von Neumann, worked on building a universal machine such as the one proposed by Alan Turing, an English mathematician. Turing studied for his PhD at Princeton University for two years from 1936 where he worked with von Neumann. With war looming he returned to England where he worked as a code-breaker creating machines to decipher German coded messages. Turing visited New York for a short time during the war and returned again in 1947 but in 1948 he was back working in Manchester.

Meanwhile von Neumann and his team experimented in developing machines, initially following the ideas of Turing's theories and then developing them further. The book therefore looks at the the history of the development of computer science until around 1957 when von Neumann died. As a study of the history of the development of computers during and after the war this is an interesting book, however the story becomes bogged down with technical detail which for the non-technical person is not easy to follow. According to some of the reviews on Goodreads, some of those with technical expertise question the presentation in this book. Never the less, in our current computer age, skimming through the book provides an interesting overview of the early development of computers that we take for granted today.

Review of Turing's Cathedral in New York Times May 4, 2012

The Secret Life of Bletchley Park

The subtitle of this book written by Sinclair McKay is The WWII codebreaking centre and the men and women who lived there.

Recently we saw the film, The Imitation Game, which is largely about Alan Turing, one of the codebreakers who worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. ABC2 has also shown the British television mystery series, The Bletchley Circle, set in the early 1950s where a group of women who had worked at Bletchley Park use there codebreaking skills to solve crime.

Bletchley Park was an establishment set up at the end of the 1930s with the aim of collecting together a team of people to work on breaking the coded messages of enemy forces, primarily German messages. Eventually thousands of men and women worked at Blatchley Park and before they were employed they all had to sign the Official Secrets Act. They were not allowed to discuss their work with anyone not working within their section and could definitely not tell family and friends what they were doing at Bletchley Park. This secrecy continued until the early 1970s.

In this book, published in 2010, the author uses interviews with a selection of staff who worked at Bletchley Park to help tell the story of this large establishment. Some of the more famous people such as Alan Turing, Dilly Knox and Alistair Denniston (to name a few) are mentioned throughout the book but the story told tries to cover the work in the many sections of the organisation and investigates how the lives of the staff were affected by living in a world of secrecy. Much of the information relating to the work of the codebreakers was destroyed once the war was over so the author has to rely, to a large extent, on the memories of those involved. In sections there is repetition of some of the stories and I found myself skim reading parts of the book, however if you are interested in this important aspect of World War II it is a good book to read.