Charles Darwin University PhD graduand and military historian Dr Craig Bellamy said primary sources showed that early radio countermeasures (RCM) in the Pacific was largely an Australian initiative, in contrast with the commonly held “half-truth” that it had an American genesis.

“Written history emphatically records that the electronic intelligence organisation Section 22 set up by General [Douglas] MacArthur was the first RCM organisation in Australia, but in fact there was a small secret group carrying out RCM operations before Section 22,” Dr Bellamy said.