Put Out into the Deep: Recent Episodes
Elaine Acworth
In the midst of WWII, in mid-1942, Supreme Commander of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) Gen. Douglas MacArthur moved his critical intelligence organisation, Central Bureau, from Melbourne to Brisbane - to a large Queenslander on Henry Street, Ascot. There, an inter-allied, ultra-secret interception and decryption team worked around the clock, deciphering and decoding, and understanding, the signals of enemy combatants throughout the Pacific.
The local signals teams who intercepted these signals were stationed around the SWPA and at Camp Kalinga - they were signals operators who had sworn an oath under the Official Secrets Act (1939) never to reveal their work. The signals team began as only men - but then, by 1942, came to include young women in the Australian Women’s Army Service.
This was secret stuff. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that some of these stories started to leak out.
And even then, how did you explain to your grandchild that this was what you did
The young submariner is determined to pursue an honourable outcome. Terrified that the Allied forces won’t be in time to intercept this enemy submarine, Claire and Enid enlist some unexpected (and nefarious) help and make for Moreton Bay.
The girls of Barracks 6 close in on the submarine hiding in - or off Moreton Bay … there’s a mystery to its movements though and these young signallers become convinced of an imminent attack - though no-one else seems concerned.
Claire is hot on the trail of both her Australian feller, and her ‘new boy’ submarine… and we learn the story of this young Japanese submariner - his famous brother and his grieving mother.
Claire, Enid, Stella and Annie lie to their friends and family. They’re signals operators in the Australian Women’s Army Service – but not regular ‘sparks’. These girls work for General Douglas MacArthur’s Central Bureau – the Inter-Aliied, Ultra secret Intelligence Organisation.