EXPLOITS OF A.I.F.

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 13 December 1947, Page 2

EXPLOITS OF A.I.F.

‘CLOAK AND DAGGER BOYS’ PACIFIC WAR SERVICE SYDNEY, Nov. 24. Until Brigadier A. S. Blackburn, V.C., mentioned the Allied Intelligence Bureau, few people knew of this top secret wartime organisation. At the RSL Congress in Canberra, Brigadier Blackburn said the United States wanted to decorate 200 of the Australians who served in AIB The men of the AIB were known as the cloak and dagger boys. They went behind the enemy lines to get information, destroy equipment, kill Japanese, rescue prisoners and use unique propaganda methods. AIB men used submarines, small surface . vessels, flying-boats _ and parachutes to penetrate occupied territory. Their operations extended from the Philippines in the north, to New Guinea and Timor in the south. A small AIB party carried out the spectacular raid on Singapore harbour in September, 1943, when six Japanese ships were blown up. One agent in the Philippines actually obtained an office for himself in Japoccupied Manila. Across the street was the local headquarters of the Japanese Secret Service. When AIB agents’ reports enabled Allied bombers to pinpoint targets, the Japanese reported that the Allies were using a new type of bomb which was attracted by the peculiar characteristics of airfields and fuel dumps. Long before the Seventh and Ninth Divisions made their ‘‘official” invasion of Borneo. AIB men were recruiting faithful Malays, Chinese and Dyak headhunters to wage guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. Japanese in Borneo offered a reward of more than £IOOO for the capture of any AIB operative. Eighty per cent of the operatives were Australians. The remainder included English, Chinese, Canadian, Malayan, Dutch and Portuguese volunteers. , . i Supreme headquarters of the organisation was Washington, but radio monitors in Australia waited 24 hours a day to pick up messages from the radio sets of AIB men in the field. Said American Admiral Halsey: The very existence of Allied task forces was dependent on the unfailing reports of AIB agents.”