Episode 270 - Australia's Secret Codebreakers (1939-2023) Part 1

Weird Crap in Australia

There's a part of modern warfare that is often overlooked by the people on the ground, and that's the communications systems feeding them information. A war can't be fought without orders, and where there's a messenger, there's an enemy looking to find out what he's up to.
When Australia joined the WWII efforts on Sept 1, 1939, we didn't have a cryptanalyst team, or anything remotely resembling a Bond/Borne/Reacher team of sleuths and codebreakers. But within 3 years, we were out there teaching the rest of the world how it was done.
It was thanks to a group of people stationed across Australia - in Melbourne, Brisbane, Townsville, Darwin and other places - that helped the Americans seek vengeance for Pearl Harbor, strike back against the intended invasions, and start intercepting the Japanese fleets closer and closer to home.
But for 30 years, these people were hidden from society, their achievements unrecognised and shredded like 1970s paperwork; some would argue they still are.
Join Holly and Matthew as they look into Australia's own version of Bletchley Park and Alan Turing, or the Manhattan Project and Oppenheimer, complete with geniuses ahead of their time, abandoned and treated like crap after the War by governments desperate to bury their history.
Main Theme music – Kevin MacLeod
"Slow Ticking Clock" – Kevin MacLeod
Used under a Creative Commons license.
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