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by Ian Pfennigwerth, Port Stephens, NSW, Rosenberg Publishing, 2006, 304 pp., ill., index. ISBN 1-877058-41-6. Paperback. $29.95.
A Man of Intelligence is not only the biography of a remarkable Australian – Captain Eric Nave RN – but also a valuable history of signals intelligence carried out by the United Kingdom and to a lesser extent by Australia in the Pacific in the period between World War I and World War II and during the period of hostilities with Japan. This book is therefore a major contribution to the development of this important support component of combined operations, particularly naval operations, in World War II.
Following World War I Japan, as a victorious power, was, at the Versailles Conference in 1919, granted sovereignty over a number of islands in the Western Pacific – which as a nation with imperial ambitions was seen as a potential destabilising force in this region. Clearly the UK saw the rise of Japan in these terms and hence the need for all source intelligence. Nave, who joined the RAN as a Supply Branch midshipman in 1917 could not have foreseen how he was to play a prominent role in the field of intelligence at a relatively early age.
At an early age he went to Japan and became fluent in Japanese. This led him into the field of intelligence serving with the Royal Navy on the Far East station. Because of his outstanding skills, particularly in code breaking, the Royal Navy approached the Royal Australian Navy with the proposition that he resign from the RAN and become a commissioned officer in the RN in the rank of Lieutenant Commander and this is what occurred.
At the outbreak of World War II Nave was serving in Singapore. Here he was laid low with a tropical illness and was recuperating in Australia when Japan entered the war. Nave was thus in the forefront of setting up the signals intelligence establishment in Australia during the war and in the post-war period.
Uniquely he brought to the job his fluency in Japanese, his codebreaking skills and his understanding of the Japanese mind. His contribution to the successful outcome of naval and combined operations in the Pacific would have been immeasurable.
He eventually retired in the rank of Captain, his career being remarkable for the many leading roles he played in the field of signals intelligence over at least three decades. This is an important book and complements Joe Straczek’s history of the RAN signal intelligence organisation, The Empire is Listening, published by the Australian War Memorial.
Harold Adams
Board Chairman
Australian Association for Maritime Affairs
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MarStudies/2006/36.html