SPECIAL
LIAISON UNIT 9 RAF (SLU 9)
AN OUTPOST FOR GOVERNMENT CODE AND CYPHER SCHOOL
AT BLETCHLEY PARK, UK
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII
The dissemination of Ultra intelligence to field commanders was carried out by MI6 during WWII. This was supervised by Group Captain Frederick William Winterbotham on behalf of MI6 using Special Liaison Units which had been established under the 1943 BRUSA (Britain - United States of America) Agreement which had been signed on 17 May 1943. Fred Winterbotham reported directly to the head of MI6.
Squadron Leader Sidney Frederick Burley (108656) helped to set up Special Liaison Unit 5 Headquarters and War Room in the dungeons under a girl's school at High Wycombe in the UK, possibly RAF Daws Hill in the former Wycombe Abbey School for girls.
Sqn. Ldr. Sidney Burley was the Commanding Officer of SLU 5. He was only at High Wycombe for a few months when Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham sent for him and made him Special Intelligence Security Officer Far East and sent him initially to USA where he was attached to the Pentagon for 6 - 8 weeks doing mostly liaison work. Whilst he was there Special Liaison Units were being formed for him to control. They were to be primarily located in Brisbane where he was to establish his Headquarters.
Sqn. Ldr. Burley attended a special conference with Winterbotham in London in 1944. I believe this was the Far Eastern and Signals Intelligence Conference or Co-ordination of Far East Intelligence conference held in London on 29 August 1944 and chaired by Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies the head of MI6. The conference was attended by three Australians, Colonel Mic Sanford, Wing Commander Roy Booth and a Naval Commander along with someone from MI5 (or was it MI6). They discussed who Winterbotham thought should receive the Ultra information. They received Ultra information from Bletchley Park and redistributed it. Mic Sandford was the Commanding Officer of the AIF detachment at Central Bureau at 21 Henry Street, Ascot in Brisbane. Brigadier John David Rogers accompanied Mic Sandford to the conference in London.
SLU 9 in Brisbane gave senior Australian officers direct access for the first time to worldwide Ultra intelligence. Detachments were also sent to Borneo, New Guinea, New Britain and Bougainville to supply Sigint to Australian commanders.
Squadron Leader Burley had SLU 7, SLU 8 and SLU 9 under his command. He was known as "Uncle Bill". From Brisbane they spread out to places such as Morotai and other places. Sqn. Ldr. Burley was stationed in Brisbane from the end of 1944 and visited the various stations that they established, particularly to monitor the security arrangements. Page 95 of a file in NAA shows a letter dated 14 December 1944 from Mic Sandford to Lt. Col. R .A. Little, the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence in Victoria Barracks in Melbourne stating:-
"Squadron Leader Burley has arrived from the U.K. and is now charged with the responsibility of all 'Ultra' distributed to British formations in this area. He will be coming to see you later on, no doubt. His chief, Group Captain Winterbotham, is in Melbourne at the moment, I believe, and may have contacted you already. He is the Chief Security Officer of the U.K. Government and is expected up here shortly to set Burley and his party on their feet."
"He has a number of extremely difficult breaches of security to clear up and will talk to you about them, when he goes down. Not the least of these is the source of information which completes the "Japanese Harbin Special Intelligence Reports". As we suspected, the source is the Soviet Ambassador in Australia. Tow things are not clear. First, how the Japanese obtain the information from the Soviet and secondly, how the Soviet Ambassador himself obtains the information. An example given in MBJ 30601 is a comparatively innocuous one, but there have been much more dangerous and precise examples in the past."
"I am sure you will give Burley all your assistance when he comes down to Melbourne, but please regard this information as for your own ears only."
Winterbotham and Burley then visited Lieutenant Colonel R. A. Little, the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence in Melbourne to investigate the security breach involving the Russian Ambassador leaking information to the Japanese. Whilst in Melbourne they learnt of another security breach involving "Y" Security. A letter to Lt. Col. Little on page 85 of a file in National Archives of Australia shows that Group Captain Winterbotham was at that time with Mic Sandford at Central Bureau in Brisbane on 19 December 1944.
George Aspden (ex Sergeant 2219136 RAF) told me that an RAF Special Liaison Unit arrived in Brisbane late in the war to operate typex machines for transmitting Ultra to the UK.
Squadron Leader S. F. Burley appears in the Index of the February 1945 Military Telephone Directory for Brisbane attached to G-2 Section in GHQ. However his name does not appear in the G-2 Section at the front of the Telephone Directory for some reason.
I was approached by Jane Thomas in July 2020 whose father was Flying Officer Noel Eric "Josh" Reynolds, the Commanding Officer of SLU 9 in Brisbane. In his audio recording on the IWM web site, Squadron Leader Burley stated that he thought that "Josh" Reynolds was the CO of SLU 7 rather than SLU 9. Jane sent me a newspaper article which featured her father's role during WWII.
Flying Officer "Josh" Reynolds arrived in Brisbane in January 1945 and spent a few weeks with a top secret group on the top floor of GHQ SWPA in the AMP building on the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street. There were about 30 British sergeants and eight officers on that floor. One of the men was Reg Harris. Whilst in Brisbane Flying Officer "Josh" Reynolds had his accommodation at Camp Victoria Park and they travelled to the AMP building by bus. One interesting story from his time in Brisbane was the need to order a rubber stamp with the word "ULTRA" on it. To maintain their secrecy, they ordered a stamp with the word "FOULTRACE" on it and then they trimmed off four letters, two each side, to end up with the word "ULTRA".
Flying Officer "Josh" Reynolds was then assigned to Morotai and Reg Harris was assigned to an Ultra Unit located 52 miles south of Darwin.
The newspaper article stated as follows:-
"Toowoomba's "Josh" Reynolds flew out of Brisbane in a RAAF wartime DC-3 biscuit bomber with a bomb in his bag - a kind of hand grenade needing only a sharp tug of the ring."
"If he pulled the pin, its 'warhead' of thermite would burn fiercely, with an all-consuming mass of white heat. It would burn its way through steel plate. Eleven under the ocean, nothing would put it out."
"The little bag-bomb would have destroyed Ultra, which Reynolds was carrying from Brisbane to Morotai in the Halmaheras - the greatest, the most closely-guarded code secret of any war ever."
When the operational head of Bletchley Park, Sir Edward Wilfred Harry Travis accompanied by his aide Francis Harry Hinsley, visited Brisbane in April 1945, Squadron Leader Burley organised a dinner at Lennons Hotel. Burley invited the senior officers from Central Bureau, and the Queensland Governor Sir Leslie Wilson. Mic Sandford, Abe Sinkov and Roy Booth from Central Bureau attended the dinner. Travis had also visited D Special Section in Melbourne whilst in Australia.
SLU 9 was located at 21 Henry Street, Ascot after it was vacated by Central Bureau. Effective 21 March 1945, 9 RAF Special Liaison Unit came under the command of Eastern Area Headquarters RAAF for the purposes of administration and discipline with their postal address as "Group 538, RAAF, 21 Henry Street, Ascot, Brisbane, QLD". SLU 9 was to be based on RAAF Command Headquarters for domestic arrangements. Their signal address was "9 RAFSLU".
SLU 9 (RAF) was disbanded on 22 December 1945 and ceased to exist as a separate Air Force unit from that date.
REFERENCES
Imperial War Museum - "Burley, Sidney Frederick (Oral History)"
"The Ultra Secret" by F.W. Winterbotham
"The Evolution of Australian Intelligence" by Christopher Andrew
"Code Breakers" by Craig Collie
Courier Mail - article in the Magazine section of 22 February 1975 on "Josh" Reynolds and Reg Harris
"Formation, Organisation & Movement. No. 9 (R.A.F.) Special Liaison Unit", NAA File
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank Steve Meekin, David Glerean and Jane Thomas for their assistance with this web page.
Can anyone help me with more information?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
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This page first produced30 July 2020
This page last updated 03 December 2021
