AREA COMBINED HEADQUARTERS
(ACH) TOWNSVILLE
DURING WW2
Commonwealth Building at 42 Sturt Street, Townsville
Area Combined Headquarters Townsville was established on 8 May 1941 in the Commonwealth Building at 42 Sturt Street, Townsville. The building was originally the D & W Murray Warehouse. A.C.H. Townsville assumed control of Operations to seaward within North-East Area on 10 June 1941 taking over from Port Moresby.
As of 8 June 1941 Lieutenant Commander Feldt (ex Port Moresby) was appointed as temporary Naval Officer in Charge Townsville (NOIC) and as S.O. (I). Lieutenant Commander Luke (ex Navy Office) was appointed to C.O.I.C. Mr. K. Lee Murray was appointed as Assistant to the Naval Intelligence Assistant.
The Area Combined Headquarters (ACH) Operations Room was located on the top floor of the building. On the same floor was located the Mercantile Movements Section, the Combined Operational Intelligence Centre, RAAF Signals and a special separate room for Air Intelligence.
The second floor was used by the RAAF and the ground floor was also used by the RAAF with one area partitioned off for the Naval Staff Offices, which included the Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC) Secretary and Writer, the Code Room and Naval Control Services, etc.
Lt. Commander Eric Feldt, RAN the Supervising Intelligence Officer (SIO) for North East Area was located in this area. He was also acting NOIC in May 1941. Feldt was in charge of the Coastwatchers. Feldt's civilian assistant was Mr. K.L. "Paddy" Murray.
Air Commodore F.A. Lukis was the senior RAAF Officer with Wing Commander W.C. Garing as his Senior Staff Officer. They were part of North East Area Headquarters.
The following extract from a letter dated 10 June 1941 from ACH Townsville described the situation at ACH Townsville as follows:-
(b) Buildings. This is undoubtedly the worst feature of the island W/T installations. As yet no work has been done to provide W/T buildings, with the exception of Vila. (c) Supply of W/T equipment, which is dependent on Air Board. Air Board has indicated that island installations have received priority in allotment."
|
Proposal
to relocate Area Combined HQ in Townsville
to an underground location inside Castle Hill
Can anyone help me with more information?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
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This page first produced 24 February 2002
This page last updated 24 February 2020