Eric Nave

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Theodore Eric Nave
Born(1899-03-18)18 March 1899
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Other workCryptanalyst, intelligence officer

cryptographer and intelligence officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Royal Navy, noted for his work with joint Allied intelligence units during World War II. He served in the navy from 1916 to 1949, then served as an officer in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation until 1959.[1]

Early life and background

Nave was born in

Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1948 Birthday Honours for his "services in cultural life of Adelaide".[6]

Eric Nave began working for South Australian Railways as an office boy in his father's office on 8 December 1913,

Civil Service Examination in early December 1914, but came 22nd out of 26 in his group.[9] He remained with SAR, and was appointed a junior clerk on 17 May 1915.[2]

Royal Australian Navy service

On 1 February 1917 Nave joined the Royal Australian Navy, and was posted to HMAS Cerberus[10] the RAN training establishment south of Melbourne, where on 1 March, he was appointed a paymasters' clerk on probation.[11] He served aboard the second-class protected cruiser HMAS Encounter from April 1917 to October 1918,[10] being confirmed in his rank in May.[12]

From 6 October 1918 to 4 July 1919 he was stationed aboard the training ship HMAS Tingira at Rose Bay, Sydney, then from 5 July 1919 to 30 September 1920 aboard the battlecruiser HMAS Australia,[10] where he was promoted from paymaster midshipman to paymaster sub-lieutenant on 1 March 1920, with seniority from 1 February 1919.[13] From 1 October 1920 to 17 January 1921 he was posted to HMAS Penguin, a depot ship at Sydney.[10]

Nave needed to be proficient in a foreign language to gain further promotion. He chose Japanese because "extra pay of

Rear Admiral Commanding HM Australian Fleet
.

Royal Navy service

In August 1925 Nave "loaned" to the British

Commander-in-Chief, China, to break them. Within two months Nave had not only broken the code, but had also worked out the Imperial Japanese Navy's radio protocols and relay system, and the organisation of their various commands. He also broke another code before his period of loan service was completed[15] in October 1927.[18]

The loan was promptly renewed in December 1927

Privy Council[22] because of the different systems of pay and pensions in the two services. Nave was the first officer to be transferred from the Royal Australian Navy to the Royal Navy.[23][24]

Nave's codebreaking career continued, serving in the

JN-25". By early December 1939, FECB had been relocated to Singapore
, and the code was beginning to relinquish some of its secrets.

However, the pressure of work had begun to take its toll on Nave's health, and in early 1940 he was diagnosed as suffering from tropical sprue, and was sent back to Australia to recuperate.[15] Sick, and with a "heavily pregnant" wife, he did not want to return to Singapore.[25] On medical advice Nave did not return to the tropics[15] instead setting up a small RAN cryptographic unit in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne. The unit had a core of naval personnel, with a number of university academics and graduates specialising in classics, linguistics and mathematics, e.g. Athanasius Treweek and Arthur Dale Trendall.[26] In May 1941 Nave's unit was combined with personnel from the Australian Army and designated the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB). They had some successes, reading Japanese diplomatic traffic from South America, and also breaking JN-4, the operational code for submarines.[15]

In early 1942 SIB became part of the "

FRUMEL), an "inter-naval" (joint American-Australian-British) cryptographic unit, and moved to the "Monterey" apartment building in Queens Road. FRUMEL was commanded by USN Lieutenant Rudolph Fabian, formerly of Station CAST in the Philippines. Despite continued success (Nave had warned, a month before it happened, that the Australian base at Milne Bay, at the eastern tip of New Guinea, was to be invaded in late August 1942, so the base was reinforced,[27] and the subsequent Battle of Milne Bay was decisively won by U.S. and Australian forces – the first time the Japanese had been defeated on land by the Allies) Nave was reportedly forced out of FRUMEL and "Monterey" by Fabian, who apparently regarded him as a "security risk", because Nave wanted to cooperate with the "inter-army" unit, the Central Bureau, based at Brisbane. According to his staff, Nave often kept keys to new codes passed on by the Americans and British to himself, which might have been acceptable as a training exercise in peacetime, but not in time of war. Treweek said: "We always looked forward to his day off. We'd get the keys to his safe and find all this material in there." Nave also had difficulties with his superior, Commander Rupert B. M. Long, the Director of Naval Intelligence, whom he considered a man of no great ability.[28]

Nave subsequently joined Central Bureau in early 1943. Joe Richard, a Central Bureau veteran, said later that "[i]f Fabian did not want Nave, the U.S. Army codebreakers were very happy to have him ... Fabian's dislike of Eric Nave was very fortunate for us. Nave became an indispensable person" in "reading air-to-ground messages containing the weather" which "gave away the intended target for the day."[29] Nave also created a system of field units to intercept operational messages and advise field commanders of Japanese movements and intentions, a model of successful integration of intelligence with operations.[15] Nave was promoted to the acting rank of captain on 12 October 1944.[10] When Central Bureau moved forward to the Philippines in 1945, Nave was left behind to write the unit's official history and to close down the organisation in Brisbane.[15]

Post-war career

Nave was loaned back to the Royal Australian Navy from 1 January 1948[30] until 17 March 1949,[31] when he retired from the Royal Navy.[10]

Nave joined the newly-formed Australian Security Intelligence Organisation,[32] as Senior "C" officer on 20 October 1949, with identity card No. 000113. On 19 October 1950 he was appointed Assistant Director "C" Branch, investigation & research, and on 1 October 1957 became the Regional Director for Victoria, until eventually retiring on 18 March 1959.[2]

Nave was eventually recognised for his work by being appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1972 New Year Honours.[33]

Personal life

Nave had four children with his first wife, Helene Elizabeth Ray.[2] He married his second wife, Margaret McLeish Richardson, in 1972.

Publications

Nave co-authored a book with

D-Notice Committee. It was eventually published in 1991 as Betrayal at Pearl Harbor, but received a highly critical reception from the intelligence establishment.[34][35] The book apparently reflects Rusbridger's views rather than those of Nave, particularly the claim that Winston Churchill deliberately did not pass on warnings about the attack on Pearl Harbor, in order to get the United States involved the war. According to British historian Peter Elphick, in a 1991 interview on Japanese television, Nave "repudiated a large slice of what Rusbridger had written, calling it speculation".[36] Dufty said that the Allies had "solved" the JN-25 code as they knew how it worked; with five numbers, an additive book and an indicator system. But they had not "broken" the code by having enough code words and indicators to read a message.[37] American military historian Stephen E. Ambrose pointed out that the claim "makes no sense at all", since if Churchill "knew the attack was coming, he certainly would have wanted the United States Navy to meet and defeat it – after all, the United States would be fully into the war the moment the battle began."[38]

References

  1. ^ Pace, Eric. "Nave, Theodore Eric (1899–1993)". Obituaries Australia. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Nave, Captain Theodore Eric: ASIO file" (PDF). National Archives of Australia. 1 April 2005. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Lieut. Commander Nave". The Areas' Express. Vol. XLXIII, no. 3229. Booyoolee, South Australia. 12 December 1930. p. 1. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "Death of Theatre Figure". The Advertiser. Vol. 96, no. 29801. Adelaide, South Australia. 20 April 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Birthday Honors Knighthood to Mr. Justice Mayo". The Advertiser. Vol. 90, no. 27979. Adelaide, South Australia. 10 June 1948. p. 3. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "No. 38311". The London Gazette. 4 June 1948. p. 3385.
  7. The Express and Telegraph
    . Vol. LI, no. 15110. Adelaide, South Australia. 2 January 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "B Pass List". The Register. Vol. LXXIX, no. 20950. Adelaide, South Australia. 3 January 1914. p. 7. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. The Register
    . Vol. LXXIX, no. 21255. Adelaide, South Australia. 24 December 1914. p. 12. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Naval Service Records: Nave, Theodore Eric". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  11. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Appointments". Commonwealth Gazette (38): 430. 8 March 1917. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  12. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Confirmation of Appointments". Commonwealth Gazette (64): 914. 2 May 1918. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  13. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Promotions". Commonwealth Gazette (65): 1057. 5 August 1920. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  14. ^ Pfennigwerth (2006), p. 22.
  15. ^
    Pandora Archive
    .
  16. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth:Promotions". Commonwealth Gazette (88): 2192. 10 November 1921. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  17. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Loan to the Royal Navy for Service and Training". Commonwealth Gazette (63): 1246. 13 August 1925. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  18. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Loan to the Royal Navy for Service and Training". Commonwealth Gazette (110): 2118. 13 October 1927. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  19. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Loan to Royal Navy for Service and Training". Commonwealth Gazette (142): 3460. 29 December 1927. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  20. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Promotions". Commonwealth Gazette (85): 1956. 12 September 1929. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  21. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Appointments". Commonwealth Gazette (98): 2151. 6 November 1930. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  22. ^ "No. 33666". The London Gazette. 2 December 1930. p. 7663.
  23. ^ "Interesting Personalities: Officer Linguist". The World's News. No. 1519. Sydney, New South Wales. 21 January 1931. p. 5. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. ^ "Lieut. Commander Nave". The Areas' Express. Vol. XLXIII, no. 3229. Booyoolee, South Australia. 12 December 1930. p. 1. Retrieved 4 February 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  25. ^ Dufty 2017, p. 74.
  26. ^ Jenkins (1992), pp. 43–44.
  27. ^ Boettcher (2009), pp. 16–23.
  28. ^ Jenkins (1992), p. 159.
  29. ^ Smith (2000), p. 171.
  30. ^ "Appointments". Commonwealth Gazette (158): 4067. 25 November 1948. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  31. ^ "Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth: Termination of Appointments". Commonwealth Gazette (78): 3085. 27 October 1949. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  32. ^ Smith (2000), p. 278.
  33. ^ "No. 45555". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1971. p. 35.
  34. ^ Lownie, Andrew (18 February 1994). "Obituary: James Rusbridger". The Independent. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  35. ^ Lashmar, Paul (23 August 1998). "Pearl Harbor conspiracy is bunk". The Independent. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  36. ^ Elphick (1997), p. 182.
  37. ^ Dufty 2017, pp. 95, 96.
  38. ^ Pace, Eric (13 July 1993). "Capt. Eric Nave, 94; Broke Japan's Code Before Pearl Harbor". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2017.

Bibliography

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eric_Nave&oldid=1206867013"