SOMERTON MAN: JOINING THE DOTS, COMMANDER LONG, RAN INTELLIGENCE LINKED TO CODE PAGE

 COMMANDER LONG

There is another and recent post on Commander Long, 'V', he was a very talented and capable Intelligence Chief for the RAN. But apart from that role, he also represented both British MI6 and SOE organisations in Australia.

Here are some notes made during recent research:

• We have documented evidence that during 1942, SOE and MI6 sent copies of codes and techniques used in Europe to Australia, they would have been sent to commander Long as their Australian representative. I would not doubt that amongst those documents there would have been training manuals including the SOE manual that contained the description of various codes including the INK H method of ink/micro pencil and an ink cover. I have demonstrated and proven beyond doubt that the INK H micro written code method was used in the creation of the SM code page. This information links Commander Long and Naval Intelligence to the Somerton Man Code page.

• The Commander would have been responsible for the distribution of the SOE codes and methods and quite probably for organising training sessions.
• Commander long had a strong link to Captain Eric Nave, the RAN code breaker. Nave was in Adelaide in 1948 and 'may' have been the Navy code expert that reviewed the code page. It is believed that Captain Nave was also a member of The Association.
• Commander Long had a strong link to Captain Harkness RN, he was the Chief of Intelligence, Far East for the Royal Navy 1940 to 1942. We are still researching the background for Captain Harkness to see what if any link there may be to Jess Harkness/Thompson.
• The association between Commander Long and Colonel Bob Wake was far from being a happy one. Wake criticised Long for his attendance at various clubs in Sydney, I wonder if one of those clubs was Pakies? 
• It was Bob Wake who had secretly kept records on Commander Long and others and it was Commander Long who had organised for the temporary release from prison of a good 'safe' man who promptly broke into Bob Wake's office and retrieved the records from his safe and which were duly delivered to Commander Long. An embarrassing incident for Bob Wake methinks :)
• There was a link to AWA radio, 'X' crystals were developed specifically for Naval intelligence operatives, and coast watchers and their teleradios. These sets worked at unusual wavelengths and their signals were hard to detect.
• All messages sent via these radio sets were known as 'X' messages.
• Within the RAN, the role of 'Paymaster' was Navy speak for an Intelligence officer.
• A possible coincidence is that a Captain Webb, a harbour master in NG, was also a part of Long's network. Not at all sure that this was the same or someone related to the Salvation Army Captain C J R Webb who led the funeral sermon for the Somerton Man.

An excellent resource that I can recommend is the Biography of Commander Long by Professor Barbara Winter, the book is called: The Intrigue Master. It is in good supply here in Australia via numerous libraries.

What Now?

Where does this lead us? A picture is slowly but surely being drawn together that gives us a clearer idea of just what was happening in Australia at the time and in the years leading up to the discovery of the body at Somerton Beach. The use of secret codes and their source has now become apparent, we know what was used and have a good idea of who organised them. We know that Australia was under threat of a possible communist takeover and we know that there was a highly motivated group, The Association, who stood ready to defend the country, the organisation was led by one of Australia's most famous military men, Field Marshall Blamey with its senior ranks being drawn from Australia's wartime intelligence organisations including Commander Long.

One of the interesting questions that's raised is, just who handed the copy of the Rubaiyat to the police that day? As Jess said to her daughter, this goes much higher than the local Police...

The scene is set, more to follow.