SOMERTON MAN: THE WING COMMANDER, INTELLIGENCE MAN OF A DIFFERENT KIND

Acting Wing Commander Norman B Tindale

A fascinating man in anyone's view, his wartime experience is a classic intelligence story of a different kind. But it is his life right after the war that piqued my interest as you will read.

In 1942, Adelaide man Norman Barnett Tindale joined the Royal Australian Airforce. He was a man with an unusual background, Norman was an anthropologist, archaeologist and entomologist.

He went to his war as a junior officer in the RAAF Air Intelligence Technical Unit, no doubt the fact that he was fluent in Japanese stood him in good stead. His role, amongst other things, was to examine parts from Japanese military aircraft that had been shot down. From the information so gathered, he was able to make assessments on the capabilities and capacities of the Japanese aircraft industry.

Before long he was selected to join a joint analysis team in Washington where he worked on the wreckage/debris from Japanese balloon bombing that had taken place on the US West Coast. He was able to determine where the bombs and balloons were made and pass that information on to the US Air Force who took the appropriate action.

This where we get a little closer to just how Tindale may have been linked to the SM case.  He was part of the team that cracked the Japanese aircraft production code system but more importantly from our perspective, he was also involved in deciphering the Japanese master Naval code.

Those who have followed this blog and others will know that a certain Captain Nave RAN, led that team and it is believed that Captain Eric Nave was the Australian Navy code expert that examined the Somerton Man code and he did that in Adelaide or so it is thought.

AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER.

A COINCIDENCE?

After being discharged from the RAAF in 1946 with the rank of Acting Wing Commander, Norman Tindale returned to his pre-war job at the South Australian Museum. That places him in the same location and working for the same employer as Paul Lawson, the man who carried out the work on creating the now famous Somerton Man plaster bust.

There are two questions that we are now left with as a result of this information:

1. Does this mean that the link between Captain Nave, the friend and supporter of Commander Long, head of Naval Intelligence in Australia and very senior man in The Association and Wing Commander Tindale, that the Wing Commander was also a member of The Association?

2. If this is so, just what relationship was there between the Wing Commander, Paul Lawson and the upper echelons of the SA Police service?

You can read more in the book:

''AIRIND in Retrospect', this book looks at the RAAF contribution to Allied Intelligence between 1942 and 1945

Summaries here: https://www.ozatwar.com/sigint/airind.htm