Military Intelligence History: World War II

What is Intelligence?--The Principles of Intelligence Operations--Collection of Information--Processing Information into Intelligence--Use and Dissemination of Intelligence and Information--Counterintelligence--Special Operations and Intelligence--Influence of Modern Warfare on Intelligence Operations--Intelligence Responsibilities, Organization, and Training--The National Intelligence Organization--Order of Battle Intelligence Factors--Technical Intelligence--Sources of Information--Field Army Military Intelligence Organization--Air Reconnaissance Request Procedures--Combat Surveillance Equipment and Use--Standard Spelling, Mortaring, Bombing, and Toxic Report, and Nuclear Burst Report--Weather and Climate Intelligence and Information--Dissemination of Specialized Information and Intelligence--Format and Example of an Intelligence summary (ISUM)--Format and Example of a Periodic Intelligence Report (PERINTREP)--Analysis of Area of Operations--Influence of Weather on Army Operations--Influence of Weather and Terrain on Nuclear Weapons Effects--The Intelligence Estimate--Development of Enemy Capabilities--Essential Elements of Information and Other Intelligence Requirements--Preparation of the Collection Worksheet--Format and Example of an Intelligence Annex to an Operation Order--Counterintelligence Estimate Format--Partially Completed Counterintelligence Measures Worksheet--Intelligence Staffs

The enigmatic science of military intelligence is examined in this personal record, written by Brigadier General Oscar W. Koch, who served during World War II as chief of intelligence for General George S. Patton, Jr., one of the most colorful military leaders in American history. General Koch traces growth and development of the infant science through detailed accounts of the intelligence role in some of the most celebrated battles of the war, and through his personal rememberances of Patton and his relationships with members of his intelligence staff. His story moves from the African campaign through Sicily, into France on D-Day and on to the Battle of the Bulge, pointing out how the work of the intelligence staff made the differences in the final reckoning. General Koch's book is more than a historical study, however. It is the exciting story of the operations behind the cloak and dagger illusions.

Centuries ago Sun Tzu wrote: Know the enemy as you know yourself. The urgency of this maxim is even greater today. A commander who boldly determines- without knowledge of the enemy or the battleground- to close tit the doe and destroy him wherever he might be, is like a boxer who is in the ring blindfolded. This book is written primarily for commanders, because intelligence is for commanders. Intelligence is not an academic exercise nor is it an end in itself. The prime purpose of intelligence is to help the commander make a decision, and thereby to proceed more accurately and more confidently with the accomplishment of his mission.

Besides being an exciting story, Colonel Mashbir’s 1953 autobiography is almost a textbook in the art of espionage and counter-espionage. Colonel Mashbir (1891-1973) led an adventurous life - At the age of thirteen, he started his military career as a bugle boy in the Arizona Guard, in the still untamed Arizona Territory. During 1914-1916, he served under General Funston and General Pershing, and went on daring missions across the U.S./Mexican border during the Mexican Revolution.

To protect U.S homeland security prior to and during World War One, Mashbir headed the U.S. Army’s Eastern Division section of counter-espionage where he eliminated an extensive domestic spy network.

In the early 1920s, while attached to the U.S. Embassy in Japan, Mashbir went on a perilous special mission into Russia and China, where he used his clever bluffing abilities to prevent a regional war.

When World War Two erupted, Colonel Mashbir became General MacArthur’s top intelligence advisor. He commanded a top secret, 4,600 member intelligence gathering organization called A.T.I.S. (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section) that dramatically shaped the successful war strategy in the Pacific.

Mashbir’s military career continued into the Atomic Age. As a pioneer of modern intelligence, Mashbir was one of the two men who prepared the first draft implementing directives for the creation of the CIA at the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Cracking the enemy's radio code is a task so urgent and so difficult that it demands the military's best minds and most sophisticated technology. But when the coded messages are in a language as complex as Japanese, decoding problems multiply dramatically.

During World War II, while thousands of Japanese-Americans were being sent to U.S. detainment camps, a Japanese-American from Hawaii working as a U.S. Army spy in the Philippines was captured by the enemy. Richard Sakakida was the only Japanese-American prisoner of the Japanese forces, and he faced death as a "traitor" because of his Japanese face. Despite unspeakable torture, Sakakida stubbornly refused to confess that he was an American spy; ironically, his Japanese cultural heritage is what enabled him to survive the beatings inflicted on him by his Japanese captors. Sakakida narrowly escaped a death sentence and was assigned to the office of a Japanese official, where he gained valuable military information for MacArthur and engineered a daring prison break that freed a Filipino guerrilla leader and hundreds of his followers. Fifty years later, Sakakida finally tells his tale of survival and perseverance against incredible odds.