MAGIC--PAR EAST SUMMARY 

No. 194 

30 Sept 1944 

REF ID:A65434 

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6. JaP'ionese Intelligence--u.a. Air Units: 

a. A number or Japa.neBe reports on Allied air strength and order of battle have already been noted (FES 23 Aug, 5, 6 Sept 44). Some meas'Ql'e ~f the success or Japabese intelligence can be obtained 

.trom two additional messages, now available, giving detailed ~der of battle for Fifth Air Fore~ units in New Guinea and Australia •. 

The messages were sent on 31 July and_ 10 Aug ~J the Secpnd Area Army 

at Mehado to its subordinate commands. 

b. The sscond message is a supplement to the first and 1~ 

dnig:nated "A" Intelligence, ~ term usually used to descr.ibe inf'orme.-

tion derived from encoded Allied communications. In three instances 

the n"lll!lbe~ of the Fif'th Air Force unit is not given completely ~t has 

an "X" in place of one of the di&its, a. spbol wlllich othe~ trattic 

indicates to be the Japanese expression for an unsolved Allied code 

group. In seven instances the idedtif'ication of the unit is followed 

by the phrase "designation unal&ar", which may }le the Japanese way of describing a code solution re~rded as doubtful. There are s.1gns that the first messafi.e'1 of Which the opening part is missing, is like 

the second based on A' Intelligence • . 

c. The two :rq_essages indicate tb&t the Japanese have not 

been notably successful 1n making accurate identifications and 

locations of our ,units. or the 69 units liste~ in the messages, 

not more (and probably far less) than 13 are correct as given*, 28 are pa~tially correct (~1th the correct nume»•l desi~tion, but an 

inco.rredt designation of type or location), and 28 are ~holl7 

erroneous. Tbe message correctly stated that the~e are 21 groups in 

the Fifth Air Forcef but the J&pe.nese identified only eight of them 

by the correct nuuiber and type. They underestimated t~ total or 

fighter groups by five and ove~&stima.ted the total of troop caJr!.er 

grou}>s by six. , . d. On 17 Aug Tokyo sent to the Japanese Military Attache 

at Stockholm a list or u. s. Army: Air Groups in the vhole Pacific th~ater. The message places tne total of bombers and tighter groups i 

the,Pacir1c at 54 {as of }l Ju~7 there were 44) and gives numerical 

identificatiohs for ,8. or these }8, a total o~ 28 are correctly • I • 

•only three units ar~ clea~l~ given by the correct nam,e and location 

(the }10th Bomber Wing at Hollandi&, the 374th Troop Carrier Group at 

Townsville and the 8th FigllBr Sqdn at Biak). In the other ten instances 

the location cannot be checked--in five because the part ot the mes'sage giving the lodation is missing. ~nd in five others because the lopat1on is .given 1n the message as "Rima.a.et.to", which has not be$n identified. I 

Ceclassified and approved for release by NSA on 04-25-2014 pursuantto E.O. 1352a 

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REF ID:A65434 

fOP SECRElJ 

designated and placed in the correct general sector of the Pacific, 

although no detailed locations are given. Nor does the message 

attempt a breakdown of groups as between the Fifth and Thirteenth 

Air Forces, which are lumped together under the category "Far East 

Air Force." Seven groups actually in the Fifth Air Force, which 

are included in the units listed under "Far East .ri1r Force", had been 

omitted from the Second Area Army's order of battle of the Fifth 

Air Force noted above. 

fOP SECRElJ 

(F27125 

F29114 

D6526 

JBS)