Piercing the Fog - Air Force Historical Studies Office

Piercing the Fog
Lt. Gen. Millard F. Harmon Lieutenant Ennis C. Whitehead
acquaintance and Hewitt’s American deputy, to the job. Cain now filled both
jobs simultaneously. The Fifth Air Force A-2 office was in most respects a part
of the Fifth’s staff, but in practical terms it functioned more as a go-between,
channeling information rather than creating new analytical studies, target
folders, and directives. Located in Brisbane near GHQ SWPA’s G-2, Hewitt’s
office, and the intelligence office of the RAAF, the Fifth’s A-2 gathered
information from the two higher echelons and passed it to the Fifth Air Force
Advanced Echelon (ADVON) at Port Moresby. In New Guinea, Brig. Gen.
Ennis C. Whitehead’s ADVON had another A-2 section that worked with
operational airmen in the Fifth Bomber and Fifth Fighter Commands (later with
the lst, 2d, and 3d Air Task Forces when Kenney reorganized his operation).
Unlike the main Fifth Air Force’s A-2 operation, much original analytical work
came from the ADVON’s A-2. A radio intelligence unit listened to Japanese air
operations radio transmissions, A-2 staff members processed reconnaissance
and strike photography and made target charts, and other ADVON personnel
kept an enemy air OB up to date using much locally derived data. Over time, the
ADVON’s staff came to handle all immediate operational and tactical air
intelligence, while Hewitt’s staff concentrated more on long-range planning,
analyses, and administration. The Allies handled special intelligence from
decrypted radio intercepts and radio traffic analysis more freely than in any
other war theater. For example, Fifth Air Force ADVON’s daily summary of
principal activities often carried an appendix summarizing all types of CB and
AAF radio intercept data on Japanese air movements. Often the summaries
contained airfield-by-airfield tallies of Japanese Army and Navy Air Force
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