Piercing the Fog - Air Force Historical Studies Office

Piercing the Fog
Japanese in India and Burma, the Allies created EAC as part of and subordinate
to Air Command South East Asia. Stratemeyer assumed command of EAC on
December 15, 1943, bringing the operational portions of RAF Bengal
Command and Tenth Air Force into one organization. This new alignment
created a more effective air campaign against the Japanese, but it also demanded
increased efficiency from the supporting intelligence offices, several of which
Stratemeyer combined as the Intelligence Section, HQ EAC, under the Office
of the Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations, Plans, Training and Intelligence. The
intelligence chief was Wing Comdr. A. T. Richardson, RAF; his deputy, Lt.
Col. Wilkes D. Kelly of the AAF.”
Within a short time after creation of EAC, a number of plans were well
underway to increase the effectiveness of the intelligence functions serving the
Allied air forces. A CombinedPhotographic Interpretation Centre (CPIC) South
East Asia came into being on May 1, 1944. That center collected the talents of
photoanalysts from the AAF, the RAF, the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet, and the
British Army. Detachments from the center served the bomber forces at EAC’s
strategic and tactical air forces headquarters. Smaller photointerpretation
detachments at times worked with individual groups and squadrons as the need
arose. The XX Bomber Command, because of its special mission and its control
by General Arnold in Washington, retained its own photointerpretation
capability. In many ways, the CPIC was the Southeast Asia equivalent of the
CIU at Medmenham, England, and was inspired in its origin by the accomplishments
of the CIU in the United Kingd~m.’~ The chart on the facing page shows
how the CPIC related to the Air Command South East Asia.
Even before EAC’s existence, local efforts by the RAF’s and AAF’s
technical intelligence officers had sought to enlarge the scope and accomplishments
of their field of endeavor. At a technical intelligence conference held in
New Delhi in August of 1943, several lower-ranking British and American
officers agreed upon a number of initiatives to speed and improve each others’
knowledge of Japanese aircraft and air operations equipment. The meeting
produced much closer liaison between the two services and a routing of RAF
technical analysis reports to Tenth Air Force. After Bissell’s departure for
Washington, the technical side of intelligence continued to grow. The example
of the CPIC led to a similar organization designed to improve the handling of
technical intelligence. Proposed by Air Command South East Asia in the spring
of 1944, the Allies set up the Technical Air Intelligence Centre with headquarters
in New Delhi. The center was patterned on the parent organization at the
Air Ministry in London, but the command hoped it would duplicate the success
of similar Allied organizations in the Southwest Pacific and Central Pacific
commands. The technical intelligence organization had an RAF chief with a
deputy from the AAF and another deputy from the U.S. Navy. The field
headquarters located at Calcutta, with a varying number of field units covering