Acknowledgements

The editors are grateful to Professor Arthur Stockwin, who encouraged us to produce a separate volume devoted to the story of David Sissons and his research and writings concerning Diplomatic Special Section (D Special Section).

We are indebted to Mrs Bronwen Sissons, David’s widow. She has been supportive of this project from the outset. She provided us with details of David’s matriculation and first-year university subjects and results, personal papers relevant to his recruitment and service during the Second World War, and the photographs of him reproduced on the front cover and frontispiece of this volume.

David Horner, Professor of Australian Defence History in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at The Australian National University, provided us with advice and material throughout this project. We are grateful to Professor John Mack, Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, for his assistance with respect to technical aspects of D Special Section’s cryptographic activities.

We would like to thank Ms Meredith Thatcher, formerly a research assistant in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, who assisted Sissons with editorial matters in 2006 during the preparation of his essay on ‘The Origins and History’ of D Special Section and the postwar report on the Section for eventual publication. We also wish to thank Ms Oanh Collins, who word processed several handwritten pieces of correspondence and notes for inclusion in the Annex; Mr James Ball, who scanned most of the materials in the Annexes; and Ms Jenny Sheehan, Ms Kay Dancey, Ms Alyx Russell and Mr Tyrone Mason of the Multimedia Services Unit, College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University.

We acknowledge the assistance of the Australian War Memorial, specifically with respect to the reproduction of extracts from the war diaries of the 52nd Special Wireless Section for March 1943 (AWM52 AIF and Militia Unit War Diaries, 1939–45, Item:7/39/3 March 1943) and May 1944 (AWM52 AIF and Militia Unit War Diaries, 1939–1945, Item: 7/39/19 January – June 1944).

We are also grateful to Dr Craig Reynolds, Chair of the Asian Studies Committee of ANU E Press, for shepherding us through the publication process.

Desmond Ball and Keiko Tamura

The Australian National University

Canberra

September 2013