Pre- war intelligence

Thanks gentlemen! I did not know they had the GRU back then (they changed the names so much its hard to remember).

I'll keep an eye out for Gordon Prange's book. I already have At Dawn We Slept and Miracle at Midway.

 

To OpanaPointer,

While the US did not have any undercover agents in Japan on the level of Victor Sorge. The did have several military attaches, "legal" agents/spies working out of the US embassy in Japan. These attaches provided a lot of useful and mostly accurate information on the military forces of Japan.


To carlwd,

Take Glenn239's advice and go re-read "Combined Fleet Decoded." Focus on "Part I. Sailors, Spies, and Srategies"(the first five chapters) This part of the book provides good detail of what information US attaches discovered and reported back to Washington. Although much of it was accurate, the information was either ignored or not believed.

For instance, I was a little off the mark when I said that the US did not have a good idea about Japanese torpedoes. I would amend that to Washington did not have a good idea of Japanese torpedoes. Because, as I was re-reading Prados's book, he details that Commander Henri Smith-Hutton reported to ONI on April 22, 1940, that the new Japanese torpedo was larger than 21 inches, possibly as big as 25 inches and that air was not used in the torpedo, but oxygen. ONI never replied to or followed up on his report. Three years later an ONI report stated that on the basis of POW interrogations that Japanese cruisers and destroyers were armed with 24-inch torpedoes.(Combined Fleet Decoded, pgs 31-32)

 

OpanaPointer,

A few examples,

pg 39.

pg 37.

pg 37

These are just some examples from the chapter entitled "Watching the Japanese." There are many more, but I am pressed for time at the moment.

I will conclude with one of the most telling sentences in the chapter

pg 32.