Themes

Charles Sheppard

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Naval Intelligence Work

Sheppard arrived back in Britain on 6 October 1942, after six and a half years working abroad.

He returned to work in London after a few weeks leave, attached to the Far Eastern section of the Naval Intelligence Division in the Admiralty. He spent much of his time at a POW interrogation centre sitting in on interrogations of Germans to see whether the methods used were also applicable to Japanese POWs.

Sheppard received an appointment to the newly created Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) of Allied General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area (GHQ SWPA), in Brisbane, Australia. He travelled there via America, leaving Britain in March 1943.

For a background into the work of ATIS, follow the link

Letter of appointment as Allied Translator at GHQ SW Pacific, 1943

Letter of appointment as Allied Translator at GHQ SW Pacific, 1943 (RNM)

Sheppard then transferred to the Eastern Fleet Headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He became Head of the Operational Intelligence Centre in December 1943.

There were no captured documents to examine and no POWs to interrogate, as there had been at ATIS. The organisation's task was to feed the Allied Fleet with current intelligence processed from all sources, such as ULTRA.

Sheppard became Intelligence Officer of the British Pacific Fleet in August 1944. He then received a posting to the island of Guam as Intelligence Liaison Officer. He became assistant to the senior British Liaison Officer, Captain Hal Hopkins.

Guam was the location of the shore headquarters of the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Area. The Allies had recently recaptured the island from the Japanese. Sheppard remembers:

'There were still Japanese soldiers in hiding on the island, lying in dense scrub during the day and stealing food from mess kitchens at night. They were, in fact, obeying the order never to surrender. However, they posed some security risk and small teams were sent out with co-operating Japanese prisoners to visit localities where they were known to be hiding and, using loud hailers, urge them to surrender. I went on one of these excursions and rather to everyone's surprise there were noises in the jungle and half a dozen or so Japanese emerged to surrender. They were in a poor condition after living in hiding, without proper food and their faces were a dirty white. They, at least, were thankful their war was over.'