Services Reconnaissance Department

The Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), also known as Inter-Allied Services Department (IASD), Special Operations Australia (SOA) and Section A, Allied Intelligence Bureau was an Australian military intelligence and special reconnaissance unit, during World War II. Authorised by General Thomas Blamey in March 1942, following the outbreak of war with Japan, the unit was formed in April 1942 and modelled initially on the British Special Operations Executive (SOE); it was organised initially by a British Army officer, Major G. Egerton Mott. When the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) was established in June 1942, SRD became a branch of AIB. SRD oversaw intelligence-gathering, reconnaissance and raiding missions in Japanese-occupied areas of New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Portuguese Timor (East Timor), the Malayan Peninsula, British Borneo and Singapore.