‘A Span of Years’, Captain Victor Edgar Lederer, Australian Intelligence

Corps 1942-1945 1

LTCOL Glenn Wahlert

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Caption: Photo CPL Max Bree, Defence PR
A rare event occurred in Canberra in
August 2016 when the Chief of Army,
LTGEN Angus Campbell, and RSM-A, Don
Spinks, presented replacement medals to
the oldest known member of the
Australian Intelligence Corps, CAPT Victor
Lederer. Vic, who celebrated his 102nd
birthday two months later, considered it
‘the best day of my life’. And what a life it has been so far.

Born in the United Kingdom two months after the start of the First World
War, he was the son of an Englishwoman and a successful Austrian
businessman who imported British cotton into Europe. However his father
was also a reserve officer in an Austrian infantry regiment and was soon
recalled to join his unit. Vic remained in the United Kingdom with his
maternal grandmother throughout the war, and was finally reunited with
his parents in Germany in late 1918. Schooled in Saxony, by his seventh
birthday he could speak Dutch, English, German and French.

Vic has a clear memory of Hitler’s rise to power in the early 1930s and the
Nazi ‘thugs’. His father, fearing for his son, arranged a job for Vic in England
in the cotton industry. ‘You see, Nazi Germany wasn’t very good for my
health as, unbeknown to me at the time, my father was born Jewish.’
Having no interest in the cotton industry, he was impressed by a book on
Australia. ‘The clean air, open spaces and my love of horses is what made it
for me.’ In 1937 Vic migrated to Australia and worked as a stockman and
timber cutter in the Northern Territory.

When war broke out he was working in Sydney. ‘I was not going to stand by
and watch while Hitler took over the world,’ he said. He enlisted in the 2nd
AIF as a private in June 1940 but it was not long before his fluency in
German attracted the attention of No. 4 Special Wireless Section, an
electronic warfare intercept unit. Acting as a translator, Vic supported the
Australian Army’s operations against the German, Italian and Vichy French
forces in North Africa and Lebanon. ‘My job was to listen to the enemy radio
nets and read signals intercepts. Much of it was encrypted, but German
aircrew used plain text. There was one chap in particular whose voice I
always recognised, and through him and his pals I was able to build up a
picture of their [organisational] structure by identifying enemy units,
locations, commanders and even their objectives in some cases.’
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This article is based on several interviews with Mr Lederer in July and August 2016, and his unpublished
manuscript, A Span of Years, held by the Australian War Memorial (MSS1155).
With Japan’s entry into the war Vic’s unit returned to Australia and, in April
1942, he and most of the staff of the No. 4 Special Wireless Section were
transferred to a new signals intelligence unit known as the Central Bureau.
Promoted sergeant, Vic’s new job was initially just to learn Japanese,
particularly the Japanese military’s Kana code. Within a few months he was
assessed as ‘proficient’, promoted to lieutenant in the Australian Intelligence
Corps and posted to a forward listening post in Papua New Guinea. ‘We were
near Wau and close to the Japs. Our job was to focus on the smaller Jap
radio nets and build up an Order of Battle of the Jap division nearby,
identify their commanders and locations, and try to gain intel on their
morale and fighting fitness.’

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Caption: Captain Vic Lederer, taken in late 1945

For the rest of 1942 and most of 1943 Vic

worked as an intelligence analyst in New
Guinea, returning to the Central Bureau’s
Brisbane office in early 1944 where he used
the first cypher machine in Australia.
Promoted captain in March 1944, he was
sent on a six-week course at Land
Headquarters School of Military Intelligence
in Brisbane, prior to moving with the
advance element of the Central Bureau to
Morotai, Netherlands East Indies (now part
of Indonesia’s Maluku Islands). Morotai
was being developed as a major base to
support the liberation of the Philippines
and Vic’s role was to monitor Japanese
communications. It was here that he had to
use his personal sidearm for the first time.
‘They told us there were about 200 Japs
left on Morotai. It was closer to 3000 and if
they [the Japanese] had been better at their
jobs I wouldn’t be here telling you this,’ he said. One night a Japanese
raiding party crept into the camp and threw grenades at the tents. ‘We all
scrambled and I contacted the local American infantry battalion for
assistance. When we tracked them down we threw everything we had at
them. Killed them all. No regrets.’

Vic remained in Morotai for most of 1945 to support the Australian-

led Borneo Campaign and, on his discharge from the Army, he again used
his language skills as an immigration selection officer. Working out of
Germany he screened thousands of Europeans who wanted to come to
Australia. ‘I’d mix among those waiting for an interview and listen to them
taking to each other to identify the Nazis and communists. I did my best to
help those that were genuine cases, but I picked the best one for myself.’ Vic
was referring to a beautiful young Lithuanian girl, Tina. They have been
married for over 66 years.

In an interview with LTCOL Glenn Wahlert in mid-2016, Vic impressed with

his remarkable memory. He could recall key dates and people and even his
Japanese and some Malay; but he could not recall what happened to his
medals. The Australian Intelligence Corps’ Head of Corps, BRIG Stephen
Beaumont, arranged for replacement medals and a small ceremony to
present them to him in his family home in Curtin, Canberra. Vic was
‘thrilled to bits’ to meet both the Chief of Army and Regimental Sergeant
Major of the Army. ‘What an honour for an old fella like me who played a
very small part in the war,’ Vic remarked, displaying the modesty of a
generation of men and women to whom we owe so much.

LTCOL Glenn Wahlert is an ARes historian with the Army History Unit and
is currently researching the history of the Australian Intelligence Corps. He
is keen to hear from both past and serving members to record their stories.
He can be contacted at ggwahlert@bigpond.com