by Fiona G. Holter, USAICoE Staff Historian

On 31 October 1944, the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) School in Brisbane, Australia, closed after seventeen months. The school trained countless CIC agents and Americans from across the armed forces, as well as Australian, Dutch, and Filipino units preparing for combat in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA).

In 1943, the number of American troops in the SWPA grew almost 400 percent, from an estimated 21,000 to more than 80,000, increasing the need for CIC personnel in the region. As operations around the world placed heavy demands on the CIC, the organization had to rethink how it recruited and trained agents. As a result, the CIC began recruiting military personnel in theater and offered specialized training specific to unique SWPA operations.

The CIC established a permanent training school at Bowen Terrace, the CIC headquarters in Brisbane, to recruit and train CI agents for tactical operations across the Pacific. The school, under the command of Maj. Albert L. Vreeland, geared its curriculum towards combat conditions in the region, offering classes on jungle warfare and physical training. Other classes held over a two-to-four-week period included tactical counterintelligence, field security, map reading, foreign language, military organization, enemy intelligence organization, and investigative techniques. Recruits were also taught how to handle prisoners of war and captured documents.

By July 1944, the school outgrew Bowen Terrace and moved to the Palmarosa House, a three-story sandstone mansion four miles away. With the extra space, the CIC expanded its training to include classes on Japanese military techniques. They also welcomed Australian, Dutch, and American servicemembers from all branches into the school and sent CIC agents to classes at the Australian School of Military Intelligence and Jungle Warfare School to support their training. As the Allies prepared for the invasion of the Philippines, the CIC classes began to focus on pre-invasion training. Students learned the Tagalog language and took classes on Filipino customs,  

geographical place names, and local laws to acquaint themselves with the culture in the Philippine islands. They also took classes on order of battle and a “who’s who” of the Philippines.

In late October 1944, the CIC School provided a one-week course to twenty Women Army Corps (WAC) personnel attached to the 441st CIC Detachment. CIC officers taught the WACs the history and function of the CIC in the SWPA, investigations and report writing, and informational classes on CIC publications and special activities. At the end of that course, on 31 October 1944, the Palmarosa House was closed and the school transferred to the CIC headquarters in Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. Many personnel who trained in Brisbane went on to participate in the Philippine campaigns. When U.S. troops landed on Leyte in October 1944, more than seventy CIC officers and agents, many of whom were trained at the Palmarosa House, participated. Others took part in operations in Dulag, San Miguel, Pastrana, Palo, Luzon, and across the Philippines and Japan.

To see more entries visit the interactive timeline on the MI History website: https://ikn.army.mil/apps/MIHistory/ (CAC required)

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