South West Pacific Area (command) - Allied Land Forces

Allied Land Forces

The Australian Army's Commander in Chief, General Sir Thomas Blamey, was appointed Commander, Allied Land Forces, SWPA. Its headquarters was that of the existing General Headquarters (Australia), and became known as LHQ. An Australian commander made sense as most of the land forces were Australian. In April 1942, there were 38,000 American ground troops in SWPA and 369,000 Australian. LHQ controlled five major commands: Lieutenant General Sir John Lavarack's First Army, based in Queensland; Lieutenant General Sir Iven Mackay's Second Army in Victoria; Lieutenant General Gordon Bennett's III Corps in Western Australia; the Northern Territory Force under Major General Edmund Herring; and New Guinea Force under Major General Basil Morris. Between them they controlled ten Australian and two American divisions. In August 1944, the Australian Army had a strength of 463,000 men and women, while there were 173,000 US Army ground personnel in SWPA. By late 1944, however, there were eighteen American divisions in SWPA, while the Australian Army had just seven.

When GHQ moved up to Brisbane, LHQ remained behind in Melbourne, but Blamey formed an Advanced LHQ under his Deputy Chief of the General Staff (DCGS), Major General George Alan Vasey, which moved to nearby St Lucia. Major General Frank Berryman replaced Vasey as DCGS in September 1942, and remained in the post until January 1944. He resumed the post in July 1944 and remained until December 1945. When the main body of GHQ moved to Hollandia, Advanced LHQ followed, opening there on 15 December, but when the main GHQ moved to Leyte in February 1945, Advanced LHQ remained behind. A Forward Echelon LHQ was formed under Berryman that remained co-located with the main body of GHQ, while the main body of LHQ remained at Hollandia until it moved to Morotai for the operations in Borneo in April 1945.

In practice, MacArthur controlled land operations through "task forces". These reported directly to GHQ, and their commanders could control all Allied land, air, naval and service forces in their area if a Japanese land attack was imminent. The most important of these was New Guinea Force, which was formed in 1942 and was commanded personally by Blamey in September 1942, and again in September 1943. In February 1943, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger's Sixth Army arrived in SWPA, and its headquarters became that of Alamo Force. Since Alamo Force reported directly to MacArthur, the result was that Blamey did not command of the majority of American land forces in the theatre after that time, although his post was not abolished.

In March 1944, MacArthur met with Curtin and detailed his plans for the Western New Guinea campaign, explaining that he would assume direct command of land forces when he reached the Philippines, and suggesting that Blamey could either go with him as an army commander, or remain in Australia as Commander in Chief. The new organisation went into effect in September 1944, with Lieutenant General Walter Krueger's Sixth United States Army, Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger's Eighth United States Army, Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee's First Australian Army, Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead's I Australian Corps and Major General Oscar Griswold's XIV Corps reporting directly to GHQ. Allied Land Forces remained as an important administrative and logistical command, until it was abolished, along with SWPA, on 2 September 1945.