South West Pacific Area

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This article deals with the military command/theatre known as the South West Pacific Area. The same name is occasionally used in a purely geographical sense. More common collective names for countries in the region include: South Pacific, Oceania, Australasia and South East Asia.

South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was the name given to one of the four major Allied commands in the Pacific theatre of World War II, during 1942-45. The SWPA included the Philippines, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies (excluding Sumatra), Australia, the Territory of New Guinea (including the Bismarck Archipelago), the western part of the Solomon Islands and some neighbouring territories. The supreme commander, General Douglas MacArthur, was in charge of primarily United States and Australian forces. Dutch, Filipino, British and other Allied forces also served in the SWPA.

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Contents

Origins

The name "South West Pacific Area" appears to have originated in British military circles in 1941, purely in reference to British forces under the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA). The rapid Japanese advance through the Dutch East Indies effectively divided the "ABDA Area" in two, and in late February 1942, ABDA was wound up at the recommendation of its commander, the British General Archibald Wavell, who — as Commander in Chief in India — retained responsibility for Allied operations in Burma and Sumatra (which fell to the Japanese on 28 March 1942), and against Japanese held Singapore, Malaya and Thailand.

On March 24 1942, the newly-formed British-US Combined Chiefs of Staff issued a directive designating the Pacific theater an area of American strategic responsibility. Six days later the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) divided the Pacific theater into three areas: the Pacific Ocean Areas (POA), the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), and the South East Pacific Area. Therefore most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands fell under a separate Allied command, Pacific Ocean Areas, headed by US Admiral Chester Nimitz.

The Allied commander in the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur who had headed was elevated to the post of Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific Area. As the Japanese surrounded US and Filipino forces in the Philippines, MacArthur was ordered by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to leave his headquarters on Bataan Peninsula, near Manila, and to relocate to Melbourne, Australia.

Image:Curtinmacarthur.jpg
On April 17, the Australian government, led by Prime Minister John Curtin, directed Australian personnel to treat orders from MacArthur as equivalent its own. In fact, for most of 1942, MacArthur commanded more Australians than US personnel. He also commanded some Dutch forces which had retreated to Australia. Later in the war, some British and other Allied forces also came under MacArthur's command.

In July, MacArthur moved his headquarters north, to Brisbane, Australia.

One result of the division of the Pacific theatre into two separate Allied/U.S. commands was that each competed for scarce resources in an economy-of-force theater, and each was headed by a commander in chief (CinC) from a different service. In particular, the division of the Solomon Islands caused problems, since the battles of the Solomon Islands campaign in 1942–1943 ranged over the whole region, with the main Japanese bases in SWPA and the main Allied bases in POA. The main Allied offensives were undertaken from the POA.

Although MacArthur had been ordered by Roosevelt to appoint as many Australian and Dutch officers to senior positions as possible, most of his immediate staff was made up of US Army officers who had served under him in the Philippines. The Australian Army CinC, General Thomas Blamey, was appointed Commander, Alllied Land Forces. However the CinCs of the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy were sidelined from 1942 as their subordinates were put under the operational control of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and U.S. Seventh Fleet. Similarly, from mid-1943, the U.S. Sixth Army (code name Alamo Force) was deployed under MacArthur's direct control, meaning that Blamey was excluded from command of the vast majority of U.S. land forces in the theatre after that time.

In 1945, following the Allied landings in the Philippines, MacArthur moved his headquarters back to Manila.

Forces from the SWPA were to have made up a significant proportion of the Allied units set aside for the proposed invasion of Japan, scheduled to take place from November 1945.

Major campaigns in the theatre

Command structure (combat units)

(Ranks cited are those on assumption of each position.)
General Douglas MacArthur, Philippine Army/U.S. Army, Supreme Commander (1942-45)

US Army Forces Far East

Allied Land Forces (1942-45)

Australian Army officers, except where stated.

New Guinea Force (1942-44)

  • Allied land forces in the Territory of New Guinea
    • Lt Gen. Sydney Rowell, New Guinea Force (until September 1942)
    • Gen. Blamey (in direct command), September 1942 to 1943)
    • Lt Gen. Iven Mackay, (January 30, 1943 to May 21,1943
    • Lt Gen. Leslie Morshead May 21, 1943 to August 28, 1943)
    • Lt Gen. Mackay (second time), (August 28, 1943 to January 20, 1944)

Advanced New Guinea Force

Australian First Army (1944-45)

  • Australian front line land units, 1944-45

U.S. Sixth Army (1943-45)

U.S. Eighth Army (1944-45)

Allied Air Forces

U.S. Army Air Force officers, except where stated.

RAAF Command

Advanced Echelon, Fifth Air Force

Allied Naval Forces

U.S. Navy officers, except where stated.

Southwest Pacific Sea Frontiers

See also

External links

Prof. David Horner, 2002, "The Evolution of Australian Higher Command Arrangements"

U.S. Army in World War II (official history) "Organization and Command of the Pacific"

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