ABSTRACT
Australia would thereby be neutralised as a potential base for a United States counteroffensive against Japan's Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, as its occupied territories were called. In addition, the return of the 6th and 7th Divisions—and the 9th in early 1943—strengthened Australia's claim, in the international political arena, to be a key player in the Pacific war. The Australian Chiefs of Staff were in effect replaced as the main source of military advice to Curtin by a foreign general. Although Curtin could consult Blarney and other Australian officers when he saw fit, more often, as David Horner says, he 'looked to MacArthur as the main source of advice'. Outnumbered, short of food and ammunition, drenched by torrential rain and continually outflanked by the enemy, Australian troops were pushed back over the Owen Stanleys throughout August.
