Originally Posted by MikeMcGuire

My view is Australia is a passenger, much like when Douglas MacArthur came to Australia and took charge.


I hope that we don't have a repeat of that particular scenario. MacArthur, after shamefully abandoning his command in the Phillipines, came to Australia and made more or less a complete hames of things. He staffed his command with his own cronies, with no combat experience, rather than involving Australian commanders who had been at war for a couple of years by then, and after he very nearly dropped the ball in New Guinea blamed others for his mistakes. He was a bad leader, and an incompetent one.