ANZAC Area
| ANZAC Area (Command) | |
|---|---|
South Pacific Lines of Communication to Australia 1942
|
|
| Active | 27 January – 22 April 1942 |
| Country |
 Australia New Zealand United States
|
| Allegiance | Allies of World War II |
| Branch | Navy |
| Type | Multinational naval air and sea support |
| Role | Defense of Australia and Commonwealth territories |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Herbert Fairfax Leary |
The ANZAC Area, also called the ANZAC Command, was a short-lived (29 January – 18 April 1942) naval military command for Allied forces defending the northeast approaches to Australia including the Fiji Islands, New Hebrides, and New Caledonia during the early stages of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. The command was created on 27 January 1942. United States Navy Vice Admiral Herbert Fairfax Leary commanded the force. The force co-existed with the Allied ABDA command which was charged with defending Allied colonial territories in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific from Imperial Japanese aggression.
The ANZAC Area command was established by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff on 29 January 1942 in response to an Australian government request for a command dedicated solely to the protection of Australia after the fall of Singapore and Rabaul during which ABDA Command was focused on events in Java and the Malay barrier to the west and United States fleet assets were focused on defense of Hawaii.
The Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, had insisted Australia's defenses be augmented as the Japanese advances in the ABDA area continued and the United States Pacific fleet assets were focused on threats to Hawaii and the central Pacific and the United States Navy had refused to take full responsibility for the eastern approaches to Australia's vital lines of communication. The fall of Rabaul alarmed Australia and the earlier study as a result of Admiral King's concern had proposed an area command covering those approaches with air and naval forces supplied by Australia and New Zealand with the assistance of the United States under the direction of an American flag officer under Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet. The plan, coordinated with the British First Sea Lord, had been submitted to the Australian government 8 January but for unknown reasons was delayed about two weeks until the Japanese capture of Rabaul on 23 January when Prime Minister Curtin agreed, but with assumptions about the U.S. Pacific Fleet that took another week to resolve. Formal establishment took place on 29 January 1942.
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