The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, code name ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia, in early 1942, during the Pacific War. The main objective of the command, led by General Sir Archibald Wavell, was to maintain control of the "Malay Barrier" (or "East Indies Barrier"), a notional line running down the Malayan Peninsula, through Singapore and the southernmost islands of Dutch East Indies. ABDACOM was also known in British military circles as the "South West Pacific Command", although it should not be confused with the later South West Pacific Area command (see below). 

History of the command

Efforts to organise the ABDA Command began soon after war between the Allies and Japan commenced, on December 7, 1941. On December 29, Winston Churchill said that it had been agreed Wavell would be supreme commander.[1] Wavell then held the position of British Commander-in-Chief India. Churchill added:

It is intended that General Wavell should have a staff in the south Pacific accessible as Foch's High Control Staff was to the Great Staffs of the British and French armies in France [during World War I]. He would receive his orders from an appropriate joint body who will be responsible to me as the Minister of Defence and to the President of the United States who is also Commander-in-Chief of all United States forces.

Following the Declaration by the United Nations on January 1, 1942, the Allied governments formally appointed Wavell. The formation of ABDACOM mean that Wavell had nominal control of a huge, but thinly-spread force, covering an area from Burma in the west, to Dutch New Guinea and the Philippines in the east. Other areas, including India and Hawaii remained officially under separate commands, and in practice General Douglas MacArthur was in complete control of Allied forces in The Philippines. At Wavell's insistence, north western Australia (see map) was added to the ABDA area. The rest of Australia was under Australian control, as was the Territory of New Guinea.

Wavell arrived in Singapore, where the British Far East Command was based, on January 7, 1942. ABDACOM absorbed this British command in its entirety. On January 15, Wavell moved his headquarters to Bandung in Java and assumed control of Allied operations.

The governments of Australia, the Netherlands and New Zealand lobbied Winston Churchill for an Allied inter-governmental war council, with overall responsibility for the Allied war effort in Asia and the Pacific, based in Washington D.C.. A Far Eastern Council was established in London on February 9, with a corresponding staff council in Washington. However, the smaller powers continued to push for a body based in the US.

In the meantime, the rapid collapse of Allied resistance to Japanese attacks in Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and other countries had soon overwhelmed the Malay Barrier, and left the ABDA Area split in two.

Wavell resigned as supreme commander on the February 25,1942 handing control of the ABDA Area to local commanders. He also recommended the establishment of two Allied supreme commands to replace ABDACOM: a south west Pacific command, and one based in India. In anticipation of this, Wavell had handed control of Burma to the British India Command and reassumed his previous position, as Commander-in-Chief India.

Following the destruction of the main ABDA naval force under Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman, at the Battle of the Java Sea, in February-March 1942, ABDA effectively ceased to exist.

As the Japanese closed in on the remaining Allied forces in the Philippines, MacArthur was ordered to re-locate to Australia. On March 17, the US Government appointed him as Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific Area, a command which included Australia and New Guinea in addition to Japanese-held areas. The rest of the geographic area of the Pacific Theater of Operations remained under the Pacific Ocean Areas command, led by Commander-in-Chief Admiral Chester Nimitz of the US Navy.

The inter-governmental Pacific War Council was established in Washington on April 1, but remained largely ineffectual due to the overwhelming predominance of US forces in Asia and the Pacific throughout the war.

Although ABDACOM was only in existence for several weeks and it presided over one defeat after another, it did provide some useful lessons for more successful supreme Allied commands, such as SHAEF in Europe.

Official command structure

General Sir Archibald Wavell, British Army (BA) — Supreme Commander

• Lieutenant General George H. Brett , US Army Air Corps (USAAC) — Deputy Commander
• Lt Gen. Henry Royds Pownall (BA) — Chief of Staff

Land forces

• Lt Gen. Hein Ter Poorten, Royal Netherlands Army — commander of land forces (ABDA Land); also in direct command of Dutch East Indies land forces
  • Major General Ian Playfair (BA) — deputy land commander and chief of staff, land forces
  • Maj. Gen. Thomas Jacomb Hutton (BA) — Burma Command
  • Maj. Gen. David Blake, Australian Army, Australian 7th Military District (Northern Australia)
  • Lt Gen. Arthur Percival (BA) — Malaya Command
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur, United States Army — Philippines command

(MacArthur was technically subordinate to Wavell, but in reality many of the chains of command shown here operated independently of ABDACOM and/or existed only on paper.)

Air forces

• Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse , Royal Air Force (RAF), commander of air forces (ABDA Air)
  • Maj. Gen. Lewis H Brereton (USAAC), deputy commander air forces
    • Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) D. F. Stevenson RAF, NORGROUP (Burma)
    • AVM C. W. Pulford RAF, WESGROUP (Malaya and North Sumatra)
    • (Probably) Maj. Gen. Ludolph van Oyen Royal Netherlands Army Air Force (RNAAF), CENGROUP (South Sumatra and West Java)
    •  ? (USAAC) and ? (RNAAF), RECGROUP (reconnaisance)
    • (Possibly) Brigadier General Ralph Royce (USAAC) EASGROUP (East Java)
    • Air Commodore D. E. L. Wilson, Royal Australian Air Force AUGROUP (Northern Australia and Moluccas)

Naval forces

• Admiral Thomas C. Hart, US Navy (USN) commander of naval forces (ABDA Sea). Until February 12, 1942.
• Adm. Conrad Helfrich, Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN) After February 12.
  • Rear Admiral Arthur Palliser , (British) Royal Navy, deputy commander naval forces
    • R. Adm. William A. Glassford , Jr. (USN) commander US naval forces
    • R. Adm. Johan van Staveren (RNN) commander Dutch naval forces
    • Commodore John Collins, Royal Australian Navy, commander British-Australian naval forces

See also

• South-East Asian Theatre
• South East Asia Command

External links

• Boundaries of ABDA Area
• British War office report on: OPERATIONS IN BURMA FROM 15th DECEMBER 1941 to 20th MAY 1942
• Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons Official Report, Jan. 27, 1942. on the Far Eastern theatre and A.B.D.A
• February 15 1942: The fall of Singapore Capitulation telegram from ABDACOM to Prime Minister of Australia
• account of the ABDA campaign
• Chapter 10: Loss of the Netherlands East Indies