About This Unit
HQ North Western Area (RAAF) - WW2
Until the outbreak of the Pacific War RAAF HQ in Melbourne controlled all RAAF assets in Australia.
Geographic area commands were established and underwent a series of changes in quick succession. These changed several times until mid 1942 when the boundaries illustrated below were adopted.
The enemy threat, scope of proposed operations and the introduction of Allied Force Headquarters SWPA in Brisbane under US General McArthur, resulted in a change to the command and control structure of the RAAF. Initially, a 'Functional' command structure had been proposed but the size of the Australian landmass and its area of responsibility resulted in the RAAF adopting a geographic command structure.
RAAF Command HQ was co-located in Brisbane with Allied Headquarters and the Headquarters of the US 5th Air Force and assumed operational control of operational RAAF Squadrons.
Area HQ were revised from three to five, by splitting Northern Area in two, with NE Command based in Townsville and oriented towards New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and NW Area based in Darwin and oriented to the Netherlands East Indies and the Phillippines.