American-British-Dutch-Australian Command
The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was the short-lived supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II. The command consisted of the forces of Australia, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States. The main objective of the command, led by General Sir Archibald Wavell,[1] was to maintain control of the "Malay Barrier" (or "East Indies Barrier"), a notional line running down the Malay Peninsula, through Singapore and the southernmost islands of the 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).
"ABDA" redirects here. For other uses, see Abda (disambiguation).Although ABDACOM existed only for a few weeks and presided over one defeat after another, it provided some useful lessons for combined Allied commands later in the war.
General Sir Archibald Wavell, British Army (BA) – Supreme Commander
Land forces (ABDARM)
(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 (ABDAIR)
Naval forces (ABDAFLOAT)