Quote Originally Posted by lonelywombat
I had no intention in of minimizing the huge US Military effort in the Pacific. Churchill wanted two Australian divisions diverted to Burma, [what a disaster] but Prime Minister Curtain would not have a bar of that.

Quote http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww2.htm
After being relieved at Tobruk, the 6th and 7th Divisions Divisions departed from the Mediterranean theatre for the war against Japan The 9th Division remained to play an important role in the Allied victory at El Alamein in October 1942 before it also left for the Pacific. By the end of 1942 the only Australians remaining in the Mediterranean theatre were airmen serving either with 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) or in the Royal Air Force (RAF).
Thanks for that link lonelywombat. I wasn't aware that Australia pulled all of it's ground forces out of the Mediterranean theater by the end of 42. I did know that the Aussie Govt. came under enormous pressure from its own people to pull them out at the beginning of 42 when the Japanese swept down the Malay peninsular and took Singapore and the Dutch East Indies and Oz certainly seemed next; there was nothing up there to stop them! I suppose if the US had not of given that assurance to protect Australia the events at El Alamein may have turned out very differently?? New Zealand's ground forces,in case you were wondering, remained in North Africa to eventually invade Italy and fight the Germans all the way up the Italian peninsular until the end of the war.