Later, as the war progressed, similar training establishments were established closer to the fast moving front. It was here that the RAN trained its landing craft and crews involved in amphibious invasions of Dutch New Guinea, Tarakan and Balikpapan, as well as the Leyte and Lingayen invasions in the Philippines. Of the 141 ships and landing craft (thirteen Australian built) based at Port Stephens in October 1943, thirty-six were controlled by HMAS Assault and 105 by the US Navy. The Tomaree seawards and seafront defences were progressively strengthened, as their strategic importance increased, to create Fort Tomaree which protected the first Allied Combined Operations, Landing Training Centre in the south-west Pacific theatre, for the invasion of the Japanese held islands in the Pacific.