The Curtin Government agreed that the Australian Army's I Corps – centred on the 6th and 7th Divisions – would be transferred from North Africa to the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command in the Netherlands East Indies for the defence of Java and Sumatra. Before they could arrive, Singapore fell on 15 February 1942. Most of the 8th Division was taken into captivity, although a small number, including its commander, Major General Gordon Bennett, managed to escape. "The fall of Singapore", Curtin announced in a radio address to the nation on 16 February, "can only be described as Australia's Dunkirk. It will be recalled that the fall of Dunkirk initiated the Battle for Britain. The fall of Singapore opens the Battle for Australia. On its issue depends not merely the fate of this Commonwealth but the frontier of the United States of America and, indeed, all the Americas and, therefore, in a large measure the fate of the British-speaking world."