page_title: George Brett (general)
section_title: East Indies
hierarchical_section_title: George Brett (general) / World War II / East Indies
caption_attribution_description: English: American - British -Dutch - Australian command (ABDACOM) meeting with General Wavell for the first time. Seated around the table, from left: Admirals Layton, Helfrich, and Hart, General ter Poorten, Colonel Kengen, Royal Netherlands Army (at head of table), and Generals Wavell, Brett, and Brereton. Nederlands: Het Amerikaans Brits - Nederlands - Australisch commando (ABDACOM) voor het eerst bijeen.
context_page_description: George Howard Brett was a United States Army Air Forces General during World War II. An Early Bird of Aviation, Brett served as a staff officer in World War I. In 1941, following the outbreak of war with Japan, Brett was appointed Deputy Commander of a short-lived major Allied command, the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, which oversaw Allied forces in South East Asia and the South West Pacific. In early 1942, he was put in charge of United States Army Forces in Australia, until the arrival of Douglas MacArthur. Brett then commanded all Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area. In November 1942, he was appointed commander of the US Caribbean Defense Command and remained in this post for the rest of the war.
context_section_description: The outbreak of war between the United States and Japan in December 1941 changed things and Brett received new orders. He first flew to Rangoon and then, in the company of the Sir Archibald Wavell, the British Commander-in-Chief, India, on to Chungking where the two met with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. They obtained a promise of Chinese troops to assist in the defence of Burma. Near Rangoon, Wavell's and Brett’s aircraft was attacked by Japanese aircraft and they were forced to make an emergency landing at a friendly aerodrome in Burma. The area was then bombed by the Japanese, but neither general was harmed. Brett was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA), under Wavell, on 1 January 1942, and was promoted to lieutenant general on 7 January 1942. He arrived in Darwin on 28 December 1941. In January he moved to Lembang in West Java, where Wavell established his headquarters. The rapid advance of Japanese forces through South East Asia had soon split the Allied-controlled area in two. Brett departed Java for Australia on 23 February 1942, reaching Melbourne the next day, where he resumed command of US Army Forces in Australia. ABDA was formally dissolved on 25 February.
caption: ABDA COMMAND meeting with General Wavell for the first time. Seated around the table, from left: Admirals Layton, Helfrich, and Hart, General ter Poorten, Colonel Kengen, Royal Netherlands Army (at head of table), and Generals Wavell, Brett, and Brereton.
exif: {}