Australia". On 22 October Blamey visited Koitaki at short notice. He requested a private audience with Potts, and Brigade HQ was vacated. Potts' Staff Captain Ken Murdoch was deeply involved in paperwork and somehow remained to witness the "private" conversation. According to Murdoch, Potts, fresh from Allen's glowing endorsement, began by extolling the virtues of his men, and expressed satisfaction with the boost to home front morale they had been able to provide. Blamey cut him short. He relieved Potts of his command, citing Potts' failure to hold back the Japanese, despite commanding "superior forces". Further, Potts had failed to re-take Kokoda despite explicit orders to do so. Blamey explained that Prime Minister John Curtin had told him to say that failures like Kokoda campaign would not be tolerated. Murdoch reports Blamey saying "the men had shown that something was lacking" and that their leaders were to blame. Potts furiously rejected any blame being attached to his battalion commanders. Blamey was not interested in debating the finer points, nor in allowing Potts to remain in contact with those same battalion commanders. He was to leave the brigade immediately and fly to Darwin—a personal address to the brigade would not be possible, nor could he meet and brief his replacement. Murdoch says that the news spread rapidly, and as Staff Captain he was inundated with resignation papers from officers wishing to show solidarity with Potts. Potts instructed Murdoch to reject all resignations. Rowell was replaced by Lieutenant General Edmund Herring, a man close to Blamey. Now Herring chose Brigadier Ivan Dougherty to replace Potts. During his recent period of command in the Northern Territory, Herring had relieved both his brigadiers, replacing them with younger and better educated officers, one of whom was Dougherty, an officer in whom he had great confidence. Herring believed that his decision to replace Potts with Dougherty, who would command the 21st Brigade for the rest of the war, was the right one. Years later he told official historian Dudley McCarthy that: "We knew the terrain was most difficult and the Japs very good jungle fighters ... we had a war to win and it was our job to call in the best man we could. It would have been wrong for us to allow ourselves to be influenced by Potts' feelings." Potts' removal could charitably be attributed to Blamey's inadequate understanding of the circumstances Potts had