support of the US invasion of New Britain in December 1943 and January 1944. The Catalinas also conducted mine-laying operations around the Timor Sea in the lead-up to the landings at Hollandia and Aitape in April 1944. That month, No. 9 Group, which had become a static garrison force similar to the area commands on mainland Australia, was renamed Northern Command and given responsibility for RAAF units in New Guinea. In August, No. 75 Wing was disbanded and its units became the direct responsibility of NEA headquarters. The same month, No. 76 Wing headquarters, formed at Townsville in January and subsequently based at Cairns, was transferred to Darwin, Northern Territory. There it came under the control of NWA headquarters and oversaw operations by three Catalina squadrons, including No. 20. No. 42 Wing disbanded in October 1944, following a decision to assign control of RAAF radar stations to mobile fighter control units or similar formations. By the end of February 1945, NEA headquarters staff numbered 743, including 127 officers. No. 72 Wing headquarters transferred to Townsville in May that year, and disbanded a month later. Post-war activity and disbandment On 2 September 1945, following the end of the Pacific War, South West Pacific Area was dissolved and the RAAF again assumed full control of all its operational elements. By the end of the month, NEA headquarters staff numbered 526, including ninety-eight officers. The Air Force shrank dramatically as personnel were demobilised and units disbanded; most of the RAAF's bases and aircraft employed in operations after the war were situated within Eastern Area's sphere of control in New South Wales and southern Queensland. NEA headquarters staff at the end of 1945 totalled 227, including sixty-three officers. In September 1946, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones, proposed reducing the five extant mainland area commands (North-Western, North-Eastern, Eastern, Southern, and Western Areas) to three: Northern Area, covering Queensland and the Northern Territory; Eastern Area, covering New South Wales; and Southern Area, covering Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. The Australian Government rejected the plan and the wartime area command boundaries essentially remained in place. Northern Command (redesignated Northern Area in 1945) was dissolved in February 1947. By 1949, NEA headquarters was located in Sturt Street, Townsville. No. 10 Squadron was based at Townsville from March that year, operating Avro Lincolns over the Pacific and Australia's northern approaches in