 The Allied command structure in the South West Pacific Area faced the challenges of coalition warfare in several ways , with varying degrees of success . The benefits of the wartime alliances proved to be substantial , but required constant effort to maintain . For Australia and New Zealand , coalition warfare became the norm , and the experience in SWPA proved to be a formative and informative one , with many political and military lessons . Over the following decades , Australian , New Zealand and American forces would fight together again , in the Korean War , Vietnam War and the War on Terror . 
