 Northcott spent much of his time from 1943 on in a long battle with the government over the number of men and women allocated to the Army . He attempted to do so without Blamey being dragged into a political fight but this proved to be impossible . In September 1944 , the government reduced the Army 's monthly intake of women from 925 to 500 , while it only received 420 out of 4 @,@ 020 men allocated to the three services . Such a meagre allocation was below what the Army needed to maintain its strength , and formations had to be disbanded . Blamey took up the matter with Prime Minister John Curtin , and managed to get a more satisfactory monthly allocation of 1 @,@ 500 men per month out of 3 @,@ 000 allocated to the three services . 
