 As commander of the AIF , Blamey was answerable directly to the Minister of Defence , rather than to the Military Board , with a charter based on that given to Bridges in 1914 . Part of this required that his forces remain together as cohesive units , and that no Australian forces were to be deployed or engaged without the prior consent of the Australian government . Blamey was not inflexible , and permitted Australian units to be detached when there was a genuine military need . Because the situation in the Middle East lurched from crisis to crisis , this resulted in his troops becoming widely scattered at times . When the crises had passed , however , he wanted units returned to their parent formations . This resulted in conflicts with British commanders . The first occurred in August 1940 when the British Commander in Chief Middle East Command , General Sir Archibald Wavell , and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , Winston Churchill , ordered the 16th Infantry Brigade to move to Egypt . Blamey refused on the grounds that the brigade was not yet fully equipped , but eventually compromised , sending it on the understanding that it would soon be joined by the rest of the 6th Division . 
