North-Eastern Area Command was one of several geographically based commands raised by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. It was formed in January 1942 and controlled units in central and northern Queensland, and Papua New Guinea. Headquartered at Townsville, Queensland, North-Eastern Area Command's responsibilities included air defence, aerial reconnaissance and protection of the sea lanes within its boundaries. Its flying units, equipped with fighters, reconnaissance bombers, dive bombers and transports, took part in the battles of Rabaul, Port Moresby and Milne Bay in 1942, and the landings at Hollandia and Aitape in 1944. The area command continued to operate after the war, but its assets and staffing were much reduced. Its responsibilities were subsumed in February 1954 by the RAAF's new functional commands: Home (operational), Training, and Maintenance Commands. The area headquarters was disbanded in December 1956 and re- formed as Headquarters RAAF Townsville.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Eastern_Area_Command

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1631:

Mumtaz Mahal, wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died in childbirth; Jahan spent the next seventeen years constructing her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

1876:

Great Sioux War: A band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne attacked a United States Army expedition and its Crow and Shoshone allies in the Battle of the Rosebud. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Rosebud

1940:

Second World War: Britain's worst maritime disaster occurred when at least 3,000 people were killed as a result of the troopship RMS Lancastria's sinking by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lancastria

1985:

On board Space Shuttle Discovery, Sultan bin Salman Al Saud became the first Arab, the first Muslim, and the first astronaut of royal blood to fly in outer space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_bin_Salman_Al_Saud

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

gastrodiplomacy: A type of cultural diplomacy where relations between representatives of different cultures are improved by the means of gastronomy and the promotion of national cuisines. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gastrodiplomacy

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

It has been deduced from Hitler’s great power over the masses that the Germans are an unusually suggestible race. But in all countries and at all times men have succumbed to the suggestive powers of unusual personalities, even if the wielders of those powers were not always good men in the Christian sense.   --Heinz Guderian https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinz_Guderian