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The corps was established on April 11 , 1940 in Melbourne , Australia, to supervise the frontline divisions of the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF). Lieutenant General Thomas Blamey , the 2nd AIF commander, was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) I Australian Corps. MEDITERRANEAN THEATRE On 10 June , 1940, Blamey left Australia to set up his headquarters in Palestine . The corps took over control of Cyrenaica , Libya on February 16, 1941, replacing the British XIII Corps . In April 1941, I Corps HQ was transferred to Greece for the Greek Campaign . The corps controlled the Australian 6th Division , the New Zealand 2nd Division , the Greek 12th Division and the British 1st Armoured Brigade . On April 12, it was officially renamed the '' Anzac Corps'', a reference to the combined Australian-New Zealand formations of World War I . However, the Allied forces were quickly overcome by the German advance and I Corps HQ left Greece on April 23-24. In June, as part of the initial plan for the (less the 18th Infantry Brigade), the Free French Division and the Indian 5th Infantry Brigade Group. Following the hard-fought Allied victory, I Corps assumed responsibilty for occupying all of Lebanon and Syria north of the Beirut-Damascus road, including the border with Turkey. SOUTH WEST PACIFIC AREA On January 3, 1941, following the outbreak of the Pacific War , the British government requested that two Australian divisions be sent to the Far East. The Australian government agreed to this request on the January 6, and ordered the redeployment of I Corps Headquarters, along with the 6th and 7th Divisions . These units had left Egypt for Java by the end of January. However, few Australian units landed in the Netherlands East Indies before it had fallen to Japanese forces. There was a dispute between Winston Churchill and Australian Prime Minister John Curtin , over whether the main part of the force should instead be sent to South Asia or Australia. However, I Corps HQ was relocated to Australia and the 6th Division (less the 19th Brigade) was detached to Ceylon . COMMANDERS
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