ANZUK was a tripartite force formed by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to defend the Asian Pacific region after the United Kingdom withdrew forces from the east of Suez in the early 1970s. The ANZUK force was formed in Singapore on 1 November 1971 under Rear Admiral David Wells and disbanded in 1974.
ANZUK initially consisted of the following major units:
ANZUK Force HQ
9 ANZUK Signal Regiment: Under command of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals, 9th Signal Regiment task was to support the ANZUK Force, which in 1970 had replaced the British Forces Headquarters and Installations in Singapore. this joint service, multi national regiment took over, as going concerns, the Royal Navy Transmitter Stations at Suara, and the Royal Navy Receiver Station Kranji. The regiment employed New Zealand and British Army, Navy and Air Force Personnel together with locally enlisted Singaporean, British, New Zealand and Australian civilian technicians and communication specialists. In addition there was operational control of a group of Malaysian Navy communicators, which were to interface the force with the Malaysian Navy.
ANZUK Ordnance Depot: To support the Land Army component of the ANZUK Force, the ANZUK Ordnance Depot was established from the existing Australian/New Zealand 5 Advanced Ordnance Depot. Located in the premises vacated by the Royal Navy Victualling Depot on the dockside at Sembawang Naval Base. Ordnance support to ANZUK Force was based upon an integrated supply service manned by service personnel from the RAOC, RAAOC and RNZAOC with locally employed civilians performing the basic clerical, warehousing and driving tasks. ANZUK Ordnance Depot was constituted of the following elements:
Contributing nations wore their individual national uniforms with the addition of the following identifying patches; Sea and Air components did not wear any of the patchs as they remained under national command and were only attached to ANZUK command on an as required basis.
Disbandment
By 1973 the political climate in Australia and the United Kingdom had changed and it was time for ANZUK to be disbanded. Rear Admiral Wells, the First ANZUK commander who established the Force, had the task of planning the run-down phase and handing over to his successor Air Vice MarshalRichard Gordon Wakeford, to follow through. Australia would be retaining a presence in Butterworth in Malaysia and the United Kingdom had decided to withdrawal all its forces east of Suez. It was in New Zealand's interest to retain a force in southeast Asia, so on 30 January 1974 New Zealand Force South East Asia was formed, taking under its command all the New Zealand units formerly part of ANZUK. Over the course of 1974 the integrated units which made up the ANZUK were gradually disbanded and replaced by national units. On 16 December 1974 the Naval and Air Headquarters were disbanded and their assets reverted to their respective national command and what remained of the United Kingdom's land component forces became the 28th Infantry Brigade. Taking several years for the Australian and United Kingdom units to draw down and withdraw, it was not until 1977 that NZFORSEA was the sole remaining foreign presence in Singapore.
