In March 1942 General Douglas MacArthur, who was to become Supreme Commander of Allied forces in the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA), escaped from the Philippines to Australia. He landed at Batchelor, near Darwin, in the Northern Territory and during the subsequent rail journey south stopped at Terowrie, South Australia, where locals and reporters crowded the railway station. In an address to the assembled people, he famously declared:

The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organising an American offensive against Japan, the primary purpose of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I will return.

The shortened catchphrase 'I shall return' became MacArthur’s most famous words.