 The system of divided command... was not an ideal arrangement, but with men of goodwill it could have worked.Regrettably Bostock and Jones were not of that mind..."

Friction between the two senior officers over the command structure rapidly deteriorated into a state of "complete obduracy", and remained so until the end of the war.As a direct report to the USAAF's Lieutenant-General George Kenney, commander of Allied Air Forces in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA), Bostock was able to ignore many directives from Jones, his nominal superior in the RAAF.