The Allied plan to attack the southern Solomons was conceived by U.S. Navy Admiral Ernest King, the Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet. King proposed the counter-offensive to deny the use of the southern Solomon Islands by the Japanese as bases to threaten the supply routes between the United States and Australia, and to use them as starting points for a campaign with the goal of isolating the new and major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. All of this had the eventual goal of opening the way for the U.S. to retake the Philippines. The American Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Allied Commander-in-Chief for all forces in the Pacific, created the South Pacific theater of operations, with Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley placed in command on 19 June 1942, to direct the Allied offensive in the Solomons.