Why they came - US Forces in New Zealand

Why did they come?

It was the dramatic spread of war to the Pacific some six months earlier which had brought about the first substantial landing of foreign troops in New Zealand since British regiments had left in the 1860s.

On 7 December 1941 Japanese bombers had crippled the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. If New Zealanders felt vaguely thankful that the Americans were now involved in the war, their confidence was quickly shaken. Within days British naval strength, for so long New Zealand's surest bastion, was shown to be vulnerable. The warships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese torpedoes. By Christmas Day Hong Kong had fallen; and then on 15 February Singapore surrendered. Four days later Darwin was bombed. Some New Zealanders became alarmed that Auckland might be next.

The Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, appealed to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for assistance in strengthening New Zealand's defence, making the point that with war in the Pacific New Zealand could become a main base area. Churchill was in no position to help, but he was sympathetic to Fraser's plea. There was the obvious option of withdrawing the New Zealand Division from the Middle East to defend the homeland as the Australians had done. But the war in the Middle East was delicately balanced, and the New Zealand troops had been trained to fight there. To withdraw them would be time-consuming and costly in terms of shipping. So on 5 March Churchill asked Roosevelt to send a division to New Zealand on the condition that the New Zealanders remained in Egypt. Roosevelt agreed, and on 24 March cabled that 'we are straining every effort' to send forces at the earliest moment.

From the American perspective the despatch of troops to New Zealand was not primarily to defend the two distant islands in the South Pacific. New Zealand had a strategic importance. In mid- March the Allies had decided to divide responsibility for their forces into three zones. The British would control the Middle East-Indian Ocean area, the European-Atlantic zone would be a shared responsibility, and the Pacific would come under the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Within the Pacific itself there was a further division into two main theatres: the South-west Pacific, including Australia, the Philippines, New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies; and the Pacific Ocean in which New Zealand was a main base. New Zealand would thus serve as a source of supply and a staging post for operations against the Japanese within the Pacific. There American forces might train for offensives ahead or recuperate from battles just past. There vegetables and stores could be found for sending to the bloodied jungles further north.