Arrival - US forces in New Zealand

The troops arrive

The invasion began in Auckland on 12 June 1942 when five transport ships carrying soldiers of the US army (or 'doughboys' as they were called) sailed into the harbour. Two days later marines (or 'leathernecks') landed in Wellington. They had arrived as a result of the outbreak of war in the Pacific six months before. From the New Zealand perspective the Americans strengthened New Zealand's defences against possible Japanese attack; while the Americans saw New Zealand as a valuable source of supply and a staging post for operations against the Japanese in the Pacific.

Auckland

For Aucklanders, the invasion began on a wintry Friday afternoon, 12 June 1942. The skies were grey, the water the colour of steel, as five transport ships, with a cruiser in front and a destroyer in the rear, sailed into Auckland harbour unannounced. The next morning the Mayor of Auckland, J.A.C. Allum, and four military bands stood on Prince's Wharf waiting to greet the new arrivals. They played appropriate pieces -'The Stars and Stripes Forever', 'Colonel Bogey' - and were quickly answered by wide-mouthed sousaphones on board ship playing 'Roll Out the Barrel'. Local ferries blared their horns, passengers waved; the Americans, nurses in blue, soldiers in olive-green, cheered and crammed the cityside of one transport so tightly that the ship listed heavily.

As they berthed another interesting exchange occurred. The Americans threw down oranges, cigarettes and money; the waiting Kiwis picked up the gifts and threw back New Zealand coins. Some of the visitors wondered where they were, but an American on the wharf, one of the advance guard, gave them all the information they needed to know: 'No Scotch, two per cent beer, but nice folks.' Some evidently did know what country they had reached, for the first of the newcomers to land on New Zealand soil was Sergeant Nathan E. Cook, chosen in commemoration of the explorer Captain James Cook. It was some hours before all his comrades of 145 Regiment of the 37th US Army Division were marched off to the railway station and to camp.

Wellington

Wellington's invasion began two days later on 14 June 1942, when a battered USS Wakefield entered the harbour. Since it was a Sunday morning there were few about, but again there was a band waiting on King's Wharf. This time they struck up with the Marine Corps hymn, 'From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli...', for these arrivals were the famous marines of the 1st Corps Division. The distinction - army units or, in contemporary slang, 'doughboys' to Auckland, marines or 'leathernecks' to Wellington - was to remain largely (although not exclusively) the pattern as Americans, women as well as men, arrived over the next two years.