This is unedited raw film footage, shot by Academy Award winning US Marine cinematographer Norman T. Hatch for a US newsreel that was never completed, provisionally titled 'Meet New Zealand'. Around 21,000 Marines were stationed in camps around the Wellington region from June 1942 until November 1943. Most of their time was spent training hard preparing for the war in the Southwest Pacific against the Japanese.
A small US Airforce 8-seater plane lands at Wellington airport, carrying Lieutenant General A. Vandegrift, Commanding General of all SW Pacific Marine forces. Several other Marine officers also get off the plane and are met on the tarmac by Major General Julian Smith, Commanding General of the Second Marine Division, now stationed in Wellington.