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.
US Marine officers board landing boats. US warships gather off Wellington’s coast while crew work to load vehicles and supplies onto Higgins Boats in preparation to ready warships for leaving. American aircraft fly overhead and radio operators communicate with them from the warships. Convoys of Higgins Boats bring Marines to the gathering warships. With all their training behind them, the US Marine Expeditionary Forces now make final preparations before leaving for combat at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands.