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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.
In August 1943, on the Petone foreshore at low tide, barriers are set-up to test US Marine amphibian tractors. The barriers consist of a series of concrete-filled, 44-gallon drums that are threaded together by steel cables. Each drum is also anchored to the beach by more steel cables attached to metal stakes in the ground.
Members of the 2nd Marine Division at Hutt Park, gather on the sand hills to watch the testing of two amphibious tractors breaching the barriers at high tide. Matiu Island and the Wellington headland are visible in the background. The vehicles pass the test with ease resulting in sheared and frayed steel cables.