Naval exercises


LANDING EXERCISES IN PAEKAKARIKI - 16 June 1943

Silent footage shot on 16 June 1943 at the coast of Paekākāriki. A large US Marine force lands on the beach, bringing artillery and tanks. After this exercise, a simulated attack is carried out. Three US warships are seen on the horizon, from which a second wave of US Marines arrive in numerous landing boats at dusk. Landing boats carrying troops of 1st Battalion, 10th Marines and heavy artillery, approach the beach. Troops of the 2nd Marine Division await camouflaged in the scrub on the sandhills above the beach. Troops of Marines are on the beach, along with tanks and jeeps, brought to shore on tank lighters. Tanks breach the barbed wire foreshore. US Airforce planes fly low over the beach. Members of the 1st Battalion in full kit haul heavy artillery on carts along the shore. Disassembled artillery components are carried over the sandhills by hand. A US Army tank drives off a tank lighter into the surf. Tanks climb sandhills and scrubland. A minefield on the foreshore is detonated in the simulated attack. A landing party of Marines is seen racing for cover from their landing boats. An injured Marine is attended to on the beach. A landing boat full of Marines is seen disembarking into the surf while other landing boats are seen navigating the waves.

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HIGGINS BOATS LANDING EXERCISES AT MARTINS BAY, MAHURANGI EAST, 25 MARCH 1943

At early dawn, silhouetted Marines on Higgins Boats, land on a beach, ferrying the men from troop transports anchored offshore. The first to arrive are Marines of a signal company, carrying heavy reels of wire, which will be set up for communications. Many more Higgins Boats bring landing parties of Marines that rapidly disembark and run up the beach through the surf as part of their training manoeuvres. Site secured, they set-up a camp and soon army jeeps and amphibian tractors are seen transporting fuel and supplies, which chains of men pass up the line. Rapidly a base is set-up as more tank lighters bring military vehicles to shore. Commanding Officers put a plan in place and Marines armed with weapons slowly advance and secure more of the surrounding area.

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TESTING AMPHIBIOUS VEHICLES OVER BARRIERS, August 1943

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.

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