General Conditions

The Division had to face the problem of great distances, as any large-scale map of the Pacific will show, and close contact was made difficult through the force being usually divided into three groups—Divisional Headquarters, 14th Brigade, and 8th Brigade. There were constant delays in the arrival of warlike stores and welfare supplies, which had to travel by sea and air, and much

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confusion was caused by the different systems of priorities used by United States and Dominion forces serving in that theatre.

The climate of New Caledonia was tropical, roads were few and bad, and the scenery a mixture of forbidding hills and monotonous vegetation consisting largely of the stunted naiouli tree. Large parts of the island are uninhabited and, apart from Noumea, there were no towns with facilities for leave.