Chapter One
A Battalion Comes Into Being

During the early part of 1941, a brigade group known as B Force was sent to garrison Fiji. The infantry battalions raised for this purpose were the 29th, 30th and reinforcements which afterwards became the 34th. After Pearl Harbour it was realised that the Japanese threat to the Pacific was real, and it was decided to reinforce the brigade group with another brigade and supporting arms and form the Third New Zealand Division. The infantry battalions raised were the 35th, 36th and 37th. The birthplace of the 37th Battalion was Burnham Camp and for official purposes its date of birth can be given as 29 December, 1941. The battalion was organised from the 8th reinforcement draft which was waiting at Burnham to proceed to the Middle East.

Major A. H. L. Sugden, NZSC, who was second-in-command to the 3rd New Zealand Tank Battalion, was appointed to command with the rank of Iieutenant-colonel and he arrived at Burnham towards the end of December. The organisation, from a personnel point of view, was an easy task, as Major McLeod, who was commanding the reinforcement block, had his troops organised as a reinforcement battalion, and it was a simple matter to make the slight adjustments necessary to form a battalion consisting of a headquarters company (signal platoon, motor cycle platoon, AA platoon and administrative platoon), three rifle companies and a support company of three machinegun platoons and one mortar platoon.

D (s) company was weak in trained machinegun NCOs, but the CO was able to obtain from Army School three outstanding instructors. They were wellknown personalities, Sergeant E. G. Taylor, NZPS, Sergeant F. Rennie, NZPS and Sergeant R. G. Lockett, NZPS. They were appointed platoon sergeants, and it is pleasing to record that later they all received commissions. It will be seen that the battalion got off to a flying start with officers and NCOs. We were not so fortunate when equipping the battalion. The force was being raised hurriedly, and it was not possible for Army Headquarters Q staff to match the tempo of the G staff. The second-in-command and the quartermaster sweated blood in their endeavours to secure all that was laid down in war equipment tables. However, they were human beings and not miracle workers, and when the departure date came, the battalion was woefully short of many items of war equipment, including the whole of its bren page 12guns. These were located many weeks after embarkation in the camp quartermaster's store at Burnham. A word of thanks is due to Captain Dave Nicholls, ordnance officer at Burnham, for his assistance and cooperation in our efforts to make bricks without straw. During this period the officers-mess was educated in Fijian customs by Captain Jones and Lieutenant Edwards, who had previously served with B Force, and their interpretation of the kava ceremony was a masterpiece.

It would not be fitting to march out of Burnham without mentioning some of the celebrities of A block who, through force of circumstances, could not go forward with the battalion. Captain Jack Barnard, who always appeared to have a cut and dried job, and a good one just round the corner; Captain Malcolm, the block quartermaster; that delightful personality Fraser Macintosh who, although not in any way connected with the block, always seemed to be stamping around and leaving a trail of wreckage in his wake; Kevin Dunn, of Dunedin dancing fame, who was Major McLeod's batman; and finally Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, NZSC, camp commandant who, on occasions, must have wished that the ground would open and swallow A block, lock, stock and barrels, particularly barrels.