Chapter Six
The Treasury Islands

The Treasury Islands group comprises five islands in the Northern Solomon Islands, from which the Buinarea of Bougainville, about 36 miles to the north-east, and the Shortland Islands, about 2.0 miles in the same direction, are both clearly visible in fine weather. Mono, the main island of the group, is a blunt cone about 1,100 feet in height and six miles in diameter, and round most of its rugged coast a heavy swell breaks on coral cliffs rising 30 or 40 feet from deep water. Parallel with the south coast of Mono Island, and less than a mile away, lies Stirling Island, which is narrow, rather flat, and about three miles in length. Between these two principal islands are the still waters of Blanche Harbour, where practically the only beaches in the group suitable for landings are situated. The islands were named by Lieutenant Shortland in 1788 when he was returning to England in charge of two convict ships from Botany Bay. Later the group was a coaling station for British whalers, and it is the only territory in the Northern Solomon Islands which has been consistently British since European powers established government. At one time the natives were described as 'the most treacherous and bloodthirsty of any known savages', but today they have dwindled to about only 200 in number, and like the Vella Lavellans, they are peaceful adherents of the Methodist Mission. The Japanese occupied Bougainville in March, 1942, and in October 1943, there were esti' mated to be up to 40,000 enemy troops on Bougainville, the Short-page 96land Islands and Choiseul Island—the latter about 80 miles east of the Treasury Islands. The Treasury Islands themselves were known to be occupied by a small force of Japanese, and the group was within only a few minutes' flight of Japanese air bases at Ballale (Shortland Islands) and Kihili (Bougainville).

At the time when Vella Lavella was the most advanced territory in allied occupation the 4th MT Company was at Guadalcanal as part of the 8th Brigade Group, which at that time included some American units, and numbered 7,700 men. The force was assigned to take the Treasury Islands as part of a wider plan—the first opposed landing by New Zealand troops since Gallipoli. At the same time as the 8th Brigade Group made its landing, paratroops launched a feint attack on Choiseul, from which island they withdrew shortly afterwards, while five days after the landing other American forces established themselves in considerable strength at Empress Augusta Bay on the west coast of Bougainville. The objectives of the Treasury Islands landing were to establish radars which would assist the Bougainville operation, to establish a staging point and PT boat base in Blanche Harbour, to establish an air base eventually if the terrain were suitable and, of course, to destroy the enemy on the islands.

The 8th Brigade Group convoy which left Guadalcanal in sections between 23 and 26 October numbered 3I craft of eight separate types, and it conveyed 1,785 tons of stores and equipment and 3,700 men, including 120 experienced personnel of the 4th MT Company who had just spent a busy few days loading the ships with large quantities of ammunition, petrol and rations. The convoy of green, camouflaged landing craft and destroyers sailed north in groups for 300 miles, for the last stage on a moonless night. About half the ASC men travelled on the slow LSTs and LCTs, which had been the first to leave. Those craft travelled in stages at night, and the passengers took a lively interest in the bases of Munda (New Georgia) and Vella Lavella, where calls were made. On board the ships in the early hours of the morning of 27 October, everyone was ready. Although there had been no incidents on the way up, apart from the dropping of a flare by a Japanese plane, excitement had prevented much sleep and appetites seemed to vanish. At first light, when the ships assembled south of Stirling Island in heavy rain, Mono Island was a dim shape almost hidden in cloud, and Stirling page 97Island was a paler, low strip of land.

Infantry transferred to small landing craft, and at 0545 hours destroyers bombarded known Japanese positions along the north shore of Blanche Harbour. Aircraft were circling the harbour, and it was with great relief that troops in the barges made out only RNZAF roundels on the wings. Gun-boats penetrated the harbour and bombarded both shores, which became concealed in a haze of smoke as over 1,000 shells were pumped ashore. A few ASC men were with the infantry when they landed from APDs at Falamai Beach at 0626 hours under Japanese mortar and small arms fire, and cleared the beach after a brief, bitter struggle. At the same time unopposed landings were made on the south shore of the harbour, on Stirling Island. The beaches at Falamai were known as Orange I and Orange 2, and those on Stirling Island as Purple I, Purple 1 and Purple 3.

The second wave from the APDs was ashore within the hour, and comprised mainly ASC personnel who travelled in small landing craft loaded with rations. The barges were under fire as they came in, and when they hit the beach the rations were unloaded at top speed by a human chain. LCIs with small deck cargoes of rations beached at 0650 hours and were quickly unloaded by the infantry, and LSTs, heavy with equipment, stores and troops, pulled in at 0750 hours. The enemy then laid mortar and mountain gun fire down on Falamai Beach, where each of two LSTs was hit. Unloading had to cease for a while. Most of the beach casualties occurred at that stage, and small fires were started on the ships: After a while these were extinguished, and unloading recommenced, but at that late stage a pill box on beach Orange I came to life and fired on men disembarking. It was not completely silenced until a Seabee rushed it with a 24-ton bulldozer. To shield himself from fire he kept the heavy blade raised until close to the pill box, when he lowered it, pushed the structure flat and crunched round on top of it with a swift half turn, disposing of 13 Japanese occupants.

Unloading work was difficult, as much of the stores had to be manhandled through the water and over the rocky coral shore. Within half an hour bulldozers had made 200 yards of rough road through the palms which fringed the beach, giving access to the jungle behind, and the road was soon alive with trucks, trailers and guns which poured out of the LSTs. ASC rations, petrol and ammuni-page 98tion were stacked into dumps spaced out in the jungle behind Falamai village. At about 0900 hours the Japanese resumed fire on the beach, and mountain gun shells began to fall in the 4th MT Company's area, where defensive positions were quickly dug. The enemy practically destroyed Falamai village by mortar fire, and blew up his own ammunition dump under the church. Although it was safer back from the beach, those who were unloading had to stay down there, except to take cover for a few minutes now and then when things became too hot altogether. The driver of one of the company's trucks had to shelter from mortar fire just after he had driven out of an LST with his vehicle laden with ammunition. When he returned he could not find his truck, which had received a direct hit. Next day the bumper bar was found nearby, and other parts were found 40 feet from the ground wrapped round a palm. (By a remarkable coincidence nearly all the quartermaster's subsequent shortages also seemed to have been loaded on that truck, the capacity of which must have been tremendous.) At about midday the Japanese guns and mortars which had been giving trouble were overrun in the hills by infantry patrols, and fire ceased. Before night' fall the ships pulled out to return to base, even though unloading was not complete, as the navy could not risk enemy air action overnight. The men ashore realised as the ships departed that they would be on their own for five days, and that they would have to stick it out whatever counter action the Japanese took.

When swift darkness came, everyone went down into his fox-hole. That first night on Mono Island was an unenviable experience. Very soon the expected enemy planes arrived, flying quite low over the trees with a drone which seemed continuous, and left no question of sleep. The first bomb dropped in the edge of the sea close to the ASC bivouac area, and men crouching in their shelters were sprayed with water, dirt and leaves. One of the worst features of the raids was that there could be no retaliation at that stage. Japanese knee mortars were also lobbing shells into the area inside the perimeter, and it seemed as though the enemy were trying to set fire to the dumps to provide a mark for low-flying aircraft. At about midnight he did succeed in setting the dump of rations and unit equipment at beach Orange 2 on fire, and when the blase spread to ammunition, fragments fell in the 4th MT Company's area.

The next day, in torrential rain, as many stores as possible were page break

These three pictures illustrate vividly the method of transport in island warfare. Above, troops are loading stores from the beach on to LCIs beached at Juno River, Vella Lavella, for the Nissan landing. Left: The crowded upper deck of an LST in a convoy. Each vehicle is packed with supplies. Below, is an artist's impression of men loading gear on to landing craft

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A water colour drawing of Blanche Harbour, in the Treasury Group. Falamai, where the New Zealanders landed, is the small peninsula on the left. Stirling Island which became an airfield, is opposite. An open-air picture theatre on Nissan is shown below

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Fresh food was stored in walk-in refrigerators, a block of which is pictured above. These served the 10th MT company at Halis, on Nissan. Below: A pup-tent in the jungle, showing mosquito net inside and a handy fox-hole

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These two views of the 4th MT company's camp on Stirling Island indicate the height of the trees and the mud which followed a period of rain. By the time the New Zealanders departed there was little forest remaining on Stirling—most of it had disappeared to make way for an airfield

page 99transferred across the harbour to Stirling Island, and late in the day company headquarters was set up at beach Purple 2, though a sub' stantial party remained on Mono Island. During that exhausting day further C rations were also issued to all units. Everyone was tired, unshaven and dirty, but somehow the billy was boiled in the wet, and tea boosted morale greatly. There was a lot of water lying in fox-holes that night, when a good number of bombs were dropped on Mono Island, and there 'was also a low-level strafing attack. That second night on Mono Island was undoubtedly more trying than the first, as Japanese then infiltrated through the perimeter, probably in order to get to their dumps, which had been captured. Some of them remained inside the perimeter during the following day, and while it lasted sniping from those individuals, though inaccurate, was a great nuisance.

It was comforting on the third night when raiders were met by anti-aircraft fire. A few nights later the approach of any enemy plane would call up a barrage from the ground which lit the sky. By 30 October, when the company had settled down to something approaching normal routine, and the first reasonable sleep was enjoyed, a start was made with the drying of clothing, which was always a difficult task in the trees where the sun was kept out by the dense foliage. The pervading dampness in the jungle quickly brought out mildew, especially on leather articles such as pocket books. By that date, also, the issue of normal tinned rations had begun. It was the company's proud claim that no man within reasonable distance of his own unit went without rations or ammunition at any time, and no vehicle was held up for lack of fuel. In addition to supplying units, the company also provided hot meals and tea for hundreds of casuals on beaches Orange I and 2. In the first hectic days every man in the company had worked long hours under the worst conditions, and all had borne up well to their trials under fire. An honour was received by all members of the company when Captain G. F. McEvedy was awarded the Military Cross and Second-Lieutenant H. M. Carroll, Staff-Sergeant T. L. Pickering and Driver T. M. Gainey were awarded mentions in despatches for their work during that period.

Once the consolidation stage was reached the company's biggest job was to straighten up the dumps and to dispose them on dunnage in order to keep the stores off the wet ground. Five days after the page 100

ASC units in the Treasury Islands ferried supplies across Blanche Harbour and used Wilson and Watson Islands as petrol dumps

initial landing 70 more of the company's personnel arrived with the second echelon, and subsequent echelons came up each five days thereafter. By 6 November all the men of the company had arrived. The ships of each echelon brought up large stocks of rations and petrol, and the dumps grew. On the north coast of Mono Island, to which the surviving enemy were driven, fighting was then proceeding on a reduced scale, and early in November shipments from page 101the dumps were frequently taken by barges round the outer coast at short notice to supply 'Loganforce' at Soanatalu and the troops at Malsi. In fact, at that stage nearly all supply work was done by barge.

The original plan for the company, to locate No. I transport platoon at beach Purple I; No. 2 transport platoon at beach Orange I (where the main dump was sited) and to divide the composite platoon between those two beaches, was then put into effect. The majority of the personnel of the company were living in well-constructed fox-holes under shelters made from branches covered with pup tents, which were useful but certainly did not ensure a dry night. At dark the jungle came alive with strange sounds which kept sleep away at first. The company's tents and bed-cots were warmly welcomed when they arrived on II November, as that night happened to be the first on the island to be enjoyed free of air raids, and everyone had a full 12 hours' sleep. There was in any case nothing to do but to go to bed, as no lights were permitted.

On 12 November, it was considered that all organised Japanese resistance on the Treasury Islands had ceased, by which time 205 enemy dead had been counted and eight Japanese taken prisoner. No doubt many more had been killed and had not been located in the thick jungle, especially as the enemy removed his dead and wounded whenever possible, and it was unlikely that any escaped from the group. Forty New Zealanders and 12 Americans had been killed, and 174 men wounded. It was claimed that the men of the 8th Brigade were the first empire troops in the war to re-take a British Island wholly occupied by the enemy.

The troops then settled down to occupy the Treasury Islands and to defend them from attack. For defence purposes the 4th MT Company was attached to C company of the 36th Battalion, and was made responsible for a sector of Stirling Island. Until the end of November air raids continued to occur almost nightly, and usually there were several alerts, with barrages sent up promptly whenever Japanese planes closed to attack. The danger of a counter invasion of the Treasury Islands was always present, especially as it was estimated that there were 22,000 Japanese within 80 miles. On one occasion the New Zealanders had a grand-stand view when heavy units of the US fleet sailed close to the Shortland Islands and sent abombardment crashing in on the enemy. However, it was the PT page 102boats which did most to remove the threat, by their nightly patrols in the waters round South Bougainville, when they shot up any shipping met and strafed Japanese positions ashore. The boats used about 250 drums of petrol nightly, so that maintenance of their supplies was a big item in the company's work, and LCM barges had to be used each day to cart the fuel.

The 4th MT Company set about the performance of its supply task in the brigade commander's plan by establishing and maintaining at three points on the outer coast of Mono Island ammunition, petrol and ration dumps for the troops stationed there, and at Falamai and on Stirling Island much larger reserves for the whole force, sufficient for 60 days. Wilson and Watson Islands, in Blanche Harbour, were used as petrol dumps and were an ideal selection, as barges could run up on to the beaches to uplift or deliver drums and there was no double handling. The composite platoon, which was fully occupied on current rationing work, had little time to improve its dumps. Heavy rain was frequent, and road and dump areas became a quagmire. In most places there was the usual thin layer of humus over coral rock, and that quickly cut up. In places, though, the mud was deep, and on one occasion heavy rain completely immobilised all traffic.

A detachment of 20 men from the 1st Field Bakery arrived at the Treasury Islands on 17 November. The LSTs of the convoy were attacked by dive-bombers as they came into the harbour at dawn, but the bakery personnel suffered no casualties. Camp was set-up near beach Purple I, ovens were built and within a few days the whole of the force was being supplied with bread. At that stage about 50 per cent of the 4th MT Company's personnel was reporting sick daily, mainly with heat rash and skin troubles caused by the perspiration when doing heavy work with ammunition, petrol and supplies. The most effective preventive was to wear as little clothing as possible. (In the first few weeks four of the company's small number of officers left the Treasury Islands through sickness.) The first welcome relaxation to be enjoyed by any troops became available when film screenings were commenced. Very rarely was a show in the early days uninterrupted by a raid, and if the break were a long one the screening would sometimes be abandoned. Raids were certainly an annoyance, but to see half only of a film was more provoking.

At the beginning of December Seabees appeared round the 4th MT Company's headquarters camp measuring up the ground and taking levels, so it was not very surprising that soon afterwards orders were received to move from the area in order to make way for the construction of a bomber strip. The move was made in rain to Lakemba Cove at the east end of Stirling Island. Although the new site was on a pretty little bay, heavy downpours continued while work proceeded on clearing out undergrowth, and conditions were grim. When only tall trees remained the area was greatly opened up and improved.

In the early hours of the morning of 9 December, a terrific thunderstorm began. It was an awe-inspiring experience, more intimidating than the bomber raids. The flashes of lightning were prolonged and the claps of thunder deafening. On all sides in the jungle trees toppled and fell, putting 'out' all telephone communications, water poured through the tents and the camps were flooded. In. the morning the 1st Field Bakery detachment was completely flooded out, with two feet of mud and water round the ovens, and baking had to be given up for a few days. It was then decided to move the bakery also, and the engineers eventually built a fine new bake-house in the vicinity of Lakemba Cove, to which the unit moved on Christmas Eve.

The dispersal of the 4th MT Company proved a grave handicap, so it was decided to assemble it in one area on the coast of Stirling Island, through from the cove. A great deal of construction work was done on the new site, which ran up to a cliff edge, and eventually a good camp was set' up. The tents which had been brought up had already seen a lot of use in New Caledonia, and many soon became quite unserviceable from rot caused by the excessive dampness. As a result, before long about half the men were living in ingenious shelters built from timber cut out of the bush, dunnage from ships and tarpaulins. The small composite platoon had been working under difficulties, as the detachment at Falamai had been feeding about 3,000 men and that on Stirling Island about 6,000 men. Neither detachment had a properly cleared area, and the dumps were merely temporary ones covered over with tarpaulins. In the new camp Seabee bulldozers cleared a ration dump area and engineers built rough store sheds. After a fair amount of blasting, roads and floors of coral were laid which soon packed down to a page 104good hard surface, and when they were completed the two groups of ration shelters provided over 400,000 cubic feet of storage space. By the end of December all rations and ammunition were transferred from Mono Island and the complete unit was reassembled in the new camp. Throughout that month rations had been arriving in the group in large shipments, and in one period of three days 750 tons were received into the dumps.

Some beer arrived before Christmas, and on Christmas Eve a 'turkey express' convoy arrived with poultry for the dinner. Christmas Day, when the traditional dinner was held, was the first day enjoyed by the men free of work. The cooks performed some marvels on scratch equipment and under adverse circumstances to produce a first' class roast dinner. It was a fine, hot day, and so was Boxing Day, when the 4th MT Company went into partnership with an engineer company and entered a swimming team in the aquatic carnival held at Falamai. By that time other units were able to muster quite a few one or two-man canoes, and the company built a huge one for the occasion, manned by eight men and a coxswain. The way in which the lighter models left it hopelessly behind in the races caused a lot of amusement, and the day's highlight came when the leviathan swamped in the course of a race, right in front of the official 'grandstand'. Those breaks in routine did a lot to raise spirits.

The Seabees had been putting great efforts into the construction of Stirling airfield, working right round the clock. Before the strip was half completed, on 17 December, word suddenly came through that an American Corsair fighter plane which was badly shot up and could not reach its base would crash land on Stirling Island. Bulldozers, trucks and mechanical equipment were hastily removed and the pilot landed his aircraft, crashing and turning over, but escaping with slight injuries. From 23 December, planes began to land in increasing numbers, and three days later the first plane took off. Within a further fortnight Stirling airfield was in constant use for offensive sweeps over Japanese held territory, and the enemy took notice.

On the night of 12 January, 1944, a fine moonlit night, some of the 4th MT Company men were attending an entertainment by the Kiwi concert party. A warning siren wailed three times, and after the scatter some found themselves sheltering under the stage, page 105tangled up with the 'female' talent of the concert party. A bomb dropped harmlessly in the edge of the sea about 100 yards away, the beginning, it transpired, of the night of heaviest enemy raids experienced on the Treasury Islands, by 2I Japanese medium and dive bombers. The raids themselves lasted nearly two hours, and 90mm, 40mm and 37mm anti-aircraft guns sent up over 15,000 rounds, to destroy four of the raiders, while a US night-fighter knocked another one down. Bombs which dropped close to the ASC area killed several Americans. Fox' holes had not yet been built in the new camps, and shelter was taken wherever it could be found—at the bakery the built-up area around the ovens was popular, and it was amusing later to inspect some of the positions in which so much faith had been placed at the time. The only damage suffered by the ASC personnel was a splinter wound received by one man in a fleshy part which happened to be the last of him to be taking shelter, and he refused to have that undignified injury entered as a wound. The 4th MT Company was deservedly known on the Treasury Islands as 'the lucky fourth', and was believed to be the only one of the original units on the group to suffer no casualties by enemy action in the whole course of its stay, a remarkable record when the many close shaves are considered.

The day following the big raid the camps resounded with the noise of picks and shovels working in coral as all available hands constructed fox-holes with a will. A few days later two 20mm US guns were sited near the dumps as protection from low-flying aircraft, and there was much competition among the ASC personnel to be among those to man them. The gun crews did much voluntary drill, and were very proud when they were permitted to join in a practice shoot, and on the plane's third run cut in half the drogue which it was towing, after the Americans had been shooting at it for hours. The ASCs guns did go into action against the the enemy one night, although it was ascertained later that the raider had been well above their ceiling. However, when a bofors gun brought the plane down into the sea at the same time as the 20mm guns were still firing, it would not have taken much to convince some of the gun-crew that they had done the job.

The opening of the airstrip also improved greatly communications 'with the divisional forward base at Guadalcanal—the trip of 36 hours by sea was shortened to one of two hours by air. Men of page 106the company were on good terms with the pilots, some of whom had been guests at the Christmas dinner, and as a result of the friend-ships a few unofficial flights were enjoyed.

The business conducted by the brigade ASC officer and the 4th MT Company's composite platoon continued to grow until by March, for example, 3I units with a strength of 15,200 men were being supplied. Several steps were taken to make that performance possible. Breaks were lengthened from once in 10 days to once every 15 days; working parties were supplied daily by other units to assist with the handling of petrol and rations; and 20 men from Base Supply Depot No. 1 arrived from New Caledonia via Guadalcanal and Vella Lavella to assist. The new arrivals were warmly welcomed, as they were experts at handling rations, and so were of great assistance to the company's own specialists. For a while accommodation was short and they packed into a borrowed US hospital tent. A minor supply shortage which all the New Zealanders felt was that in tea rations—it persisted for some time. The full-scale for 10 days allowed 3Ilb for every 100 New Zealanders, but only an insignificant 0.751b for 100 Americans. However, the latter received 8olb of coffee and nine of cocoa, while the New Zealanders made do on 2olb and five pounds of those commodities respectively, and thought the allowance ample.

In February the Seabees brought along their heavy cranes and installed a row of walk-in refrigerators (reefer boxes) for the 4th MT Company, to hold such fresh supplies as meat and butter. On more than one occasion huge trees around the ration area toppled over and crashed across buildings, entailing large repair jobs. The characteristic large tree on the Treasury Islands was the Solomon Island mahogany, a giant with a pale, smooth trunk and huge flange-like roots which projected above the ground and were sometimes large enough to form walls for shelters or shower places. The shallow soil in which these trees were rooted made them dangerous, especially if bulldozers had worked nearby and loosened the earth. All trees about the camp area which looked dangerous were felled.

The New Zealanders held the Seabees in high regard as good fellows and performers of prodigies of work; and it was often a spectacular sight to see their heavy equipment in operation. They built a dock in sections which were floated in to Purple I beach (Lalita Cove) on Stirling Island, and for some obscure reason it was chris-page 107tened the 'What's Up' Dock. It was of great value, as at times Blanche Harbour held a lot of shipping. At the end of January the first liberty ship, the R. C. Greer, had pulled in, and for a week great quantities of rations and petrol had poured ashore. The stock of petrol and oils reached over 15,000 53-gallon drums at that time, and later shipments brought the figure up to close on 40,000 drums.

Blanche Harbour is ideal for boating, and after Christmas the ASC units were able to make a start on the building of craft, to overtake other units which had been able to get going soon after the fighting finished. The Field Bakery Stirling Yacht Club built a good yacht, and when the Falamai carnival was held on 7 February, a great crowd of sail assembled from all units. A large sum of money was raised at the carnival and given to the Methodist Mission for use among the natives, who had done a great deal to help the troops. Since their church at Falamai had been destroyed on the day of the landing, the Treasury force built a new native-style church and handed it over to the natives at an official ceremony. Each unit made some contribution to the building. The 4th MT Company built two of the pews from local timbers.

By the end of March ASC vehicles were running on some stretches of good road. In the early stages they had taken a heavy buffeting, and it was over two months before driver-mechanics had been able to check them over thoroughly. The 4th MT Company received a valued letter of commendation for good driving from 8th Brigade Headquarters, on behalf of the provost section. The 'jungle juice' industry also flourished surreptitiously on the Treasury Islands when activities quietened down, but it came to the notice of the authorities when a couple of Americans nearly passed out after over-indulgence in a doubtful brew. Thereupon a heavy hand dropped on the activity, and stills were able to bubble no longer in the concealment of tree roots.

For a time there was a likelihood that the 8th Brigade would take part in another operation, and the 4th MT Company was made ready to move at short notice. However, nothing came of the plan and by the middle of April it became known that extensive with-drawals were to be made from the division in order to relieve the manpower position in New Zealand. By that time the 14th Brigade, then at Green Island, had been nearly eight months in the Solomon Islands, and it was commonly expected that the remainder of the page 108division would have a spell back home. After cards had been filled in by everyone and various returns compiled by orderly room staffs, a large draft of volunteers who had been selected for certain industries left the Treasury Islands on Anzac Day. The New Zealanders' days in the group were clearly numbered, and later it became apparent that the 4th MT Company would never again be at full strength —the recent big job had been its last. It seemed a long time for veterans to look back to its formation in 1940, and some pride was felt in the record of the oldest of the division's ASC companies. The unit had a song from earlier days which swung out to the tune of 'The shores of Tripoli':

Under burning skies, on blazing sands
 Where' er the war may be
The food for men and guns comes up
 With the old Fourth ASC.

We'll drive, and fight if need be too,
 Wherever they may be
'We must get through' the motto is
 Of the Fourth Comp. ASC.

From Tokyo to the Burma Road
 From here to Mandalay
The ASC can take it all
 And get the goods away.

If ever you reach heaven, lad
 Our ration trucks you'll see
And Nick himself gets his supplies
 From the old Fourth ASC.

Early in May a US service command took over the ASC's task. A beginning was made with the crating of gear, tents were razed and many of them condemned and burned. Eventually very short notice of embarkation was received, and after hasty final packing, on 15 May, 1944, those who remained on the Treasury Islands embarked on the USS Tryon while an American band played farewell to them, and then set sail south over the horizon to New Caledonia.