 From this base, as part of the U.S.I Marine Amphibious Corps (I MAC), the division provided the ground component for three campaigns against small island groups in the Northern Solomons (in all operations the United States Navy provided the naval forces while squadrons from the Royal New Zealand Air Force formed only a small part of the US dominated air forces).While the islands were only lightly held by the Japanese and New Zealand casualties were relatively light, the Kiwi ground troops had to overcome challenging terrain and climatic conditions in these operations.