When Japan entered the war in December 1941, the New Zealand government raised another expeditionary force known as the 2nd NZEF in the Pacific, or 2nd NZEF (I.P.), for service with the Allied Pacific Ocean Areas command. This force supplemented existing garrison troops in the South Pacific. The main fighting formation of the 2nd NZEF (I.P.) was the 3rd New Zealand Division. However the 3rd Division never fought as a formation; its component brigades being involved in semi-independent actions as part of the Allied forces in the Solomons, in Vella Lavella, Treasury Islands and Green Islands.