Built during WWII by the Public Works Department. Unwanted by the Auckland Hospital Board. From small beginnings and numerous problems, it became one of the largest hospitals in this country. The initial purpose of writing this book was to disprove the repeated myth that the Americans built, staffed, and treated their war casualties at Middlemore. While the American soldiers were in New Zealand during World War II, they had access to three large temporary hospitals in Auckland, with accommodation for 4,500 sick and wounded Americans.