In New Guinea, a country without roads, large-scale transportation of men and materiel would have to be accomplished by aircraft or ships. A multi-pronged approach was employed to solve this problem. Disassembled landing craft were shipped to Australia, where they were assembled in Cairns. The range of these small landing craft was to be greatly extended by the landing ships of the VII Amphibious Force, which began arriving in late 1942, and formed part of the newly formed Seventh Fleet. Since the Seventh Fleet had no aircraft carriers, the range of naval operations was limited by that of the fighter aircraft of the Fifth Air Force.