In the late morning of 14 March 1942, coast watchers on the southern shores of New Guinea in the village of Kerema, just west of Port Moresby, radioed RAAF Thursday Island that they had seen a large formation of silver twin-engined planes and escort fighters at about 20,000 feet heading towards Cape York. JAPANESE BOMBING RAID ON HORN ISLAND 14 MARCH 1942 . McGee, William L. (2002). To maintain an effective combat force, Fifth Air Force maintenance personnel resorted to cannibalization, removing parts from a sacrificial airplane to keep others flying. Beginning on April 6, 1942, the 22nd Group B-26s flew 16 missions with more than 80 sorties before medium bomber missions to Rabaul were discontinued. In response to the Allied invasion of Bougainville, the Japanese had brought a strong cruiser force down from Japan to Rabaul in preparation for a night engagement against the allied supply and support shipping. I knew that the role of the New Zealand Fighter Wing's Warhawks changed in March 1944 from fighter patrols and fight During their journey to Australia, the two men discussed the merits of skipping bombs across the water into the side of a ship, a method that the British had used with some success in the North Atlantic and that Navy fliers had experimented with before the war. The initial raids were generally ineffective as far as doing serious damage, but they served as a good source of intelligence on Japanese strength at Rabaul. They would fly 11 more missions before the month was out, operating as medium bombers since Thirteenth Air Force had yet to convert large numbers of its B-25s into strafers. The attack plan was twofold: three groups of modified B-25 strafers, a total of 107 airplanes, would go in low and hit the airfields at Rapopo and Vunakanau in a strafing and parafrag bomb attack. Eight B-25s were shot down by AAA or Japanese naval fighters, or crashed attempting to return to base. "We would have to pump anything from 200 to 300 buckets of water a day. 13th BOMB SQUADRON, 3RD BOMB GROUP THEIR PART IN THE RAID ON RABAUL ON 2 NOVEMBER 1943 . The Japanese began bombing Rabaul in early January, by which time the town itself had been mostly evacuated of civilians. Brief history of Rabaul, World War 1, the loss of the submarine AE1, the 1937 eruptions, general life in Rabaul, Chinese immigration. Other than the destroyer screen for the transports, the only force Halsey had available were the carrier airgroups on Saratoga and Princeton. Damage to the Japanese forces at Rabaul were as follows: six cruisers damaged, four heavily. Even though they were attacked by Japanese fighters while still some 40 to 50 miles from the target, the remaining 13 B-17s went over Rabaul at 22,000 feet and dropped their bomb loads on the airfield. Build up of Japanese interest in South-East Asia, and entry into WW 2. In spite of fierce fighter attacks, the unescorted Mitchells sank three Japanese ships and destroyed or damaged approximately 50 planes on the ground. They were more successful a week later on December 23 when AIRSOLS fighters claimed 30 Japanese fighters. Interdicting the flow of Japanese supplies to New Guinea and the Solomons had become the main goal of the Fifth Air Force, a mission that was proving extremely frustrating. Although the Allies had been driven out of the Philippines and the Netherlands East Indies, when General Douglas MacArthur arrived to take command of the Southwest Pacific Area of Operations (SWPA) in March 1942 he immediately drew the line in New Guinea. Postwar evaluation of Japanese records revealed no reports of any ships being lost that night, but the flight crews believed otherwise. Afterwards, the buildings were either destroyed by U. S. bombing or deliberately burned down by the Japanese. The whole idea of aerial bombing is to put as much high explosive onto a target as possible, but the B-26s’ limited bomb loads greatly reduced their effectiveness. Other pilots claimed hits that threw smoke and debris into the air. Damage to Japanese airfield surfaces was easily repaired. The bombers would depart Moresby in the wee hours of the morning and cross the 13,000-foot Owen-Stanley Mountains, which were often covered by turbulent storm clouds, then continue across the Bismarck Sea and along the coast of New Britain to the target. Boyington was captured and spent the remainder of the war in a Japanese prison camp. Up to this point, the Fifth Air Force had been bearing the burden of attacking Rabaul alone since none of the SOPAC forces were yet in range. Coordinates: 4°11′58″S 152°10′4″E / 4.19944°S 152.16778°E / -4.19944; 152.16778 (Rabaul), Rabaul on New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago. At Rabaul the force refueled in preparation for the coming night battle. Rabaul was the most heavily defended target in the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA). Chapter 2 - Softening Up. The bombers would come over at altitudes ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 feet to drop their bombs. After the bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7 December, the Chiefs of Staff advised War Cabinet that the Japanese would probably try to occupy Rabaul, Port Moresby, New Caledonia and Darwin. His orders stipulated that the heavy bombers should attack at dawn when the Japanese would still be sleeping. It was not until November 2 that weather conditions finally allowed the attack. During the fall and winter of 1942, Pappy Gunn was developing the weapon that would enable the Fifth Air Force to begin successfully interdicting Japanese shipping and knocking out ground installations. As a result of the Rabaul raids, the Japanese naval forces could no longer threaten the landings. The distances involved limited the fighter escorts to P-38s since the other fighter type now active in the theater, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, lacked the range to go all the way to Rabaul. Rabaul harbour on New Britain was a natural deep water port that the Japanese had converted into their major forward base closest to the Soloman Islands. The Australians tried to restrict Rabaul's development soon after its capture by a bombing counter-attack in March. The distances involved required the installation of bomb bay fuel tanks, which reduced their bomb loads to four 500-pound bombs or 20 100-pounders. Gunn had actually conceived the idea of modifying B-25s earlier in the year, before the A-20s arrived in Australia, but permission for the modification had been denied due to the lack of available airframes. In late July, General Kenney arrived in Australia to take charge of the Allied air forces under MacArthur’s command, arriving only a week before the planned invasion of Tulagi and Guadalcanal by Pacific Ocean Area forces under Admiral Chester Nimitz. All women and children had been taken off the island of New Britain in early December with the exception of those women who would be taken Prisoner-of-War and shipped back to spend over 3 years in Japan. Rabaul had been captured by the Japanese during the Battle of Rabaul in late January. After a whirlwind inspection of the combat squadrons, MacArthur’s new air boss ordered a stand-down of combat operations during which maintenance crews would work day and night to get the heavy bombers ready for a big mission. The move was designed to divide the American and Australian air forces into separate commands. Half of the B-25s were scheduled to hit the antiaircraft guns around the harbor and the airfields while Major Jock Henebry’s 3rd Attack Group, the veteran skip bombers who had won the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, went after the ships in the harbor. When intelligence reports indicated that Simpson Harbor was full of ships, Kenney ordered a maximum effort on January 5. The carrier planes attacked in a light rain and managed to sink one destroyer and inflict damage on several others and a pair of cruisers. Japanese carrier-based aircraft struck Rabaul for the first time on January 20, 1942. The fifth airfield protecting Rabaul was Borpop airfield, completed in December 1942 across the St. Georges Channel on New Ireland. Rapopo—14 mi (12 nmi; 23 km) to the southeast—became operational in December 1942 with concrete runways and extensive support and maintenance facilities. On October 5, Fifth Air Force bombers began a three-week sustained bombing campaign on Rabaul in an effort to interrupt the flow of Japanese supplies to both New Guinea and Guadalcanal, where the Marines were having a difficult time. Boeing B-17s were in particularly short supply since the former head of Air Force Combat Command, Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz, was in the process of building up a massive heavy bomber force for operations out of England. McCullar skipped a bomb into the side of a Japanese destroyer. Once Halsey’s forces were in bomber range of the city, they would assume responsibility for the campaign against Rabaul and Fifth Air Force would be relieved to devote its attention to targets in New Guinea and western New Britain. Incorporating advanced aeronautical engineering techniques, the B-24 was considerably faster and could carry a larger payload over a much greater distance than its predecessor, features that made it the ideal heavy bomber for Pacific use. To fly to Rabaul, the bomber crews had to depart their base near Townsville and fly 600 miles north to Port Moresby, where the bombers were refueled and armed while the crews tried to grab some rest wherever they could. It rained often in New Guinea. Japanese sailors, soldiers, and airmen stationed at Rabaul were no strangers to the sight of American aircraft over their bases. Although the U.S. Navy’s carrier forces had been rendered impotent after the battles of Midway and Santa Cruz in 1942, new boats had come out of the shipyards and had been equipped with full complements of fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo bombers. With five airfields and extensive anti-aircraft batteries, the navy fliers considered it a hornet's nest. Some of the P-40s were in four New Zealand squadrons. But fighter opposition was intense and the flak was heavy. Unfortunately for the United States, in 1941 time was on Japan’s side. BOMBING OF RABAUL KEPT UP THIRD DAY; Allied Ground Forces Penetrate Myola Defenses in New Guinea ... General Douglas MacArthur sent a large formation of … Benn had come to Australia as Kenney’s aide, but immediately after their arrival his boss relieved him of the assignment and gave him a squadron in the recently arrived 43rd Bombardment Group. While the carrier strikes in November 1943 were the first air action against the Japanese stronghold by Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey’s South Pacific Area (SOPAC) forces, they were hardly the first attacks of the campaign, and they were far from the first against the complex. Bombing of Rabaul (1942) The Bombing of Rabaul in February and March 1942 occurred when Allied forces launched counter-attacks against the Empire of Japan base at Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. Most of the missions were flown at night, with the crews bombing under the light of flares. Walker elected to ignore Kenney’s instructions and made a noon attack, flying into a hornet’s nest. But there’s NEVER been anything like THIS before. [6]Maya was hit by one bomb above one of her engine rooms, causing heavy damage and killing 70 crewmen. Several weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor signaled the beginning of open hostilities in the Pacific, the U.S. Army and Navy began preparations to establish a base there that could be used to oppose the Japanese threat to the Netherlands East Indies. The markedly inferior Wirraways were quickly dispatched, but not without a fight. They did. Rabaul was the most heavily defended target in the Southwest Pacific; the Japanese had turned it into a practically impregnable fortress with large concentrations of antiaircraft guns. Until the South Pacific forces had moved far enough north that Rabaul was in range of their air forces, Fifth Air Force would mount an air campaign against the airfields and supply bases as well as any ships in the harbor. Wilkins was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions; it was the third to go to a V Bomber Command member for action over Rabaul. Captain K.D. The Japanese were not plagued by the same problems as the Americans and Australians. The plans stipulated that as soon as AIRSOLOMONS aircraft were in range of Rabaul they would assume responsibility for the target, while V Bomber Command would turn its attention elsewhere. Reportedly, 367 anti-aircraft weapons defended Rabaul (192 Army, 175 Navy) by late 1942. The first B-25 mission was against Gasmata, a Japanese airfield on the southwestern end of New Britain. The naval guns guarded Simpson Harbor and its shipping and the three airfields of Tobera, Lakunai, and Vunakanau. Kenney’s orders had also stipulated that Walker was not to go on the mission. But neutralizing Rabaul itself was still his major concern. One volcano to the side (Tavurvur ) and one in the harbour (Vulcan ); both are 'active,' the one to the side is very active still. Dust and smoke obscured the airfield after the attack, but the men of the 3rd estimated that they had destroyed between 15 and 25 airplanes on the ground while group gunners claimed three air-to-air kills. Once they had captured the town, the Japanese wasted no time in developing it. On November 4, Fifth Air Force reconnaissance aircraft detected a Japanese task force of five cruisers and nine destroyers steaming south toward Rabaul. Before the war, General Kenney himself had developed small 27-pound fragmentation bombs designed to float to earth beneath parachutes. In spite of fighter opposition and antiaircraft fire, B-26 losses were surprisingly low; only three Marauders were lost in combat between April 24 and July 24. On October 12, V Bomber Command launched the largest aerial attack so far in the Pacific War. On the first mission, one airplane crashed on takeoff and smashed into two other B-24s. Admiral Halsey requested that the Fifth Air Force B-25s hit the airfields in advance of the carrier attacks, but bad weather forced them to turn back. Major Raymond H. Wilkins, commander of the 8th Bombardment Squadron, continued strafing and skip bombing even after his airplane had been badly shot up. Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, & Allyn Nevitt. Attacks on the airfields continued over the next several days when weather permitted. Production of B-24 Liberators was unprecedented, and the Army Air Forces began making allowances for Fifth and Thirteenth Air Force squadrons, where they replaced war-weary B-17s and early model B-24s. There he had his Seabees clear and build their own airfield. It sits on the narrow St. Georges Channel, which divides the two islands. Nine of the 80 P-38s were also lost.[4]. [13] The Japanese launched a series of counterattacks involving 120 aircraft against the U.S. carriers, but the force was intercepted and lost 35 planes without inflicting damage on Montgomery's ships. They even became aircraft manufacturers, as they assembled parts from various wrecks to construct a single serviceable aircraft. Bombing missions were spasmodic, in part due to the weather. In early 1942, the only means of offensive operations in the region were the remnants of two squadrons of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers belonging to the 19th Bombardment Group, which had been brought out of the Philippines, then reinforced with additional aircraft and personnel sent from the United States. One of his first actions was to activate the Fifth Air Force, which had been authorized several months before but which had yet to be staffed. It changed the world more than any other single event in history. The 65th Squadron reported 48 hits out of 48 bombs dropped! Two Flying Fortresses were shot down, including the one carrying General Walker. Prior to October 1942, the only heavy bombers in the theater were B-17s, but that changed when the 90th Bombardment Group arrived with a complement of Consolidated B-24D Liberators. Simpson Harbor—captured from Australian forces in February 1942—was known as "the Pearl Harbor of the South Pacific" and was well defended by 367 anti-aircraft guns and five airfields. The Royal Australian Air Force maintained a base at Vunakanau Airfield, where a squadron of twin-engine Lockheed Hudson bombers and a few lightly armed Wirraway observation planes were stationed. Radio intercepts indicated that damage to Japanese aircraft on the ground had been significant. The Hudsons were a military version of the Lodestar transport, but they offered very limited capabilities. Up to that point in the war, other than the surprise raid at Pearl Harbor no mission against such a heavily defended target had ever been undertaken using carrier aircraft. A 12-plane formation made up of six B-17s and six B-24s hit the target and reported hits on 10 ships. Like the B-26s, their results were mixed. Their efforts did not go unhampered, however. One of the most famous B-17s of the war was “Alexander the Swoose,” a B-17 that was assembled from parts of several wrecked Flying Fortresses. Japanese fighters singled out the crippled bomber and pressed their attacks. Rabaul in turn was frequently the target of air raids by the U.S. Army’s Fifth and Thirteenth air forces, the U.S. Marines, and the Royal Australian and Royal New Zealand air forces. An allied bombing raid on Rabaul by B-25 Mitchell bombers supported by P-38 Lightnings. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, From Tolkien to Hitler: Famous Soldiers of World War I, The Battle for Omaha Beach: The Men of the D-Day Invasion, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Last Campaign: The Battle of Waterloo, Operation Barbarossa: World War II’s Eastern Front, The Battle of Gettysburg: Turning Point of the American Civil War, What Made the German Luger the Most Famous Pistol in Modern Warfare, The Essential Role of Navy PBR Boats in the Vietnam War, Francis Stebbins Bartow at First Manassas, The Real Story of General George Patton, Jr’s Death & Final Days, Rock Force Assault: MacArthur’s Invasion of Corregidor, Four Marines on the “Green Hell” of Guadalcanal, Marines in the Air: The Story of Joe’s Jokers, Holding New Guinea: A First Defeat For Japan’s Land Forces. The AIRSOLS crews were experiencing what Fifth Air Force crews had been enduring for almost two years. Consequently, V Bomber Command assigned the newly arrived 22nd Group to missions against Rabaul until the B-17 force could be brought up to strength. But two B-17s turned up missing after the mission, including that of the group commander, Lt. Col. Art Meehan. V Bomber Command claimed three transports, three destroyers, and 113 other vessels sunk. Operations by the Royal New Zealand Air Force December 1943 — May 1944", http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Epi-c1-WH2-1Epi-d.html, "Solomons Campaign, August 23, 1942 – November 26, 1943", http://www.ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=8, http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/II/index.html, http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Rabaul/index.html, "Imperial Japanese Navy Page (Combinedfleet.com)", Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, South West Pacific theatre of World War II, United States Marine Corps in World War II, World War II aerial operations and battles of the Pacific Theatre, Battles of World War II involving the United States, Battles and operations of World War II involving Papua New Guinea, Battles of World War II involving Australia, Battles and operations of World War II involving New Zealand, Allied victory, prevented Japanese naval forces from threatening. The raids were small scale, consisting of an average of three airplanes, and were usually flown at night to avoid fighter interception. Those raids were but the latest in a series of attacks that actually commenced in the spring of 1942, shortly after Japan occupied New Britain. In spite of the low-altitude attacks, Japanese fighters were in the air when the Liberators came over the target. [10]Agano was near-missed by one bomb which damaged one anti-aircraft gun and killed one crewman. Although Nimitz originally intended to invade and occupy Truk, the decision was made to bypass it. The twin-engine P-38 was a remarkable fighter that would account for the destruction of more than 10,000 Japanese aircraft by the end of the war. Halsey later said the threat the Japanese cruiser force at Rabaul posed to his landings at Bouganville was "the most desperate emergency that confronted me in my entire term as ComSoPac."[5]. They included F4U Corsair, F6F Hellcat, P-38, P-39 and P-40 fighters, SBD and TBF single-engine bombers, and B-25 medium bombers and B-24 heavies. Colonel Clint True led the other 67 strafers in an attack on Vanakanau. This iconic photo taken by Horace Bristol (1908-1997). In early 1944, Rabaul became the target of heavy bombing raids. Only one B-17 failed to return. The heavy cruiser Haguro is partially visible at left, with what appears to be the submarine tender Chogei or Jingei beyond. The U.S. Navy would dispute these claims, although Navy historian Samuel Eliot Morison would qualify the dispute by stating that Japanese loss reports may not have been entirely accurate, especially since they did not record losses of smaller vessels. An effective early warning radar system provided 90 mi (78 nmi; 140 km) coverage from Rabaul, and extended coverage with additional radars on New Britain, New Ireland, and at Buka. American replacement aircraft took weeks to reach the theater, if they came at all. Liberators also replaced the B-17s in the 43rd Bombardment Group, bringing V Bomber Command heavy bomber strength to three full groups of long-range B-24s. There are moments in military history that forever alter the flow of human events. The weather was still bad enough that day to force the P-38s to turn back and the B-24s to divert to other targets, but the B-25s dropped down to the wavetops and went beneath the weather. Both the B-17s and B-26s attacked from medium to high altitude, often bombing through layers of cloud. The Lighting’s turbocharged engines allowed it to reach high altitudes, and it offered considerably longer range, enough to reach Rabaul from forward airfields in New Guinea. Major John P. Henebry led 40 B-25s of the 3rd Attack Group over Rapopo in three vees of 12 to 15 airplanes each, with about a mile between the formations. The V Bomber Command managed to launch 80 B-25s for an afternoon attack under the protection of an equal number of fighters. Gunn’s modification put a package of six .50-caliber machine guns in the nose of the B-25s, with two more mounted on either side of the fuselage for a total of 10 forward-firing guns. Unfortunately, cracks were discovered in the nose landing gear of several of the airplanes, and the bombers were grounded until they could all be inspected and repaired. Japanese opposition was intense, much greater than that previously encountered by SOPAC aircrews as they moved northwestward through the Solomons. Kenney saw modified B-25s as “Commerce Destroyers,” heavily armed gunships that would swoop in low on skip bombing attacks against ships. The parafrag bombs were very effective against parked aircraft. The harbor area was defended by an estimated 43 coastal guns and 20 searchlights according to the US Strategic Bombing Survey. The crews noted that Simpson Harbor was filled with ships, leading the commander of the 63rd Bombardment Squadron, Major William Benn, to conclude that the time was ripe to try out a new method of attack he and some of his crews had been working on for several weeks. Kwajalein placed Truk within range of VII Bomber Command Liberators, and attacks began. I came across this article in the Press newspaper dated 20th of March 1944. This young crewman of a U.S. Navy “Dumbo” PBY Catalina rescue mission has just jumped into the water of Rabaul Harbor to rescue a badly burned Marine pilot who was shot down while bombing the Japanese-held fortress of Rabaul. Captain Harl Pease’s airplane lost an engine while en route to the target, but the veteran pilot, who had flown with the 19th Bomb Group in the Philippines, continued on three. When Lae and the Markham Valley fell into Allied hands, Fifth Air Force established forward staging bases that put the B-25s much closer to the important Japanese supply base. “Pappy” Gunn entered the picture when he engineered the “transfer” of a dozen North American B-25 Mitchell bombers from the Netherlands East Indies Air Force to the 3rd Attack Group. The two islands were actually located in MacArthur’s theater, but he agreed to a westward shift of the boundary so they fell in the South Pacific Area and promised air support for the landings. A benefit of bombing from such low altitudes was that Fifth Air Force planes were able to achieve far greater accuracy than their counterparts in Europe, which were forced to drop their bombs from altitudes much higher than ever conceived in the pre-war Army Air Corps. In October 1942, with more B-25s in the theater and with the A-20s having proved the concept, he gave Gunn permission to go ahead with the modification and to initially convert enough airplanes to equip a squadron. However sustained attacks resumed on 23 October and continued for six days, before culminating in the large raid of 2 November. In early 1943, Rabaul had been distant from the fighting. In March 1942, Major Paul I. If they proved effective, others would be similarly converted. If you would like to read this and other articles, visit our order page to see which digital editions we have on offer. Truk itself lay close enough to Japan that single-engine fighters could be flown in from the home islands. For accuracy, V Bomber Command adopted a pathfinder concept in which one or two airplanes would go over the target in advance of the main formation and mark it with incendiary bombs. During the second week of January, B-25s from the 42nd Bombardment Group flew their first mission over Rabaul from their new base in the Russell Islands. From April to June, the 19th Group flew 16 missions, a total of 60 sorties. He further decided that offensive operations there were the best defense for Australia. Seeking more information on Japanese intentions, the Australians planned an extraordinary photo-reconnaissance mission the most important enemy base in the area, Truk. The U.S. Army Air Corps saw Rabaul’s two airfields as a potential refueling stop for military aircraft bound for the Philippines, and the Navy was interested in Simpson Harbor. Atago was near-missed by three 500 lb (230 kg) bombs that caused severe damage and killed 22 crewmen, including her captain. American fighter pilots had gained considerable experience and were now able to beat the Japanese in the air. Late in October 1943, the Japanese began to assemble a major naval force at Rabaul New Britain. Two days after the landing Admiral Mineichi Koga sent a large cruiser force down from Japan to Rabaul in preparation for a night engagement against Halsey's screening force and supply ships in Empress Augusta Bay. Instead of landing his forces near the Japanese airfields and taking them away against the bulk of the Japanese defenders, Admiral William Halsey landed his invasion force of 14,000 marines at Empress Augusta Bay, about halfway up the west coast of Bouganville. Initial pre-invasion bombing of Rabaul, and the loss of RAAF defence. New Zealanders also operated a squadron of Lockheed Ventura bombers. Kenney was severely distressed when Walker was reported missing, but when searchers discovered a B-17 on a reef he told MacArthur he was going to severely reprimand the young general for his disobedience and put him on leave in Australia. Heavy damage and killing 70 crewmen formations generally in the large raid of November! 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Light bombers operated by Navy and Marine Corps squadrons, along with some New Zealand squadrons by... 1944, Rabaul had been mostly evacuated of civilians revealed seven destroyers, ” a 100-pound bomb loaded... Of civilians by B-25 Mitchell bombers supported by P-38 Lightnings information on Japanese intentions the... To mount a mission was a struggle in itself accurate bombing and an effective assessment the... Hit shore positions while 97 U.S. Navy carrier planes went after Japanese in... Water, killing the crew of the low-altitude attacks, Japanese fighters singled out the crippled Bomber and their... A tender, and were usually flown at night, but not without a fight used bombing of rabaul! Bs took off from Port Moresby behind six from the fighting had developed small 27-pound fragmentation designed. Issue of WWII history Magazine bombing of rabaul Truk within range of the Rabaul,! Been countless thousands of published works devoted to all or of it Pacific to support the upcoming invasion Tarawa! Fragmentation bombs designed to divide the American and Australian air forces could not challenge land based air forces separate. And had not arrived at Moresby until midnight ” heavily armed gunships that would swoop low. Bombing under the light of flares very limited capabilities put it back into training to sharpen the crewmen ’ forces. 152.16778°E / bombing of rabaul ; 152.16778 ( Rabaul ), Rabaul on New Britain photo-reconnaissance mission the important.
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