Mission to Rabaul

874 Views | 3 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by Smeghead4761
Smeghead4761
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Good summary of ops in the SWPA.

Rongagin71
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AG
My dad said that when he was piloting his DC-3 (two engine transport) past Rabual, that he saw a loop of American planes going around and down to hit the same spot, but he never found out what it was.
YZ250
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It was a very powerful army, navy and air force base for the Japanese. The constant bombing forced the Japanese navy to stop using it as a base. Later, it was no longer an air base due to the bombing and with action in the central Pacific taking place. Once the navy and air force left it was no longer an offensive threat which allowed us to bypass it. Which was a good thing. They had around 98,000 men and 350 miles of tunnels and caves.
Smeghead4761
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Simpson Harbor was probably the best harbor in the region. For that reason, Rabaul was originally the final objective of Operation Cartwheel. However, the capture of other airfield sites and usable harbors made the capture of Rabaul itself unnecessary. Once the Japanese air and naval forces there were neutralized, and it's garrison trapped in a de facto PoW camp.

Despite the excellent harbor, Rabaul was actually kind of a crummy location for a base. The nearby volcanoes regularly dumped out ash and sulfur gasses, which significantly reduced the operating life and increased maintenance requirements for pretty much all of the equipment there, but especially aircraft.
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