Fortress Rabaul (60 page)

Major Paul “Pappy” Gunn, a salty, self-taught mechanical genius, reworked underperforming twin-engine bombers like the Douglas A-20 and North American B-25 into extremely potent low-level attackers that devastated Japanese shipping.
Larry Hickey

On January 5, 1943, against Kenney’s orders, Walker led twelve bombers to Rabaul in broad daylight. His B-17F,
San Antonio Rose
, was photographed mere hours before Japanese fighters shot it down. The crew was never recovered, and Walker received a Medal of Honor.
Justin Taylan

A large stockpile of fuel goes up in flames after a raid on Port Moresby during Operation I-Go. Although the blaze was spectacular, the collective damage caused by Yamamoto’s last offensive was relatively light and failed to make an impact on the Allies.
Author’s Collection

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (center), commander of the Combined Fleet, transferred his headquarters to Rabaul in early April 1943 for Operation I-Go. He and his staff, including Vice Adm. Matome Ugaki (right), honored the aircrews by observing the departure of each attack.
Henry Sakaida

Yamamoto informally salutes a Zero fighter taking off from Lakunai airdrome.
Henry Sakaida

Epilogue

T
HE SOUTHERN OFFENSIVE
stunned the world in December 1941. And yet, by April of 1943, just sixteen months after the fighting began, the Japanese had lost all chance of winning the Pacific war. The death of Admiral Yamamoto punctuated a series of extremely costly defeats, and the registry at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo (the national Shinto temple for war dead), was filling by the tens of thousands with the names of the sailors, soldiers, and airmen who had already given their lives for the emperor.

Although the tide had turned in favor of the Allies, the mood at Imperial General Headquarters was relatively calm. The desired expansion of the Southeast Area had not progressed as planned, but there was still Rabaul. The fortress was bigger than ever—stronger too, despite more than a year of Allied bombing. Expansion continued during 1943, with two more airdromes in operation and a fifth under construction. The number of troops, warplanes, and ships would also increase throughout most of the year.

In the Home Islands, Rabaul had become a fixture in popular culture. Japanese youth enjoyed listening to a trendy new song that romanticized the South Seas fortress. “
Rabaul My Love
,” recorded in 1942, evoked images of warm nights, tropical breezes, and even romance:

So long, Rabaul, ’til we return
Bidding farewell with teary eyes
Gazing at the island where my love resides
Forevermore the Southern Cross.

Rabaul was even more legendary among the Allies. The exploits of Butch O’Hare, Harl Pease, and Ken Walker were widely publicized, and the stronghold was mentioned frequently in the war news at home. Due in large measure to the cost of the Walker mission, the Fifth Air Force discontinued daylight attacks against Rabaul for months, resorting instead to small-scale night raids. However, the cumulative effect of such raids amounted to little more than harassment. The Japanese were unimpeded as they continued to make improvements and establish stronger defenses around the great caldera.

The difference-maker in the Pacific war was the output of America’s factories. The pipelines were just beginning to flow in April 1943, and the volume of war materiel sent to the Pacific increased steadily thereafter until the full measure of American manufacturing capability came on line. Then it was the Allies’ turn to gather overwhelming strength as they prepared to launch Operation Cartwheel. The United States and her allies had the luxury of time on their side, while the Japanese remained in a strictly defensive posture, hoarding resources and struggling to provide enough men and materiel to hold their current positions.

Although the Japanese fanatically defended each of their bases in the Solomons and New Guinea, the perimeter around Rabaul collapsed island by bloody island. With each Allied gain, the size and intensity of the air attacks on Rabaul increased. Daylight raids resumed in October 1943, when P-38 Lightnings and B-25 Mitchells flying from forward bases in New Guinea joined the heavy bombers over the target. The following month, Admiral Halsey ordered two daring carrier raids against Simpson Harbor to cover the invasion of Bougainville. Soon thereafter, generals MacArthur and Kenney declared that Rabaul was finished and mistakenly turned their attention elsewhere. Within a few weeks, carriers of the Imperial Navy delivered hundreds of planes to reinforce Rabaul’s land units.

With the capture of Bougainville, the Allies established airstrips that enabled single-engine fighters to reach Rabaul for the first time. For two months beginning in mid-December 1943, huge air battles raged almost daily over the stronghold, often involving hundreds of aircraft. Attrition eventually forced the Japanese to pull their air flotillas out of Rabaul, and by early March 1944, waves of Allied bombers of every size and description had razed the township.

Although besieged by the Allied encirclement, the Japanese refused to give up. Their flow of supplies was drastically reduced, and the repeated bombing raids forced the garrison to live underground, but conditions were not terribly uncomfortable. Living and working in skillfully engineered tunnels and caves, the Japanese moved their headquarters, supply dumps, barracks, and even fully equipped hospitals under the volcanic mountains.

Prisoners of war, on the other hand, endured a wretched existence at Rabaul. Indian and Chinese POWs, shipped from captured territories to provide slave labor, died by the thousands on New Britain. Captured aviators suffered much as well. Between April 1943 and the end of the war, well over a hundred downed airmen were taken prisoner in the Southwest Pacific and brought to a separate camp run by the Kempeitai. But when the Japanese surrendered Rabaul in September 1945, only seven gaunt captives were still alive.

Their story is for another book.

Notes

Prologue

Lark Force’s limitations and responsibilities: Gamble,
Darkest Hour
, pp. 46–47.

Under the circumstances
… : Cable 152, Dec. 12, 1941.

Communiqué issued by Victoria Barracks: Johnston,
New Guinea Diary
, p. 2.

Statements by Minister Forde:
Canberra Times
, Jan. 24, 1942, p. 1.

Military experts believe
… : Sydney
Sun
, p. 1.

Chapter 1: Volcanoes, God, and Coconuts

Why are the Japs striking
… : Johnston, p. 1.

Geological background of the Rabaul caldera and details of the major eruptions: McKee, pp. 4–21; also Dr. C. Daniel Miller, interview with author, Mar. 26, 2002.

Development and settlement of Rabaul: Gamble, pp. 34–35.

Australian Expeditionary Force skirmish at Rabaul: Ibid., p. 35.

little tropical outpost
: Johnston, p. 1.

Details of 1937 eruption: Johnson,
Volcano Town
, pp. 25–45.

Chapter 2: 24 Squadron

Weak status of Australia’s military, including
a paper plan
: Hasluck,
The Government and the People
, p. 298.

On each of these groups
…: Thompson,
National Geographic
, Dec. 1921, pp. 557–59.

Installment of antiaircraft guns: Gamble, pp. 46–47.

Early war status of RAAF, including
not very formidable
: Gillison,
Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942
, p. 191.

Lockheed Hudson duties: McAulay,
We Who Are About to Die
, p. 39.

Arrival of Hudsons at Rabaul and first operational flight: Murphy, correspondence with author, June 7, 2004.

Erwin’s mission to Kapingamarangi Atoll: McAulay, p. 50.

I was the first to drop a bomb
. .
.: Murphy, correspondence with author, June 7, 2004.

It was addressed to me
… : Quoted in McAulay, p. 52.

Personality of Wing Commander Garing: McAulay, correspondence with author, June 17, 2008.

Lerew’s
impish irreverence
and sarcastic messages: Gillison, p. 270.

owing to lack of speed
: Brookes,
RAAF Operations Report from Rabaul
, p. 4.

Development of Lakunai Airdrome: McAulay, pp. 42–43, 63.