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(More customer reviews)Second only to Truk in notoriety, the Japanese base at Rabaul, New Britain played a pivotal role in the fighting in the Southwest Pacific in World War II. It was a well-fortified stronghold in its own right bristling with hundreds of AAA guns, scores of fighters and bombers and possessing a fine harbor. Just as importantly, it served as a conduit funneling various Japanese air, land and sea units southward to Guadalcanal and other areas. Fresh from his marvelous LARK FORCE book, noted military historian Bruce Gamble recounts the creation and evolution of Rabaul as a major Japanese base and the ever-increasing Allied air efforts to derail that developmeht.
Captured by the Japanese in early 1942, Rabaul was swiftly developed, eventually boasting of a number of airfields that could hold hundreds of IJN/IJAAF warbirds. Its Simpson Harbor was developed and was soon crowded with dozens of merchantmen and warships. Gamble skilfully interweaves the growth of Rabaul with other military developments in the SWPA in the early war years to underscore Rabaul's steadily growing importance to the Japanese war effort. For instance, aircraft from Rabaul pounded various Allied targets including Port Moresby, Guadalcanal (following its capture in August 1942) and American carrier units in the Coral Sea. Shipping from Simpson Harbor transported troops and equipment to various islands to establish and develop bases including airfields and so on.
As shown in FORTRESS RABAUL, the American response to Rabaul's growth took the form of air attacks. Initially the attacks were feeble and ineffectual. Following George Kenney's arrival to the SWPA, the Americans began a very slow but steady build-up of air units that, in time, would mount devastating attacks on Rabaul. By the close of Gamble's book, Kenney's 5th Air Force was becoming a more effective force, in part because of growing aircraft numbers but also because of effective tactics like skip-bombing. The post-April 1943 air attacks that later left Rabaul withering on the vine would seem to be the subject of Gamble's next book; here's hoping!
In summary, Gamble does an excellent job of utilizing Japanese and American records, reports and reminiscences to create an all-encompassing view of Rabaul's crucial role in the Pacific war. He easily shifts between high-level American or Japanese conferences to in-the-cockpit descriptions of bombing hops and air combats. He also practices some myth-busting and record-correcting in recounting who-did-what-when. All in all, FORTRESS RABAUL is great history...and a great read. Highly recommended.
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