Rabaul’s Air Force Ended in Five Days

Rabaul’s Air Force Ended in Five Days. At dawn on 20 February 1944, one hundred aircraft flew north out of Simpson Harbour — and one hundred thousand Japanese troops, behind concrete and anti-aircraft guns built to kill an amphibious landing, stood and watched them go. They were never attacked. Rabaul was sealed, and its garrison waited five hundred and sixty-four days for a landing that was never scheduled and never came. This video covers the neutralisation of Rabaul: Operation Cartwheel from 30 June 1943 to 20 March 1944; the Quadrant Conference decision to bypass the base; the strikes of 12 October, 2 November, 5 November and 11 November 1943; Operation Ro and the destruction of the Japanese First Air Squadron; Operation Hailstone at Truk; the 20 February 1944 withdrawal of every serviceable Japanese aircraft; the landings at Cape Gloucester, Los Negros and Emirau that closed the ring; the 105th Naval Base Unit and the last offensive sortie at Seeadler Harbour on 27 April 1945; and the surrender aboard HMS Glory on 6 September 1945. Built from after-action reports, loss tables, squadron records, USNI Proceedings, the US Marine Corps monograph Isolation on Rabaul, the National Archives of Australia surrender instrument and the official campaign histories — not from the legends. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War — new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #Rabaul #USNavy #WWIIHistory #OperationCartwheel #IslandHopping #MilitaryHistory #USAInWW2