Bypassed: The 100,000 Japanese Soldiers America Left Behind at Rabaul

Rabaul held roughly 100,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors, five airfields, and miles of tunnels, and the Allies never invaded it. The strongest Japanese base in the South Pacific was bypassed, starved of ships and aircraft, and left to wait for an assault that would never come. This documentary traces the neutralization of Rabaul from the Japanese landing of January 1942 to the surrender aboard HMS Glory in September 1945. It covers Operation Cartwheel, the Quebec decision of August 1943, the Torokina landing on Bougainville, Bloody Tuesday, the carrier strikes of the Saratoga, Princeton, Essex, Bunker Hill and Independence against Japanese cruisers in Simpson Harbour, the collapse of Operation Ro, the fighter sweeps of AirSols, the Green Islands, Cape Gloucester, Truk, and the day the last Japanese aircraft flew out of Rabaul in February 1944. Every date, unit, and loss figure comes from after-action reports, campaign histories, loss tables, and squadron records, and where sources disagree, the script says so. The story is told as a contest between systems: a fortress built to absorb an invasion, and a fleet and air force built to walk around it. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War - new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #USNavy #WWIIHistory #Rabaul #OperationCartwheel #Bypassed #MilitaryHistory #USAInWW2