Attack on Rabaul

Japanese cruiser Chikuma under attack on 5 November 1943
Attack on Rabaul
Conflict	World War II, Pacific War
Date	October 12 1943 – November 5, 1943
Place	Rabaul on New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago
Result	Allied victory
Combatants United States; Australia; New Zealand Japan Commanders George Kenney (air force) Frederick Sherman (navy) Isoroku Yamamoto Strength 2 carriers, 97 carrier planes, 100+ air force planes 10 cruisers, 11 destroyers, 100+ planes Casualties 10 carrier planes destroyed, 50+ air force planes destroyed 8 cruisers damaged, 3 destroyers damaged, 100+ planes destroyed
Solomon Islands campaign Guadalcanal – Savo – Eastern Solomons – Cape Esperance – Santa Cruz – Naval Guadalcanal – Tassafaronga – Rennell – Blackett Strait – New Georgia – Kula – Kolombangara – Vella – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Bougainville – Empress Augusta Bay – Cape St. George

The attack on Rabaul was a campaign of Allied air raids against the Japanese base at Rabaul in October and November 1943. It was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II.

Rabaul, the chief port of the island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago, was the main Japanese naval base for the campaigns in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Simpson's Harbor — captured from Australian forces in February 1942 — was known as "the Pearl Harbor of the Pacific" and was well defended by 300 anti-aircraft guns and five airfields.

Early in 1943 Rabaul had been distant from the fighting. But by the autumn Japanese forces had retreated in New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands, abandoning Guadalcanal, Kolombangara and Vella Lavella. Now Rabaul was directly menaced by US airpower.

From October 12 1943, the US 5th Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, directed by the US General George Kenney, launched a sustained campaign of bombing against the airfields and port of Rabaul. The biggest raid was on November 2.

Japanese cruiser Haguro under attack on 2 November 1943.

With the invasion of Bougainville on November 1 1943 Rabaul came under threat from another direction. A hasty attempt to drive Allied forces off Bougainville had been defeated in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. Now Yamamoto planned to reinforce Rabaul and overwhelm the limited Allied forces around Bougainville while most of the US Navy was involved in preparations for the invasion of Tarawa.

Rear-Admiral Frederick Sherman planned to pre-empt this threat by a carrier raid. Saratoga and Princeton headed for New Britain under cover of a weather front, and launched every plane at Rabaul. No ships were sunk, but six heavy cruisers were damaged (Atago, Maya, Chikuma, Mogami, Takao, and Suzuya) and the threat to Bougainville was destroyed.

A second carrier raid was made on November 11 by the Saratoga and Essex.