Fortress Rabaul

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Authors: Bruce Gamble

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Fortress
Rabaul

The Battle for
the Southwest Pacific

January 1942–April 1943

Bruce Gamble

To my aunt and uncle:

Margaret Gamble Steinbinder (1918–2009)
Physical therapist, Walter Reed Army Hospital

John J. Steinbinder (1918–2002)
Captain, USAAF, forty-three combat missions
in the Southwest Pacific

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Maps

Rank Abbreviations

Prologue

1 Volcanoes, God, and Coconuts

2 24 Squadron

3 Gladiators

4 Desperate Hours

5 The Fall of Rabaul

6 Counterattack

7 Stronghold

8 Task Force 11

9 Medal of Honor: Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare

10 Carmichael’s Raid

11 Yanks Down Under

12 The Last Outpost

13 New Guinea Interlude

14 Wild Eagles

15 MO: The Offensive Blunted

16 Guests of the Emperor

17 Fading Glory

18 MacArthur’s New Airman

19 Medal of Honor: Harl Pease Jr.

20 The Personification of Evil

21 A Shift in Momentum

22 New Identities

23 Heavy Bomber Blues

24 Medal of Honor: Kenneth N. Walker

25 Blood in the Water

26 Operation I-Go: Yamamoto’s Last Offensive

27 Death of a Warrior God

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Preface

F
OR WELL OVER FORTY YEARS
I’ve been proud of the fact that my uncle, John J. Steinbinder, served as a B-17 navigator in the Southwest Pacific. Sadly, I learned little about his combat experiences during my youth, and by the time I became seriously interested in researching and writing about the war, he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

The disease inevitably claimed Uncle Johnny, but there was a silver lining. Not long before his passing, I took temporary possession of a large footlocker that contained his military papers and memorabilia. Among them was a diary filled with details of Johnny’s overseas tour in 1942, and I was fascinated to discover that he was a member of the first American squadron to attack Rabaul. By the completion of his ten-month tour, Johnny had logged at least nineteen combat missions over Japan’s mightiest stronghold.

My personal interest in Rabaul, aside from the stories Uncle Johnny shared, began while writing
The Black Sheep
. The way the veteran pilots spoke of Rabaul, even sixty years after the war, made me realize that it was no mere target. In early 2001, I had the pleasure of conducting a lengthy interview with Capt. William F. Krantz, USN, whose carrier-based bomber was forced down at sea after attacking Rabaul in 1943. Krantz and his two crewmen spent ten harrowing days in a raft before washing up on New Britain, where Rabaul is located. Although the island was in Japanese hands, the three airmen were aided by natives who guided them to an Australian coastwatcher. Three months later, the Americans were rescued by a PT boat.

Krantz in turn put me in touch with the coastwatcher, Peter Figgis, who had been a member of the Australian army garrison at Rabaul when
the war began. After sharing his own remarkable story, Figgis referred me to other veterans of the unit, known as Lark Force. The ripple effect continued, and soon I was hooked on the early history of Rabaul and the tragic fate of the garrison. The end result was
Darkest Hour: The True Story of Lark Force at Rabaul—Australia’s Worst Military Disaster of World War II
, published by Zenith Press in 2006.

While working on that project, I realized that no one had yet published a comprehensive account of the air war over Rabaul. This is really remarkable, since Rabaul was the focus of Allied air attacks from January 1942 until the end of the war, making it the longest battle of World War II. A virtually impregnable fortress, Rabaul grew in notoriety until it became an icon of the Pacific war. Always dangerous, the stronghold rivaled the most infamous targets in Europe—places like Ploesti, Schweinfurt, and Berlin. No less than six Medals of Honor were awarded to American airmen for actions over Rabaul, five of them posthumously, underscoring the intensity of the air battles.

Soon after
Darkest Hour
was released, I set out to write a detailed narrative about Rabaul and the war’s longest air campaign. I firmly believe that extraordinary events are best told by the people who experienced them, so from the outset of this project my goal was to include material from numerous participants to help explain events from both the Japanese and Allied perspectives. In doing this, however, it became apparent that a comprehensive account of the
entire
forty-four-month-long air war would simply be too large for publication as a single volume. A manageable approach for the topic was easy to establish, for there were two distinct phases in the Pacific War. The first, which lasted about seventeen months, began with the massive Southern Offensive as Japan captured numerous territories. Among them was Rabaul, which the Japanese quickly developed into a major military complex that dominated the region.
Fortress Rabaul
focuses on that opening phase of the conflict, when Rabaul served as a springboard for several new offensives. It begins with a brief history of New Britain and a synopsis of the Lark Force story, and then focuses on the air war over Rabaul from January 1942 to April 1943. At that time, having suffered irreplaceable losses in the battles for Guadalcanal and New Guinea, Admiral IsorokuYamamoto shifted his headquarters to Rabaul to oversee a major new aerial offensive. Barely two weeks later, he was shot down during an audacious and perfectly
timed fighter mission. His death heralded the beginning of the end for Japan, which increasingly dug in and fought a defensive war.

It is my hope to describe the second phase of the war in a future volume, for there are obviously still many great tales of heroism and sacrifice to narrate.

A FEW CONVENTIONS warrant mention here. First, the twenty-four-hour military clock is used. During the war the Japanese followed Tokyo time (Japan Standard Time), which at Rabaul was two hours ahead of the local time used by the Allies. In the interest of consistency, the necessary adjustments have been made to the times referenced in Japanese sources. For the same purpose, the identification of Japanese individuals adheres to the Western custom of given name first followed by the surname. Japanese aircraft are identified by a combination of official terminology and model/year designations for the first twenty chapters. Although somewhat awkward, the method is true to the system employed by Allied intelligence during the first several months of the war. Eventually a series of simple code names was developed, and these are used throughout the last six chapters of the book. Lastly, distances are given in statute miles unless otherwise noted, as the vast majority of readers will relate more easily to “highway” miles than nautical miles.

Acknowledgments

I
WOULD LIKE TO THANK
Richard Kane, editorial director of Zenith Press, for his great patience and support. I am equally grateful for the many improvements suggested by Scott Pearson, associate editor at Zenith, who is just as patient as Richard.

I must also extend my gratitude to the professional staffs at three repositories in the United States: the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland; the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base outside Montgomery, Alabama; and the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia. Equally important research facilities Down Under include the Australian War Memorial and the Australian National Archives, both in Canberra.

Like any author, I relied heavily on the assistance of numerous friends and colleagues to complete this project. Without their help, I don’t believe the story could have been told. In Australia, the many who gave cheerfully of their time and wisdom include Mark Brennan, Peter Cundall, Peter Dunn, Michael Elliott, James Ford, Tim Gambrill, Lex McAulay, Hank Nelson, Peter Stone, David Vincent, David Wilson, and Brian Wimborne. The following veterans of World War II also participated Down Under, either directly or with helpful recommendations: Catalina pilot Sir Richard Kingsland, Benn Selby (brother of antiaircraft battery commander Lt. David Selby), Chap. John May, Hudson pilot John Murphy, and intelligence officer Des Martin.

The list of people who supported this project in North America is much longer. Some are noted authors, others are dedicated historians who work behind the scenes, and still others are relatives of those who served in the Southwest Pacific. I’m equally grateful to them all and pleased to count
many of them among my friends. They are William Davis, Rick Dunn, Richard Frank, Jon Guttman, Eric Hammel, Bill Hess, Larry Hickey, Randy Jacobson, Herb Kadowaki, Curtis Keel, Jim Landsdale, Josephine Lerew, John Lundstrom, Roger Mansell, Allyn Nevitt, Shuko Nilson, Andrew Obluski, Janice Olson, Frank Olynyk, Edward Rogers, Henry Sakaida, Jim Sawruk, Michael Smith, Osamu Tagaya, Justin Taylan, Barrett Tillman, Anthony Tully, Douglas Walker, Ron Werneth, and James Zobel.

Last, but never least, the following USAAF veterans gave generously of their time, documents, and photo collections in support of this book. I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with these members of the “greatest generation” who unflinchingly served their country. Perry Dahl, pilot, 475th Fighter Group; Jim Dieffenderfer, pilot, 43rd Bomb Group; Joe Forrester, pilot, 475th Fighter Group; Jim Harcrow, pilot, 43rd Bomb Group; Frank Hohmann, crewmember, 19th Bomb Group; Cyril Klimesh, crewmember, 22nd Bomb Group; John Loisel, pilot, 475th Fighter Group; Carthon Phillips, crewmember, 19th Bomb Group; John Watkins, pilot, 22nd Bomb Group; and Roger Vargas, navigator, 43rd Bomb Group. If I’ve overlooked anyone, I pray that I’m forgiven.

Maps

Oceania

Volcano Town

New Britain’s Gazelle Peninsula

Southwest Pacific Battleground

The Airdromes of Port Moresby

Rank Abbreviations