Diamond, Jon Images of War. The Allied Neutralisation of Rabaul. Japan’s Major South Pacific Base. Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

Fierce ground, sea and air battles raged between the Allies and Imperial Japan in the Pacific in 1942-1943 to halt the latter's unstoppable advance. Following the American victory on Guadalcanal in February 1943, Admiral Halsey's South Pacific Area (SPA) naval and amphibious forces fought in the Solomons to establish new airfields and capture existing Japanese airfields. At the same time, the Australian-American ground forces of General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), supported by General George Kenney's 5th US Air Force and other Allied air forces, captured Japanese installations in Papua New Guinea before advancing along the northeast coast of New Guinea, eliminating or bypassing enemy installations there. By utilising newly established airfields in Papua New Guinea, the Allies gained air superiority over New Guinea and also disrupted Japanese supply lines by sea. However, the most important Japanese bastion in the south-west Pacific, Rabaul, on the north-eastern tip of New Britain, the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, remained intact. In March 1943, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff realised that an amphibious assault and ground campaign against the Rabaul naval and army bases would be too costly and decided to neutralise Rabaul with a joint SPA and SWPA air siege rather than conquer it. This Images of War volume chronicles this strategy in 1943 and 1944, as well as the amphibious landings by the 1st Marine Division and 6th US Army at Cape Gloucester and Arawe, respectively, in December 1943, which successfully isolated the Japanese fortress and satellite bases.