Neutralisation of Rabaul

Neutralisation of Rabaul
Part of the Solomon Islands Campaign and New Guinea Campaign of World War II
Photo taken from US Marine SBD dive bomber on 2 August 1944, during an air raid on Rabaul. The aircraft are attacking Rabaul's defenses and a previously sunken cargo ship
Date 17 December 1943 – 8 August 1945 Location Rabaul, Papua New Guinea Result Allied victory; effectiveness of Japanese forces at Rabaul destroyed
Belligerents
United States  Australia  New Zealand	Japan
Commanders and leaders
George C. Kenney William Bostock Frederick C. Sherman	Kumaichi Teramoto
Strength
USMC, USAAF, USN, RAAF, and RNZAF aircraft	IJAAF and IJN aircraft
Casualties and losses
151 aircraft, 25 of them bombers	250 aircraft

The neutralisation of Rabaul was an Allied campaign to render useless the Imperial Japanese base at Rabaul in eastern New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Japanese forces landed on Rabaul on 23 January 1942, capturing it by February 1942, after which the harbor and town were transformed into a major Japanese naval and air installation. The Japanese heavily relied on it, using it as a launching point for Japanese reinforcements to New Guinea and Guadalcanal. Throughout the Solomon Islands campaign, neutralizing Rabaul became the primary objective of the Allied effort in the Solomons.