Target: Rabaul: The Allied Siege of Japan's Most Infamous Stronghold, March 1943 - August 1945

by Bruce Gamble

  SOUTHEAST OF RABAUL, the aircrews of Task Group 50.3 were tense as they waited for their orders to launch. Only a few senior pilots aboard Bunker Hill had combat experience; the rest were anticipating their first mission. “It looked like we were going to hit heavy opposition,” recalled Krantz, “but we were excited about attacking heavy men-of-war. We knew they were there, and I certainly looked forward to it. I wasn’t worried about getting killed or shot down or a damn thing; all I was thinking was that this was what we had trained for.”

  The fliers aboard Essex and Independence had more experience, but according to Lt. j.g. Hamilton McWhorter III of Fighting Squadron 9, their mood was similar: “Going into Rabaul was certainly a scary, awesome task, since we knew that it was a very formidable and well-defended base. Even so, we were eager to go in and inflict as much damage as possible.”

  Soon after daybreak, Montgomery’s three carriers began launching the strike aircraft. Bunker Hill put up twenty-seven Hellcats, nineteen Avengers, and twenty-three Helldivers. One SB2C bellied in off the carrier’s bow; the pilot and gunner both survived. A plane guard destroyer dashed in, but only the rear gunner was recovered. Lieutenant Junior Grade Ralph L. Gunville drowned because his pockets were stuffed with extra rations for the plane’s life raft in the event of a ditching.

  Nearby, Essex launched twenty-nine Hellcats, twenty-eight Dauntless dive-bombers, and eighteen torpedo planes. Independence put up sixteen fighters and nine more Avengers. Task Group 50.3 provided 168 aircraft, a very large navy strike by 1943 standards.

  As with the November 5 raid, ComAirSols had arranged for land-based fighter squadrons to provide CAP over the task group during the strike. Not only did this add fighters, but it provided a unique homecoming opportunity for Lt. Cmdr. John T. Blackburn and Fighting 17. Based at Ondongo on New Georgia, the squadron had originally been assigned to Bunker Hill’s air group. Difficulties with the early-model F4U-1 Corsairs, however, had caused “Blackburn’s Irregulars” to be detached from the ship. For the next several months, VF-17 operated from island bases in the Solomons. A Hellcat squadron, Fighting 18, subsequently joined Bunker Hill.

  With reinstalled tail hooks on their Corsairs, Blackburn and twenty-three other pilots took off from Ondongo before dawn. One turned back, but the rest eventually located the task group and orbited overhead while the strike aircraft were launched. Similarly, twelve Hellcats from VF-33 at Segi Point arrived on CAP. After the strike force departed for Rabaul, the land-based pilots showed their professionalism by trapping to refuel—eleven Corsairs aboard Essex, twelve aboard Bunker Hill, and the Hellcats aboard Independence.

  Arriving at Rabaul an hour ahead of the second wave, the attackers from Saratoga and Princeton found fewer targets compared to the previous raid. Maya, damaged on November 5, and Agano, Noshira, and Yubari were scattered around Simpson Harbor, along with about eight destroyers.

  As before, Newell led Bombing 12 toward the anchorage while descending to ten thousand feet. Ten Zekes loitered about five thousand feet above the formation but showed no signs of intercepting. They were evidently a diversion, as the rearmost division of VF-12 was suddenly attacked from behind. The squadron’s “Tail-end Charlie,” Lt. j.g. William W. Culver, had a habit of lagging behind, and the Japanese singled him out. His F6F, hit in the port wing and engine, continued to fly but was out of the fight before it started. Oil covered the entire fuselage and canopy, blocking Culver’s vision. His only recourse was to slide back the canopy and stick with his section leader. While Culver struggled to maintain formation, Lt. j.g. Merle W. Swarthout, the division leader, went after one of the Zekes and flamed it. Ironically, it proved to be the only victory claimed by the Saratoga or Princeton fighter squadrons that day.

  Soon thereafter, shore batteries and shipboard antiaircraft guns opened fire. The dive-bombers and torpedo planes targeted a light cruiser and four destroyers, but all hid beneath the squall that covered much of Crater Peninsula and the Matupit anchorage. Heavy antiaircraft fire crippled one TBF, piloted by Lt. j.g. Stefan A. Nyarady of Torpedo Squadron 12, who was forced to ditch in the harbor. The radio operator did not survive the watery crash, but Nyarady and the turret gunner, Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Harlan J. Burrus, were plucked from Simpson Harbor and became POWs.

  Except for the heavy barrages of antiaircraft fire and the brief encounter that damaged Culver’s Hellcat, there was little opposition. While the first wave egressed across Saint George’s Channel, a few phosphorus bombs exploded in midair. But the aerial bursts had no effect, and the only other casualty besides Nyarady’s TBF was the Hellcat flown by Culver. Unable to land aboard Saratoga because of his oil-slicked windscreen, he bailed out near the ship and was promptly picked up by a destroyer.

  The first planes from TG 50.3 to approach Rabaul were led by Cmdr. Paul E. Emrick, the air group commander from Essex, whose formation arrived over the southern tip of New Ireland around 0830. By this time, more than a hundred Japanese fighters were airborne: sixty-eight from the air groups of the Eleventh Air Fleet, and thirty-nine from Shokaku, Zuikaku, and Zuiho. However, just as they had done on November 5, the Japanese did not attack the well-disciplined American formation as it proceeded toward Simpson Harbor. Looking over the situation, Emrick realized that the huge squall blanketing Crater Peninsula posed a problem. It would take too long for his torpedo planes to circle the squall and commence their runs from upwind; therefore, he sent new directions over the radio. The TBFs of Torpedo Squadron 9 descended gradually while continuing over Rabaul on a northwesterly heading, then executed a 180-degree diving left turn and came in low over the hills southwest of Rabaul.

  Following the lead formation, Cmdr. Michael E. Bagdanovich, the air group commander from Bunker Hill, decided to send his Helldivers and Avengers straight in. The pilots of Torpedo Squadron 17, recalled Bill Krantz, had to think fast: “Bagdanovich radioed ‘Attack, attack, attack!’ We picked out targets and went on down. There was a big rainsquall, and antiaircraft fire all over the place.”

  While the torpedo planes set up their attacks, the dive-bombers reached their targets first. The Helldiver pilots accounted well for themselves on their inaugural mission, attacking what they believed were a heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and two destroyers just east of Simpson Harbor. Some pilots released their bombs at altitudes as low as one thousand feet, and one of the armor-piercing bombs hit a destroyer squarely. Observing “a tremendous explosion … and large yellow flames,” Bagdanovich reported the ship as probably sunk. That much was true. The victim was Suzunami, a 2,500-ton destroyer that had been loading torpedoes in the vicinity of Matupit Island. It blew up and sank with the loss of 148 lives, including its captain, Cmdr. Masao Kamiyama.

  Other Helldivers attacked a “three-stack Japanese light cruiser,” reportedly sinking it with three direct hits. A different three-stacker, hit by two five-hundred-pound GP bombs that heavily damaged the superstructure, remained under control and raced out of the harbor. No planes from Bombing 17 were lost over the target area, but one was badly damaged by flak. Another had its huge empennage and both ailerons shredded by a Japanese fighter during the run-out from Simpson Harbor. Unable to land aboard, both planes ditched alongside destroyers, with all crewmembers rescued.

  The TBFs attacked next, with numerous cases of mistaken identity. Ten pilots from Torpedo 17 attacked a “Furutaka-class cruiser” and claimed a total of two hits—though no explosions were observed. Other aircrews went after a light cruiser and several destroyers, claiming no hits whatsoever.

  Many warships looked bigger and stronger than they actually were, an illusion caused in part by the fliers’ inexperience. Furataka-class cruisers were six hundred feet long, had two funnels, and displaced over 10,500 tons; however, the warship that drew attention from the torpedo planes was actually Agano of approximately 8,500 tons. Commissioned less than thirteen months earlier, she had been slightly damaged on November 5, but was less fortunate this day. A single torpedo struck her stern, causi
ng serious but repairable damage. Rear Admiral Morikazu Osugi, commander of Destroyer Squadron 10, was injured by the blast and transferred to a different ship the following day.

  Krantz was among those who targeted Agano. After he heard Bagdanovich’s radio call to commence the attack, Krantz saw two cruisers heading out of Simpson Harbor and turned toward the largest. “I just picked out a heavy cruiser and got a good lead on him,” he later stated. “I used the old formula: for every ten knots of speed, lead him by a half a ship-length.”

  Making a smooth drop, Krantz believed his torpedo had a good chance of scoring a hit, but he couldn’t get a visual confirmation. As he passed astern of the cruiser, he had to decide quickly which way to turn. The shortest egress route was to the east, but a hard right turn would expose him to the cruiser’s many guns and carry him toward the antiaircraft emplacements on Praed Point. Straight ahead lay Crater Peninsula and an even heavier concentration of antiaircraft guns, including those aboard the ships in Matupit Harbor.

  Krantz did the sensible thing. Staying just above the wave tops, he turned hard left. His flight path crossed the bow of a destroyer that was trailing Agano, and for several long seconds the Avenger’s white underbelly was broadside to the Japanese gunners. A large shell exploded under the engine, almost flipping the big plane over on its back. Krantz quickly regained control, but he and his two crewmen knew their plane had been badly hit—and right over the enemy’s most heavily defended South Pacific base. Their saving grace was the sheer size of the Avenger and its famous ruggedness. For the time being, the TBF stayed in the air, but it left a long, telltale streak of black smoke.

  Other Avengers successfully attacked the destroyer Naganami, a sister ship of Suzunami. Both ships, bearing a tall superstructure immediately forward of two funnels, were mistaken for three-stack “light cruisers.” Hit by one torpedo aft of the third turret, Naganami drifted to a stop and was later towed into Simpson Harbor by another destroyer.

  Overall, the reports submitted by the Avenger squadrons ran from spectacular to mediocre. Torpedo Squadron 9 (Essex) claimed hits on three destroyers, one light cruiser, and five cruisers. In comparison, the nine planes from Composite Squadron 22 (Independence) attacked the “Furutaka-class cruiser,” but claimed only one hit. Finally, numerous pilots reported attacks on Mogami- and Myoko-class cruisers. Both types were large, displacing over thirteen thousand tons, and had three gun turrets forward of the superstructure. Sketches drawn by the attackers clearly show this turret arrangement, and their narratives imply that several such vessels were attacked; however, only one warship with that arrangement was present at Rabaul that day. The heavy cruiser Maya, 15,781 tons, had been severely damaged by Saratoga’s dive-bombers on November 5 but was untouched by bombs or torpedoes on the 11th.

  FLYING LOW OVER the water after making individual dive-bombing or torpedo attacks, the American fliers now faced the most dangerous segment of the mission. The Japanese fighters swarmed in, attempting to cut off planes. Damaged aircraft attracted the most unwanted attention.

  Hugging the wave tops in a damaged TBF, Krantz was abeam Kokopo when a flight of mottled green fighters approached from the right. They flashed by without firing a shot, the nearest plane missing the Avenger by mere feet. Krantz could clearly see a distinctive yellow lightning bolt painted on its tail. The fighter looked very much like a Zero, but was probably a Ki-43 Oscar.*

  Spinning his turret around, Virgil Case shot down one of the fighters, according to Krantz. Moments later, another fell to the guns of an F6F.

  The skies over Blanche Bay and Saint George’s Channel were filled with furiously fighting warplanes. Most of the torpedo planes and dive-bombers managed to find one or more squadron mates to join with, whereupon the Japanese typically left them alone. But the situation was different for Lt. j.g. Henry C. Carby of Torpedo Squadron 17. After making two unsuccessful attack runs, Carby was separated from the rest of his squadron. An estimated six Zekes hounded him over the next thirty miles, pumping a total of 207 bullets and cannon shells into the Avenger’s fuselage, wings, and control surfaces. The turret gunner and radio operator fought back, ultimately driving off the Zekes after shooting down one and probably destroying another. The rugged Avenger not only made it back to the task group, but Carby landed successfully aboard Bunker Hill. The plane, deemed a total loss due to battle damage, was shoved overboard.

  Elsewhere, aerial battles raged on. After a hair-raising run on a cruiser, Hamilton McWhorter of Fighting Squadron 9 spotted a huge melee southeast of Rabaul. “The scene was like something out of the movies—dozens of aircraft turning and spinning and spiraling,” he later wrote. “There was an explosion here, a parachute there, and airplanes spinning down in flames everywhere. The water was dotted with three or four big, light blue rings where airplanes had crashed and churned the surface.”

  McWhorter waded into the donnybrook without a wingman and was involved in a dizzying, sometimes terrifying fight that lasted several long minutes. The American planes steadily withdrew to the southeast toward the task group, eventually forcing the Japanese to break off and return to their airdromes. By the time the melee broke up, McWhorter had downed two Zekes and probably a third. Back aboard Essex, he counted at least a dozen bullet holes in his Hellcat.

  ALTHOUGH THE TWO carrier groups launched 275 aircraft, the results of the raid were disappointing. One destroyer sank, and a light cruiser and three destroyers sustained damage. The cost on the American side was low. Despite the heavy antiaircraft fire over Rabaul and the spirited Japanese interception, only nine planes failed to return to the carriers. Four TBFs were missing, including those flown by Nyarady and Krantz. The remaining five were Hellcats: two each from Bunker Hill and Independence, and one from Essex. In addition, one Avenger, two Helldivers, and four Hellcats either ditched near their carriers because of battle damage or were pushed overboard. Some thirty planes returned with various degrees of damage, much of it considered minor, and several pilots and crewmen were wounded. The worst was suffered by an SB2C gunner, William O. Haynes Jr. who was shot through the left side of his face by a bullet that broke his jaw.

  The Americans hugely exaggerated their aerial victories. Hellcat pilots and a few rear gunners were credited with destroying thirty-seven enemy planes and probably destroying ten more that morning. Enemy losses amounted to eight aircraft from the Eleventh Air Fleet, and three from the detached carrier groups. Among the pilots killed were a Zuikaku division officer and a Zuiho group leader.

  Japanese newspapers reported an even greater level of exaggeration: “Imperial Navy air and surface units, encountering about 200 enemy planes which came to raid Rabaul on November 11, shot down 71 of them.”

  Neither side, it seemed, was interested in toning down the rhetoric.

  THE BIGGEST AIR battle of the day—and the biggest exaggerations—were yet to occur. Sherman’s task force had managed to avoid detection, but Montgomery’s task group, steaming closer to Rabaul in an area searched frequently by the Japanese, was snooped during the morning. At midday, Kusaka launched a heavy counterattack. Originally the effort consisted of 106 aircraft, making it one of Japan’s largest anticarrier strikes thus far. From the units of the 1st Carrier Division, twenty-three Vals, fourteen Kates, and thirty-three Zeros took off to attack the American fleet. In addition, thirty-two fighters from the land-based groups and four Judys of Air Group 501 lifted off from the airdromes at Rabaul. The latter group of fighters, led by a young officer with little combat experience, failed to rendezvous with the main strike force and returned. Three Vals that experienced mechanical trouble also turned back, leaving seventy-one aircraft headed toward Montgomery’s task group. Leading the mission was Lt. Masao Sato, commander of the Zuiho’s fighter unit and a Pearl Harbor veteran.

  Aboard the American carriers, fliers headed to galleys and wardrooms for lunch while their planes were patched up, refueled, and rearmed for a follow-up strike on Rabaul. Three SB2Cs took off from Bunker Hill to patrol s
pecific sectors out ahead of the task force—a mundane assignment that all three crews objected to, thinking they would miss the second raid. The assigned strike crews manned their aircraft and started engines at 1300. Fifteen minutes later radar detected the inbound raid 119 miles away.

  Shipboard fighter directors vectored elements of Fighting Squadrons 17 and 33, already overhead on CAP, toward the bogies. Montgomery ordered the second strike to launch, and several F6Fs lifted off beginning at 1325, followed by a few torpedo planes. When enemy aircraft were sighted overhead, Montgomery reluctantly cancelled the remaining launch at 1354. The Vals and their escorting Zeros, faster than the torpedo-laden Kates, had reached the task group.

  Picking up the talk between ships (TBS) handset aboard Essex, Montgomery broadcast to his fleet: “Man your guns and shoot those bastards out of the sky!”

  The screening force of nine destroyers maneuvered into a circular “Victor Screen” four thousand yards across, with the three carriers grouped in the center, all steaming at 25 to 30 knots. The Essex-class carriers mounted 24 5-inch guns, 106 40mm cannons, and 160 20mm automatic cannons. Five of the “tin cans” forming the outer ring were Fletcher-class destroyers, each packing five 5-inch guns, four 40mm mounts, and four 20mm guns; the other four, all pre-Fletcher types, were only slightly less heavily armed.*

  For the second time that day, the sky was filled with swarming combatants. Dark green Japanese warplanes twisted and dived between streams of tracer rounds and bursts of antiaircraft fire. Some Japanese planes turned away from the fusillade, but plenty of Vals and Zekes pushed through the flak to strafe and bomb the carriers. Bunker Hill attracted the most attention.