Fortress Rabaul - Bruce Gamble

For most of World War II, the mere mention of ?Fortress Rabul? sent shivers through Allied soldiers, sailors, airmen and commanding offices. The headquaters of the Imperial Japanese forces in the Pacific ? and the springboard for their takeover of Australia and Pacific territories ? this contained millions of square feet of housing and storage facilities, defended by hundreds of bunkers, 500 km of tunnels, 5 airstrips,a submarine and float plane base, and was the basis of successful actions into the Solomons, Guadalcanal, Bouganvill, Kokada trail, and Coral Sea Battle. From the initial invasion of Japanese forces, the defeat of Lark Force, and the construction of the base on the island of New Britain(including an underground hospital for 2, 500 patients at any one time), much of which was built by slave labour from captured Sikh or Australian allied servicemen, to the eventual attack by US forces, after Rabul had been isolated by allied forces operating in Solomons and elsewhere, this is the full story of a base regarded as impregnable by both Allied and Axis commanders, and was only defeated after intensive bombing ? roughly some 20,000 tonnes of explosives ? in hundreds of bombing raids from Simpson Airfield until in late 1943 Rabul could no longer function as a base. Detailing a critical and, until now, little understood chapter in the history of WW II this is an essential book for those wanting a fuller picture of the Pacific War,