Quote:
Originally Posted by Torplexed
Near as I can tell by studying their tabular records of movement at the Combined Fleet site the Japanese never based any of their big fleet carriers at Rabaul during the entire war, although air groups from the carriers sometimes operated from the airfield. They seemed to have preferred Truk 800 miles to the north as a carrier anchorage instead. The small escort carrier Taiyo visited briefly once in April 1942 but was probably only being used to ferry planes to the base.
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The Akagi, Kaga and Shokaku attacked Rabaul, but don't know they were ever docked there. Simpson Harbor there certainly could handle carriers, known as the Pearl Harbor of Rabaul. Many CA's docked there. One of the few Jap Carriers that survived the war, named something like the Katsuraga docked in Rabaul to bring back jap pows to Japan in 46.
McAuthor pushed hard to invade and take Rabaul because of it's harbor, but they higher ups decided to neutralize rather than capture. If you use RSRD you can see the large air raids on Rabaul, many bombers and P38s..Nice plane action in the game.
It was also used a a small sub base for some sub resupply runs to Gaudal. Some years ago I use to correspond with a fellow named Steve that ran the Rabaul Historical Society.
Also, Japs kept about 1000 prostitutes there for the use of over 100,000 men, mostly women from Korea, China and Japan. Few women lived, one that did wrote it was common for her to be raped over 50 times a day.