Bombing of Rabaul ( November 1943 ) The Allies of World War II conducted an air attack upon a cruiser force at the major Japanese base of Rabaul in November 1943 . In response to the Allied invasion of Bougainville , the Japanese had brought a strong cruiser force down from Japan to Rabaul in preparation for a night engagement against the allied supply and support shipping . Allied carrier and land - based planes attacked the Japanese ships , airfields , and port facilities on the island of New Britain to protect the Allied amphibious invasion of Bougainville . As a result of the Rabaul raids , the Japanese naval forces could no longer threaten the landings . The success of the raid began to change the strongly - held belief that carrier based air forces could not challenge land based air forces . Background . In early 1943 , Rabaul had been distant from the fighting . However , the Allied grand strategy in the South West Pacific Area — Operation Cartwheel — aimed to isolate Rabaul and reduce it by air raids . Japanese ground forces were already retreating in New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands , abandoning Guadalcanal , Kolombangara , New Georgia and Vella Lavella . Rabaul — on the island of New Britain — was one of two major ports in the Australian Territory of New Guinea . It was the main Japanese naval base for the Solomon Islands campaign and New Guinea campaign . Simpson Harbor — captured from Australian forces in February 1942 — was known as " the Pearl Harbor of the South Pacific " and was well defended by 367 anti - aircraft gun s and five airfields . Lakunai and Vunakanau airfields were prewar Australian strips . Lakunai had an all - weather runway of sand and volcanic ash , and Vunakanau was surfaced with concrete . Rapopo — to the southeast — became operational in December 1942 with concrete runways and extensive support and maintenance facilities . Tobera — completed in August 1943 halfway between Vunakanau and Rapopo — also had concrete strips . The four dromes had 166 protected revetments for bombers and 265 for fighters , with additional unprotected dispersal parking areas . The fifth airfield protecting Rabaul was Borpop airfield , completed in December 1942 across the St . Georges Channel on New Ireland . The anti - aircraft defenses were well coordinated by army and naval units . The army operated 192 of the 367 antiaircraft guns and the navy 175 . The naval guns guarded Simpson Harbor and its shipping and the three airfields of Tobera , Lakunai , and Vunakanau . The army units defended Rapopo airfield , supply dumps and army installations ; and assisted the navy in defending Simpson Harbor . An effective early warning radar system provided coverage from Rabaul , and extended coverage with additional radars on New Britain , New Ireland , and at Buka . These sets provided from 30 – 60 minutes early warning of an attack . Land - based air attacks . From 12 October 1943 , as part of Operation Cartwheel , the U . S . Fifth Air Force , the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force — directed by the Allied air commander in the South West Pacific Area , General George Kenney — launched a sustained campaign of bombing against the airfields and port of Rabaul . After the first raid of 349 aircraft , bad weather blunted the effect of bombing , which saw only a single raid by 50 B - 25 Mitchell medium bomber s on 18 October . However sustained attacks resumed on 23 October and continued for six days , before culminating in the large raid of 2 November . Nine squadrons of B - 25s — totalling 72 bombers — and six squadrons of P - 38 Lightning escorts attacked the anti - aircraft defenses and Simpson Harbor with minimum altitude strafing and bombing attacks . Eight B - 25s were shot down by AAA or Japanese naval fighters , or crashed attempting to return to base . Among them was that of Major Raymond H . Wilkins of the 3rd Attack Group , posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership . Nine of the 80 P - 38s were also lost . Carrier attacks . On Bouganville the Japanese had two airfields in the southern tip of the island , and another at the northernmost peninsula , with a fourth on Buki just across the northern passage . Instead of landing his forces near the Japanese airfields and taking them away against the bulk of the Japanese defenders , Admiral William Halsey landed his invasion force of 14 , 000 marines at Empress Augusta Bay , about halfway up the west coast of Bouganville . There he had his Seabee s clear and build their own airfield . Two days after the landing Admiral Mineichi Koga sent a large cruiser force down from Japan to Rabaul in preparation for a night engagement against Halsey ' s screening force and supply ships in Empress Augusta Bay . The Japanese had been conserving their naval forces over the past year , but now committed a force of seven heavy cruisers , along with one light cruiser and four destroyers . At Rabaul the force refueled in preparation for the coming night battle . Halsey had no surface forces anywhere near equivalent strength to oppose them . The battleships and and assorted cruisers had been transferred to the Central Pacific to support the upcoming invasion of Tarawa . Other than the destroyer screen for the transports , the only force Halsey had available were the carrier airgroups on and . Rabaul was a heavily fortified port . With five airfields and extensive anti - aircraft batteries , the navy fliers considered it a hornet ' s nest . Up to that point in the war , other than the surprise raid at Pearl Harbor no mission against such a heavily defended target had ever been undertaken using carrier aircraft . It was a highly dangerous mission for the aircrews , and jeopardized the carriers as well . Halsey later said the threat the Japanese cruiser force at Rabaul posed to his landings at Bouganville was " the most desperate emergency that confronted me in my entire term as ComSoPac . " With the landing in the balance , Halsey sent his two carriers under the command of Rear - Admiral Frederick Sherman to steam north through the night to get into range of Rabaul , then launch a daybreak raid on the base . Approaching behind the cover of a weather front , Sherman launched all 97 of his available aircraft against Rabaul . Aircraft from Barakoma Airfield on recently captured Vella Lavella were sent out to intercept the task group and provide some measure of air cover . Back at Rabaul , the carrier force drove their attack home . Under orders to make preference of damaging more ships rather than sinking a few , the air strike was a stunning success , inflicting damage on most units of the cruiser force and neutralizing it as a threat . The daybreak bombing of Rabaul was followed up an hour later with a raid by 27 B - 24 Liberator heavy bomber s of the Fifth Air Force , escorted by 58 P - 38s . Most of the Japanese warships returned to Truk the next day to receive repairs and get them out of range of further Allied airstrikes . A serious threat had been neutralized . Damage to the Japanese forces at Rabaul were as follows : six cruisers damaged , four heavily . was near - missed by three bombs that caused severe damage and killed 22 crewmen , including her captain . was hit by one bomb above one of her engine rooms , causing heavy damage and killing 70 crewmen . was hit by one 500 lb bomb and set afire , causing heavy damage and killing 19 crewmen . was hit by two 500 lb bombs , causing heavy damage and killing 23 crewmen . , was slightly damaged by several near - misses . was near - missed by one bomb which damaged one anti - aircraft gun and killed one crewman . Three destroyers were also lightly damaged . Aircraft losses in the raid were light . An additional carrier unit — Task Group 50 . 3 ( TG 50 . 3 ) of the U . S . 5th Fleet — reached Halsey on 7 November . Commanded by Rear Adm . Alfred L . Montgomery , it consisted of the carriers , and . Halsey used Montgomery ' s ships as well as TF 38 in a double carrier strike against Rabaul on 11 November . Sherman launched a strike from near Green Island , northwest of Bougainville , which attacked in bad weather at about 08 : 30 . After its return , TF 38 retired to the south without being detected . Montgomery launched from the Solomon Sea southeast of Rabaul . " Agano " — which had remained at Rabaul after the 5 November strike — was torpedoed and heavily damaged in these attacks . The Japanese launched a series of counterattacks involving 120 aircraft against the U . S . carriers , but the force was intercepted and lost 35 planes without inflicting damage on Montgomery ' s ships .