Word: rabaul
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Allied air superiority in the South Pacific had shifted from potential to actual. A few months ago the largest number of Allied planes ever to raid Rabaul was 37. In the last fortnight nights of as many as 150 bombers plus fighter escort have been over Munda and Bairoko regularly; on one day 250 sorties were made against Munda...
These were preliminaries. Salamaua, Lae and Munda also were intermediate objectives on the road to a larger objective-Rabaul, heart & center of the Japanese naval, air and land establishment on the southwestern periphery. North of Rabaul there is only open sea (775 miles of it) between the periphery and the great naval base at Truk in the Carolines. From Rabaul the Allies also could strike behind the Japs' long Indies line, across the inner shipping lanes to Japan itself...
...this offensive need not fail if it stops short of Rabaul. Nor, if the Americans and Australians do take Rabaul itself, need it follow that Truk must be reduced. The great value of the offensive is the wide range of tactical choice given to MacArthur. He and Admiral Halsey may prefer to deal with Rabaul's air fleets in the air-once the Allies were so close, the Japs would have little choice but to spend their planes and pilots. Rather than attempt a prodigious expedition against Truk, the Air Forces and the Navy may prefer to deal with...
...Japs are bound to feel such losses, but they have many hundreds of planes tucked away on 60-odd airdromes along the arc from Java to the Solomons. After four raids on Vunakanau, Rapopo and Lakunai airfields near Rabaul within the last fortnight, American crews could still count around 200 Jap planes, and the force scattered along the south Pacific front probably totals 1.500 to 2,000-a good many more than the Allies have mustered in the same theaters...
...Guinea foothold held possibilities of a further Allied thrust into the Jap's defensive wall at Rabaul...