Bruce D. Gamble

Target Rabaul is the third and final book of Mr. Gamble’s history of the battle of Rabaul. The duration of the battle was that of the Second World War (1941-1945). The author’s first book (Darkest Hour – reissued as Invasion Rabaul) spanned 1941-1942. The second (Fortress Rabaul) recounted the events of 1942-1943 and this volume covers the period from mid-1943-to the end of the war in 1945.

The battle of Rabaul raged for the entirety of World War II and there were many distinct phases to the battle. In each of his books Mr. Gamble’s approach to recounting this complex history is to repeatedly cycle the narrative from the general to the specific. The result is a series of “sub-histories” within each volume. Each opens with a general, overarching, presentation of the situation at a given point in time, shifts to a discussion of high level decisions concerning strategy and tactics, segues into a description of what those decisions meant to the squadrons/units involved in the attacks and then shifts to descriptions of individual plane/person accounts of the events of a specific engagement. This approach is very effective. It allows the reader to comprehend the battle in all of its complexity.

One small detail which, for me, epitomizes the author’s skill in providing a history that strikes a good balance between the general and the specific is the facts in this third volume which pertain to the photograph on the cover of the second volume - Fortress Rabaul. The picture is that of a B-25 under fire roaring across Simpson Harbor during the 2 November 1943 attack. That picture has been reprinted numerous times and can be found in any number of books about the air war in the Pacific. Fortress Rabaul, if you will, provided the general and Target Rabaul (in the photograph section) provided the details – the pilot was Richard Hastings and he not only outlived the day he outlived the war as well.

Target Rabaul details the initial plans for the proposed invasion of Rabaul and how those plans changed from one of invasion to one of neutralization and bypassing . The various small and large scale attacks and their results are recounted as are the sacrifices of planes and individuals. In this final volume Mr. Gamble also provides the grim details of the fate of the vast majority of the Allied flyers who became Japanese prisoners of war. Appendix A lists the names of 138 Allied flyers known to have been seen alive at Rabaul. Of those 26 were transported to Japan and survived the war- only 8 of the remaining 104 survived at Rabaul – the rest were executed.

I think Target Rabaul is well written and I think it and the other two volumes about the battle for Rabaul will appeal to anyone interested in the history of that World War II Pacific Theater battle.… (mehr)

At 0110 hours on January 23, 1942 thousands of Japanese soldiers poured ashore on the beaches and landing places around Rabaul, the capital of New Britain. "Darkest Hour" is the true story of what happened to the 1400 members of the Australian defenders know as Lark Force. Described as Australia's worst military disaster, the betrayal, suffering and tragic loss of lives makes for sobering reading. The factual detail of the book leaves no doubt as the the reliability of the account and if a reader suffered from jingoistic pride and nationalism at the start of the book, it would have evaporated by about half-way through the book. The tragic loss of so many young men, and many civilians as well, is not only due to harsh treatment by the Japanese. Incompetent leadership, the jungle, the weather and even their allies combine to affect the tragedy.

A great read, highly recommended.… (mehr)