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Carrier raids on Rabaul
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
Japanese cruiser Chikuma under attack on 5 November 1943
Date November 1, 1943 – November 11, 1943 Location Rabaul on New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago Result Allied victory
Combatants
United States  Australia  New Zealand	Empire of Japan
Commanders
George Kenney (land air forces), William Halsey, Jr., Frederick Sherman (naval forces)	Mineichi Koga, Jinichi Kusaka
Strength
3 fleet carriers, 2 light carriers, 2 light cruisers, 9 destroyers, 282 carrier aircraft, 94 land-based aircraft[1]	10 cruisers, 11 destroyers, 200 aircraft[2]
Casualties
10 carrier aircraft, 1 land-based aircraft destroyed[3]	5 cruisers heavily damaged, 52 aircraft destroyed[4]

The Allies of World War II conducted a bombing of Rabaul in November 1943 at the major Japanese base. Allied carrier and land-based planes attacked Japanese airfields, ships and port facilities, on the island of New Britain, to protect the Allied amphibious invasion of Bougainville. As a result of the Rabaul raids, several Japanese heavy cruisers and numerous smaller warships and transports were damaged, effectively ending the Japanese naval threat to the initial landings on Bougainville.

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 Harbour — captured from Australian forces in February 1942 — was known as "the Pearl Harbor of the South Pacific" and was well defended by 300 anti-aircraft guns and five airfields.

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 and Vella Lavella.

From October 12, 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. The biggest raid was on November 2.

With the invasion of Bougainville on November 1, 1943, Rabaul came under threat from another direction. A hasty attempt to drive Allied forces off Bougainville had been defeated in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. Now Koga planned to reinforce Rabaul and overwhelm the limited Allied forces around Bougainville while most of the U.S. Navy was involved in preparations for the invasion of Tarawa.

Rear-Admiral Frederick Sherman planned to pre-empt this threat by a carrier raid. Saratoga and Princeton headed for New Britain under cover of a weather front and launched every plane at Rabaul. No ships were sunk, but six cruisers were damaged, four heavily. Atago was near-missed by three 500-lb bombs that caused severe damage and killed 22 crewmen, including her captain.^[5] Maya was hit by one bomb above one of her engine rooms, causing heavy damage and killing 70 crewmen.^[6] Mogami, was hit by one 500-lb bomb and set afire, causing heavy damage and killing 19 crewmen.^[7]Takao was hit by two 500-lb bombs, causing heavy damage and killing 23 crewmen.^[8] Chikuma, was slightly damaged by several near-misses.^[9] Agano was near-missed by one bomb which damaged one anti-aircraft gun and killed one crewman.^[10] Three destroyers were also lightly damaged.^[11] Most of the Japanese warships returned to Truk the next day for repairs and to escape further Allied airstrikes.

A second carrier raid was made on November 11 by the Saratoga, Princeton, Bunker Hill, Essex and Independence. Agano, which had remained at Rabaul after the November 5 strike, was torpedoed in this attack and heavily damaged.^[12]

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• Gailey, Harry A. (1991). Bougainville, 1943-1945: The Forgotten Campaign. Lexington, Kentucky, USA: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-9047-9. - neutral review of this book here:[1]
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• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, vol. 6 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Castle Books. 0785813071. 
• Sakaida, Henry (1996). The Siege of Rabaul. St. Paul, MN, USA: Phalanx. ISBN 1-883809-09-6. 
• Sherrod, Robert (1952). History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Combat Forces Press. 

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Rabaul

• Mersky, Peter B. (1993). Time of the Aces: Marine Pilots in the Solomons, 1942-1944 (English). Marines in World War II Commemorative Series. History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. Retrieved on October 20, 2006. Account of U.S. Marine involvement in air war over Solomon Islands and Rabaul.
• Title: THE ASSAULT ON RABAUL. Operations by the Royal New Zealand Air Force December 1943 — May 1944. Retrieved on 2006-05-30.
• Chen, C. Peter (2004-2006). Solomons Campaign, 23 August 1942 - 26 November 1943 (English). World War II Database. Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
• Shaw, Henry I.; Douglas T. Kane (1963). Volume II: Isolation of Rabaul. History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II. Retrieved on 2006-10-18.
• Miller, John, Jr. (1959). CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul (English). United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific 418. Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Department of the Army. Retrieved on October 20, 2006.
• Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, & Allyn Nevitt. Imperial Japanese Navy Page (Combinedfleet.com). Retrieved on 2006-06-14.- Tabular records of movement for the Japanese warships involved in this battle.
• Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, & Allyn Nevitt. Carrier Raid on Rabaul. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.