Rabaul

The name stuck.

What they did in the following four months over Bougainville and Rabaul was the stuff that gets written about.

Boyington led by example engaging in the kind of aggressive high-speed tactics the Corsair was designed for and communicating on the radio in ways that were unconventional by the standards of 1943.

He talked his pilots through engagements, called out threats, kept the formation functional in the chaos of a large engagement over a defended target area.

By January of 1944, his official aerial victory total had climbed to 28.

That surpassed Joe Foss's record of 26 victories, which had stood as the highest total by a Marine aviator.

On January 3, 1944, flying a mission over Rabaul, Boyington was shot down.

Japanese anti-aircraft fire and fighters found him.

So this is why it's so critical.

But the other thing is, look at Rabaul.

This is the major fleet base for the-

Mm-hmm

And lo and behold, in the aftermath of Midway, we get not one, but two of those sausage grinders.

We set one up at Guadalcanal, and the Japanese land in New Guinea and begin the Kokoda campaign, and that is gonna be the second grinder there.

So from the standpoint of the Japanese sitting in Rabaul, they're looking at this, you know, this twin-headed monster that's just eating them alive by the time we get to the end of this year, and that's exactly what the doctor ordered.

When we talked about, um, in the middle of sort of, or early 1942, the Allies not perhaps knowing where the war was gonna go.

12 days later, Japan mounts a counterattack.

A wave of a thousand soldiers from their nearby island stronghold of Rabaul lands on Guadalcanal.

American forces stand firm Almost all of the Japanese that attack are killed But they keep on coming Wave after wave of Japanese reinforcements pour onto the island.

Fighting continues for six months.

February 1943.

With Guadalcanal under their control, US chiefs can now begin the process of cutting Japan off from its supply of natural resources.

Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, is America's next target.

From here, Japan provides air and naval support to its supply routes.

Every 30 seconds to one minute, there was this continuous tremor that was felt moving vertically and horizontally, and all we could do was keep ourselves together.

But at the same time, there was this continuous alert level from stage one, stage two, and stage three, being issued by the Rabaul Organological Observatory that was effective through the Eastern Britain Provincial Radio.

So people actually listened to those announcements and made their way out of the town so we live on the north coast of eastern britain our village was at bunabutong village so we could actually see people moving out from the town in mass or do anything that was on their hands just few personal belongings all they cared about was their life as they were moving out we living out on the north coast was opening so our parents were just keeping us together and suddenly we could hear a roaring sound and then there was one big explosion And as we look up, we could see this black cloud of smoke-like formation that went right up into the, you know, sky and then just covered the whole area.

And we were lost.

It just kicked in.

I think it's just the way our elders were living and they kept those communities together.

Rabaul town was a pretty town, and the harbor was the deepest in the Pacific region, but finally you saw what the eruptions had done.

What were your thoughts then? I

Um, speaking of, you know, um, PNG there like you know would you be able to tell us a little bit about you know um what province you're from in PNG and where were you sort of born and raised

yeah so um mum and mum's from Milbay she's from Milbay province dad is from uh Monus Island uh they both met um in Rabaul so that's where I was born um I have a younger sibling she was born there as well um And so we lived in Rabaul for a little bit.

Don't have too many memories of Rabaul.

I think I was only there for a couple of years before we moved to Port Moresby.

So, yeah, moving to Port Moresby, I have...

He understood energy, understood angle off, understood when to press an engagement and when to extend, and when to disengage and come back around.

The Mitsubishi A6M0 was a remarkable machine in the early years of the war, more maneuverable at low speed than anything the Allies expected to find over Pacific atolls, and Sakai was among the handful of men who used every one of its capabilities, By 1942, he was based at Rabaul on the island of New Britain as part of the Tainan Air Group.

He was already a veteran with serious combat experience over China and the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, and his score was climbing.

His reputation in the squadron was something specific.

He was still flying.

Now here's where it gets interesting and where I need you to stop and actually sit with the math of the situation.

560 miles of open ocean, no land worth mentioning between him and Rabaul, no rescue available, no emergency strip he could reach.

Guadalcanal was behind him and already in American hands.

Boyington called them his Black Sheep, the name stuck.

Flying Corsairs out of Munda and then Vela la Vela, the Black Sheep went after the Japanese airbase at Rabaul.

Rabaul was one of the most heavily defended positions in the Pacific, hundreds of Japanese aircraft.

Anti-aircraft guns ringed the harbor.

Attacking it was not subtle work.

They usually did in three months of combat.

Boynton tallied 22 confirmed aerial victories with the Black Sheep, adding to the victories he had already claimed with the Flying Tigers.

On January 3, 1944, during a mission over Rabaul, he was shot down and captured.