Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising Sun

by John Prados

  7. FORTRESS RABAUL

  “Rabaul was the hardest target”: (p. 317): Eric Bergerud, Fire in the Sky, quoted p. 641. “The toughest, hardest-fought engagement”: (p. 317): George Kenney, General Kenney Reports, p. 319. “You would just grit your teeth” et seq: (p. 317): Bergerud, op cit., pp. 650, 648, 649. “Rabaul was the keystone”: (p. 317): Frank E. Walton, Once They Were Eagles, p. 89. “Prior to the beginning of 1943”: (p. 319): Henry Sakaida, Aces of the Rising Sun, 1937–1945, quoted p. 107. “What appeared to be a short directive”: (p. 322): COMINCH Ultra Summary, October 29, 1943. NARA: RG-457: COMINCH Summaries of Radio Intelligence, SRNS no. 0564. “You sense a funny feeling”: (p. 329): James Fahey, Pacific War Diary, p. 71. “They say the maneuvers”: (p. 330): Ibid., p. 72. “Graveyard of the fighter pilots”: (p. 333): Sakaida, Aces of the Rising Sun, p. 115. “Fate determines at birth” et seq: (p. 333): Ibid., p. 107. “P-38s at low altitude”: (p. 333): Ibid. “The enemy planes practically flew into our gunfire”: (p. 333): Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, p. 241. “Never in the long history of warfare”: (p. 334): Kenney, General Kenney Reports, p. 321. “Never, indeed, have such exorbitant claims been made”: (p. 334): Samuel Eliot Morison, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, p. 288. “The most desperate emergency”: (p. 335): William F. Halsey, Admiral Halsey’s Story, pp. 180-81. “Information that a force of cruisers”: (p. 335): CINCPAC War Diary, November 2, 1943. CINCPAC Greybook, pt. 2, p. 1679. “IN CIRCUMSTANCES BELIEVE REINFORCEMENTS BEING FURNISHED”: (p. 335): CINCPAC-COMSOPAC 030915 September 43. CINCPAC Greybook, p. 1823. “Usually…consistent attacks” and “AS IN THE PAST WE WILL HURT JAPS”: (p. 336): COMSOPAC-CINCPAC 040446 September 43. Ibid. “Lay Rabaul flat”: (p. 340): Halsey, Admiral Halsey’s Story, p. 183. “My maximum effort would be pretty low”: (pp. 341–42): Kenney, General Kenney Reports, p. 322. “IT IS REAL MUSIC TO ME”: (p. 343): Morison, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, quoted pp. 329–30. “WITH VIEW EARLIEST POSSIBLE STRIKES”: (p. 343): CINCPAC-COMSOPAC 052111 September 1943. CINCPAC Greybook, Pt. 2, p. 1824.

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  AIRCRAFT OF THE SOLOMONS