'Bloody Tuesday' over Rabaul
2nd November 1943: A low-level attack on heavily defended Japanese shipping hits hard - but leads to many casualties and a posthumous Medal of Honor
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Simpson Harbour in Rabaul, New Britain was a natural deep water port that the Japanese had converted into a major forward base, their closest to the Solomon Islands. Anti-aircraft artillery batteries heavily defended it on the surrounding hills. Close-by airfields were the base for as many as two hundred Japanese fighters.
A series of attacks had been made by the combined forces of the U.S. Fifth Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force
… I quickly reasoned that my best chance to survive was to stay low where I was a difficult target while flying between ships rather than above them.
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