The Japanese Attack on Rabaul 1942

[@WW2TV]

I am learning so much about Australia's participation in WW2. If you have enjoyed this show, please don't forget to click like, leave a comment for other viewers and if you have not done so already please SUSBSCRIBE so you don't miss our next streams. You can also become a member of this channel and support me financially here kzbin.info/door/UC1nmJGHmiKtlkpA6SJMeA. Links to any books discussed, WW2TV merchandise, our social media pages and other WW2TV shows to watch can all be found in the full KZbin description. Lastly, my own book Angels of Mercy is always available online - more info here www.ddayhistorian.com/angels-of-mercy.html

[@joanneeggerling6689]

my great Uncle died here in 1942. His name was William Milkins. It has been a sad journey for my mother who was a Milkins. We just learnt that his body was not buried. It was left there for three years before they found it in 1945. We were told he died in the Tol Plantation. Rabaul.

[@uocav]

Sad to read this as my grandfather was beheaded by the Japanese when he surrendered -- Captain Richard Travers. Though this was not at Tol. See my above comments.

[@amnucc]

Great show Woody. The sacrificial nature of the Australian troop deployment at Rabaul reminds me of the US Marines on Wake. Both were sent out with insufficient men and materiel to do anything but act as a speed bump to any serious attack. It was never an issue of IF they would fall, but WHEN.

[@alandean3472]

Great to have WW2TV back live and especially with Phillip Bradley guesting again !

[@TheHistoryWonderer]

Poor Billy Cook. What a tragedy! Another wonderful show Paul. great to hear these stories that never get told.

[@TheVigilant109]

Excellent presentation as usual by Phillip. Thank you

[@CurtRowlett]

I've been quite busy lately, so have not been able to join in on the live shows. Once again, many thanks for archiving these!

[@WW2TV]

Welcome back!

[@thomasmadden8412]

Another fabulous show by Phillip Bradley. My knowledge of Australia's role in WW2 has grown exponentially because of WW2TV keep up the good work, looking forward to the next one.

[@KevinJones-yh2jb]

A brilliant show Philip and Paul, thank you watched on catch up 👍👍👍

[@WW2TV]

Thanks for the nice words

[@michael_nelson]

Another great show... Phil has an absolute wealth of knowledge about the subject.

[@fxdci]

Great show guys! Love to hear Australia's contributions in the war as we don't see enough of it. Thanks!

[@davidnemoseck9007]

Another great episode! Thanks for bringing up these these little know parts of the war.

[@scottgrimwood8868]

Another outstanding presentation by Philip. His knowledge of Australian military history is amazing! I learned so much, just like his previous presentations. I look forward to Philip coming back on WW2TV soon.

[@timsampson7336]

Very interesting presentation of a little known chapter in the War in the Pacific. Another great show.

[@lappin6482]

Amazing work as always by Philip 👏

[@Piper44LMF]

Thank you Paul and Phil, Having read so many books on the ETO and the Eastern Front over the past 40+ years, I was just starting to go into the PTO. While we may know of the Guadalcanal's, Tarawa, Iwo Jima and some of the naval conflicts. Understanding how the stage was being set and the brutality that set the tone. The East front is the only comparable in terms of the harshness and no quarter given. It is very regrettable that those men were sacrificed to show token resistance when a more effective plan could of been taken.

[@trentonlambert9375]

I’m reading a book right now “war at the end of the world” -James P. Duffy. You nailed every bit of this overview

[@CFarnwide]

Brutal story about Billy Cook. It is no exaggeration to say that may have set the tone of “no prisoners” for the rest of the war.

[@MrRugbylane]

What a great show. All new info for me

[@WW2TV]

Glad you enjoyed it! I hope you will consider becoming a member of the channel and supporting us

[@bruceduggan8980]

A very good coverage of such a sad part of our history. I only wish Phillip would have got the place name pronuciations correct (Rabaul, Kavieng, Bainings etc)

[@WW2TV]

I actually checked this myself and the British, Dutch, Australian and Papuan pronunciations vary considerably

[@michaelcoe9824]

"Wither on the vine". Was MacArthur's term for bypassing an assault on Rabaul.

[@robertstack2144]

That B-25 did not have 'shark's teeth.' A friend I met may have been flying the bomber. The nose of the airplane had a dragon"s head as I recall. My friend wrote a book on his experiences...AIR COMBAT AT TWENTY FEET..by Garret Middlebrook. The straeffers had the bottom turret removed, tweve 50 cals up front, then they added a 30 or 40 mm cannon to fire fwd.

[@billenright2788]

Awesome. I know nxt to nothing about this area of WW2.

[@gavinhealy5899]

A very very beautiful presentation and first class verbal renactment of bravery and courage from the ANAZCS , and the allies.

[@michaelcoe9824]

I read a fantastic account of a soldier escaping Rabaul in the 70s called 'Hell and high water', I think... I cannot remember the author.

[@jimasher]

…also saw an escape from the Philippines… two men on a small boat…some will never accept captivity.

[@TheMontevideomaru]

The books title is Hell and High Fever. The author was David Selby who was the commander of the anti aircraft gun on Frisbee Ridge.

[@michaelcoe9824]

@@TheMontevideomaru Thankyou

[@lesliebeilby-tipping6854]

Good story Paul, good to hear you have sorted your internet issues.

[@WW2TV]

Me too

[@Thumpalumpacus]

I'll raise my cup to Billy Cook .God knows the world needs men like this.

[@Bartelldarcy]

In the same way that learning U.S. geography via N.F.L. teams will make you think Green Bay and Buffalo are major cities on a par with New York and Chicago, learning international geography through World War II history had me thinking for a long time that the major world capitals were London, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and Rabaul. For a long time I wondered why you never hear anything about Rabaul anymore.

[@mathewkelly9968]

42:07 my pa served in the New Guinea campaign , kindest gentlest man ive ever known but my lord he wasn't a fan of the Japanese because of what they made him have to do .

[@michaelcoe9824]

If Billy Cook's story didn't rouse the ire of allied troops in the Pacific, stories of the Japanese retreat at Milne Bay, certainly did, or added to a new understanding of Japanese war culture...

[@TheMontevideomaru]

July 1 2022 in the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru, the greatest single loss of Australian life in WW2. There is a lot more to the story of Rabaul than just the military aspects. The sinking of the Montevideo Maru was a tragedy for both the Japanese and Australian governments. In the first 6 months of the war Rabaul held a special significance for the Japanese, who believed that they had captured part of Australia [a mandated territory since WW1]. Phillip didn't mention one of the most unusual events of the war. The Australian POWs and internees, who were held in Rabaul, were allowed to write letters home. They were dropped over Port Morseby during a bombing raid. These letters were used to produce lists of the men known to be surviving in Rabaul after the invasion. Unfortunately most were to die on the Montevideo Maru. It should be noted that the surviving officers and 18 women [taken to Japan] were treated as special prisoners. On arrival in Japan the women were first put through a customs inspection [like tourists] before being moved to a hotel [no they weren't used as comfort women]. The officers were interviewed and one, who was known to the Japanese for his prewar business dealing, was reintroduced to some of his Japanese business acquaintances. Four special civilian prisoners were held in Rabaul with the Japanese for the duration of the war. There is also more to the story of the Tol massacre. Post war Billy Cook was filmed by Moive Tone News. Although he graphically tells his story he doesn't mention Rabaul. The high level politics behind all this is a story which would fill an episode of WW2TV. We have historical views of Rabaul, in the first 6 months of the war, which simply aren't supported by the evidence.

[@tomhernon1750]

The Japanese grew their own food in rabaul so that's one of the few places they didn't starve

[@jimasher]

…better to never have chosen surrender to Japanese…it didn’t take long for news of their treatment of prisoners to change the very nature of fury against the enemy. Culturally,we and the Japanese ,might as well have been completely opposite life forms. War is savage.

[@misterbaker9728]

Check out John Shively. He’s just put up some awesome videos about Guadalcanal and lately Okinawa. He even shows pictures from today of these battles. Please give his channel some love

[@suemethven2097]

I have just come across this and it’s a very personal story as my fathers cousin was onRabaul and my mums 1st husband was killed by the Japanese on Ambon RIP to all in 2/21 and 2/22. Just an update on the POW ship Montevideo Maru it has been found about 2 weeks ago. RIP Pte Eric Hansford, we will remember you always.

[@WW2TV]

Thanks for sharing Sue

[@johngodden4363]

In giving the Australian contribution to the Pacific war due credit one must highlight that whilst the US lost about 7000 servicemen in the Guadalcanal / Papua campaign, Australia also lost about the same number in liberating Papua New Guinea. Of course the US paid a much greater price at sea and in the aftermath in its advance through the Phillipines to Japan, but then Australian forces were sidelined by General McCarthur and were tasked to do the dangerous ‘mopping up’ of Japanese forces in the many locations, including Bougainville, which was bypassed by the US.

[@georgewnewman3201]

That's 97,500 Japanese not free to fight somewhere else.

[@anthonybaldry9611]

They built submarine pens in the harbour

[@jefesalsero]

With all the tunneling of the Japanese during WW2, it's ironic that Australian Army forces carried the moniker of "Diggers" rather than the Japanese.

[@Laotzu819]

are you an ETO guy?

[@WW2TV]

Who are you asking?

[@georgewnewman3201]

Rabaul, Guam, Wake, The Philippines, Malaya, it was pretty much the same story everywhere as the Japanese rolled in

[@jimasher]

…yeah, and if our aircraft carriers had been in port during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,we could likely have experienced that savagery here in the USA. Thank God….

[@georgewnewman3201]

@@jimasher Only once they had Oahu invaded, conquered, and reset as their advanced base. Mothballed fleet elements on West Coast could be brought back online and able to defend West Coast, though that would take time, but IJN would have to take time to invade Hawaii, first capturing DEI territory at Borneo, then stockpiling enough of the oil reserves to stage a major invasion. Remember, it took them seven months after Pearl Harbor to try and invade Midway, and they had had to take Borneo to get the oil supplies to stage that operation. Midway and Oahu are almost as far apart as Oahu and San Francisco and there are no raw materials to be had at Midway, meaning everything had to be brought in, even food for the US personnel, and the Japanese would have fared no better in occupying it than they did at Kiska and Attu in the Aleutians.

[@davedavedave52]

1:05:05 I just found out , The Japanese military/leadership was estimating losing 20,000,000 people in the Allied invasion of the japan mainland. The US was planning on losing 1,000,000. The Atomic attack killed around 900,000 . So the Atomic attack SAVED approx. 20 MILLION lives

[@peteroconnell6964]

The town was an important administration and seaport, and the aerial photos of Rabual/Simpson Harbor suggest there must have significant civilian presence at the he time of the invasion. What happened to the civilians upon being assimilated into the "co-pro?sperity sphere"

[@jimasher]

…forced labor until death …

[@therealuncleowen2588]

The more I learn about the New Guinea campaign, the more I wonder if it wasn't truly all based on a dare. Some historians have theorized that the Japanese didn't have defined objectives for their Pacific conquests, other than the obviously crucial ones taken first such as the Dutch East Indies for the oil fields and rubber, Malaya to remove Singapore from British hands, and the Philippines. We know they never intended to take Australia or Hawaii. Was cutting off Australia from American supply a realistic objective? Would it ever have been successful or worth it based on the amount of troops, aircraft, ships, and supplies required to take New Guinea and the Solomons? After all, even if they'd captured the entire Solomons chain, supply ships could have simply taken a longer route to Australia. It doesn't seem that anybody at the top of the Japanese military structure was planning these campaigns with expertise about the terrain, available forces, available shipping, just how much force will be required to take and hold New Guinea, and even if successful, what value is it to us anyhow? Their military structure allowed lower ranking army officers to act on their own initiative, which is how the second Sino-Japanese War began. I suspect if they'd had a stronger leadership structure, they may have decided to limit themselves to some small parts of northern New Guinea suitable for airfields. Rabaul was a good natural harbor, but where did it lead to? It might have been wiser to hold some small positions on the northern shore of New Guinea and left and idea of overland attack to the Allies. Anyhow, the IJA was one of the most testosterone driven militaries in world history. The entire New Guinea campaign feels like someone with no knowledge of the terrain just looked the map and said, ah yes, let's attack Port Moresby. Never mind the mountain range or how will we supply it if we take it? Perhaps at some point the IJN got into the act. Two IJN officers talking. "Have you ever SEEN New Guinea? Nobody sane would fight an overland campaign there. Shhh, shhh, the conference is starting." At the first opportunity, an IJN officer says, "the navy is, of course, fully prepared to support the army in any Pacific campaign. Naturally, New Guinea is out of the question because the army will find operations there beyond their capabilities." Not wanting to lose face, a general replies, "New Guinea is not beyond our capabilities. I was about to suggest a series of limited landings along the northern coast of the island to establish airfields." "The navy agrees with this objective. I meant to say that an overland attack and capture of Port Moresby from Lae, across the Owen Stanley mountains is beyond human capabilities, did I say human? I meant to say beyond the army's capabilities." It would have been so easy to continually goad them into these insane operations.

[@neilmorgan5409]

Did the Japanese have any navel repair facilities on Rabaul?

[@WW2TV]

To a minor extent yes

[@therealuncleowen2588]

Sad that many Australian troops were sacrificed defending territory the government had no intention of holding. Considering there was no plan to reinforce these positions or to recapture them quickly, pulling the men out of there before surrender seems like the correct move. Why even fight for the positions? The only Pacific garrisons that absolutely couldn't have been rescued were Malaya and the Philippine garrisons because there were simply too many to evacuate. But these small forces (and Wake Island also comes to mind) could have left their equipment and escaped on destroyers. Forcing them to stay and fight, with no prospect of anything beyond capture by the Japanese, was just a little bit less than murder. Not the Australian government's finest hour. I haven't finished the presentation yet. I wonder if the Australian government, or the Allies in general, had quite realized how brutal the Japanese would be to prisoners. Surely reports of their treatment of Chinese civilians at Nanking had reached the wider world. If they'd do that to civilians, what would they do to surrendering soldiers? Although, given some attitudes of the time, perhaps the thought was, yes but those were fellow Asians. Surely the Japanese will realize they can't treat our men that way. Uh, just watch them.

[@dalehusak6633]

You're British??! WTF

[@WW2TV]

?