Battle of the Bismarck Sea

A March 1943 Allied air attack destroyed a Japanese convoy carrying troops and supplies from Rabaul to Lae, New Guinea. The battle demonstrated the effectiveness of coordinated low-level bombing and strafing against ships.

Skip bombing: An aerial bombing technique that skips bombs across the water into a ship’s hull. Low-altitude skip bombing helped Allied aircraft strike the Japanese transports.
Operation 81: A Japanese operation to reinforce Lae, New Guinea, by sending a troop convoy from Rabaul in March 1943. Its convoy was the force attacked in the Bismarck Sea.
George Kenney: A United States Army Air Forces general who commanded Allied air forces in the southwest Pacific during much of the Second World War. Kenney promoted the low-level attack methods used against the Japanese convoy.
Operation I-Go: A Japanese air offensive against Allied forces in the southwest Pacific in April 1943. Japan’s response to the convoy’s loss included an air offensive against Allied positions.
Mast-height bombing: An attack in which aircraft approach ships at very low altitude and release bombs near their masts. This technique gave the Allied attack another way to hit ships at close range.
Rabaul: A port and major Japanese military base on New Britain in the southwest Pacific. The convoy departed from Rabaul with troops and supplies bound for Lae.
Ennis Whitehead: A United States Army Air Forces general who commanded the Allied Fifth Air Force’s advanced echelon in the southwest Pacific. Whitehead’s command directed much of the air effort against the convoy.
Battle of Wau: A January 1943 battle in which Australian and Allied forces repelled a Japanese advance toward Wau, New Guinea. The battle helped set the conditions for Japanese attempts to reinforce Lae by sea.
P-38 Lightning: A long-range American fighter aircraft with twin engines and distinctive twin booms. P-38s provided fighter cover and attacked Japanese aircraft during the convoy’s destruction.
Lae: A port city on the northeastern coast of New Guinea. The Japanese convoy aimed to reinforce the garrison at Lae.

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