NBC - Victory At Sea (1954) Part 7 Rings Around Rabaul
Victory At Sea
The 26 episodes were culled from over 13,000 hours of footage shot by the U.S., British, German and Japanese navies during World War II. Narrated by Leonard Graves and set to a score by Richard Rodgers, this program offered a remarkable look at the realities of naval warfare and the extraordinary challenges faced by the Allies. From U-boat “wolf packs” to the epic battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, every major naval engagement of World War II is captured in some of the most riveting combat footage ever shot.
Part 7: Rings Around Rabaul
The Japanese Navy is ascendant in its conquests, of which its main base is on Rabaul in the New Britain Islands. This Victory at Sea episode refers to the U.S. strategy of surrounding and strangling the Japanese base in the autumn of 1943 through invasions of its surrounding islands (Bougainville, Rendova). Praise is given to the “Seabees”, who made the airfields operational in a brief time, and to observation planes and radar, which helped the U.S. Navy stop Japanese reinforcements and counterattacks.