Just finished reading Bruce Gamble's Fortress Rabaul which covers the air war over Rabaul and its surrounds through 1942 and 1943. Rabaul was initially defended by an Australian Army garrison (Lark Force) and No.24 Squadron RAAF which was armed with Wirraways and Hudsons. The experienced Japanese forces went through them quickly.

After that was the period when Port Moresby was undefended until No.75 Squadron RAAF got their hands on some Kittyhawks from the Americans and for a time were the only fighter squadron in New Guinea. They fought the Japanese toe to toe, but suffered loss of experienced pilots and aircraft until they were down to one serviceable aircraft. Fortunately aircraft were starting to arrive from the US and they were replaced with an American P39 squadron, which unfortunately went through the same experience of increasing losses and dwindling aircraft.

Fortunately for the Allies, the Japanese suffered the same. With each aircraft lost, so too did Japanese lose an experienced airmen, or aircrew which could not be replaced. Additionally, aircraft were slow coming to the South Pacific and Japan was not able to gear up their factories like the United States did, so the losses hurt them as much as they did the RAAF and USAAF in early 1942 and 1943.

It is obvious that the only professional allied air arm in the Pacific in the early parts of World War II was the US Navy. It showed in the results they achieved against the Japanese by stinging Japan during the Battle of Coral Sea and then handing out a defeat at Midway. The USN pilots were disciplined and experienced, and the USN had their logistics and training in place. It made a difference.

The RAAF and USAAF would not solve those problems until 1943. The RAAF cheated by bringing back experienced pilots from the African desert war, such as Les Jackson. However, like the Japanese, experienced pilots are not immune to be shot down and the loss of battle veterans meant untrained pilots were often defending New Guinea.

Until the allies were able to establish air superiority the air war against Rabaul was undertaken by the USAAF heavy bombers and the RAAF Catalinas. The B17s, B24s and Catalinas were about the only ones with sufficient range to reach Rabaul from Port Moresby, though the US bombers would fly from Australia, stage overnight in Port Moresby and then continue on.

Like the allied fighter squadrons, the bombers suffered the same issues. Lack of parts, lack of amenities, no rotation of aircrew so battle fatigue was an issue, constant losses to enemy fire, lack of serviceable aircraft and super long missions with little rest. Often the pace was so demanding that as few as three bombers would get to Rabaul to actually drop bombs.

Until skip bombing as introduced in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea the heavy bombers were largely ineffectual as they didn't have the numbers to carpet bomb and the mobile targets like ships were easily able to avoid the dropped bombs. Sadly, other than a couple of effective raids, the heavy bomber campaign against Rabaul was largely inneffectual.

It was not until airbases on northern New Guinea and islands closer to Rabaul were established by the allies that air power was wrested from Rabaul for good. Until then it was a central thorn in the allied side that was able to provide Japanese projection of air power through New Guinea, the Solomons and across the seas that separated them. It was a hard fought air war.

When war broke out in the Pacific, Australia had no modern aircraft of any kind to defend Australia with. Australia's most experienced pilots were in North Africa fighting against Rommel and the front line aircraft that were left in Australia were CAC Wirraways and Lockheed Hudson's.

The Wirraway was a locally built licensed version of the North American Texan. It was a trainer aircraft that was not intended for combat uses. Because the RAAF had nothing else, the Wirraway was pressed into the role of being a fighter aircraft in the South Pacific. Where it was used that way, it was totally outclassed by the Zero and the Wirraways were shot down quickly.

One of the squadron which had Wirraways and faced the oncoming invasion of Japanese forces was No.24 Squadron RAAF in Rabaul. They provided air cover for the Australian Army's Lark Force. As the Japanese decided to invade Rabaul No.24 faced more and more Japanese aircraft raids including from Japanese carriers.

On the 20th of January the Wirraways were wiped out by Zeros. Two Wirraways were patrolling when word came of a Japanese air strike coming in. Three more took off from one airfield and two more from another. The slow Wirrways climbed as quickly as they could but were no match for the Zeros. Bruce Gamble writes;

Seven under powered fighters - nothing more than glorified trainers - would face 109 of the Imperial Navy's best.

Only two of the Wirraway's survived and this was after constantly being attacked and diving in and out of clouds. None of the Zeros sustained any damage. Gamble continues;

That the defenders took off against such an over whelming force should be considered one of the great sacrifices of the Pacific War - but not a single medal was awarded by the RAAF. Responding to an official inquiry in 1946, the defence ministry stated that no citations could be issued because no enemy planes had been shot down.

As Gamble notes, by this logic, no medals should be given for the self sacrifice such as jumping on a live grenade. The fact of the matter was the Australia did not have the weaponry to challenge the Japanese and even when they did, it was because of American largesse in supplying competitive arms to the RAAF.