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00:55And now, rings around Rabaul.
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01:05The Japanese dominate the Pacific,
01:07and their Supreme War Council continues to execute sweeping plans
01:11to bring 700 million Asiatics under imperial control.
01:15Proud and confident after her shattering naval victories at the outbreak of war,
01:19Japan spills over her legitimate boundaries,
01:22pouring supplies and manpower into overseas bases
01:25to protect her new empire and defy the Allies.
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02:12All Japan is dedicated to Kodoha,
02:15the way of the emperor, Hirohito, son of heaven.
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02:42She is in the fore of all conquest, on the bow of all her ships,
02:46the imperial crest, a chrysanthemum with 16 leaves.
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03:39The emperor reviews his magnificent fleet,
03:42which for months after Pearl Harbor,
03:44wields undisputed rule over the greatest of oceans.
03:47This is the Navy which has ranged in triumph over the wide Pacific spaces.
03:51This is the Navy which has never known defeat.
03:54This is the Navy dedicated to a creed fanatic.
03:58With tenacious and tireless spirit,
04:01we strive to reach superhuman skill and perfect fighting efficiency.
04:06Now its mission is to build a mighty base in the Bismarck Archipelago,
04:10Brabal, on the island of New Britain.
04:13And from this base, soldiers, sailors, and airmen of Imperial Japan
04:17can attempt to break the fragile hold of Americans and Australians,
04:21southeast on Guadalcanal, southwest on New Guinea.
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05:42The harbor of Brabal.
05:44Base, arsenal, fortress,
05:48from which Japan seeks to control the South Pacific
05:51and clench her hold on the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.
05:54Garrisoned with 80,000 troops,
05:57Brabal is a springboard for conquest,
06:00a bulwark for defense.
06:02Five new airfields are prepared to support the Imperial Japanese Navy.
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06:59Brabal, immovable, secure,
07:03impregnable aircraft carrier
07:06that blocks the American climb up the ladder of the Solomon Islands.
07:10Carefree pilots, day after day,
07:13carry out their simple mission.
07:16Destroy all ships, supplies, and men
07:19who have the audacity to challenge an Imperial mandate.
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07:55Brabal's air and naval power sweeps out to dominate surrounding islands and waters.
08:00To eliminate Brabal, the Japanese and the Allies
08:03know a foothold must be won and held on the islands that ring it,
08:06and bases established from which it can be reduced blow by blow
08:10until the knockout.
08:12But first, the Allies must forge rings around Brabal.
08:17♪♪♪
08:26Rendova, another rung up the ladder of the Solomon Islands toward Brabal.
08:32But Rendova is only a stepping stone across a narrow arm of water to Munda
08:36and its priceless airstrip.
08:39Munda was murder.
08:41Planned as a quick stroke of Allied strategy,
08:44it took five bitter weeks to capture.
08:46But it takes only five days for the United States Navy's fabulous construction battalions,
08:51the Seabees, to transform ruined Munda runways into an operational airfield.
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10:29The first plane, Munda's first tooth,
10:33hacked out of the New Georgia rainforest where wild orchids flourish and cockatoos screech,
10:39where man struggles to exist and insects thrive.
10:44Another Allied airfield comes to life,
10:47and another bead is drawn on the target.
10:50Brabal.
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11:12The triumph of Munda is the Allied way of observing the first anniversary of the landing on Guadalcanal.
11:18Two hundred miles south, Guadalcanal itself is burgeoned into a major base,
11:23justifying the agony, the blood of the Marines who won it.
11:28But there is a long way to go, and in the summer of 1943,
11:32a new name dominates intelligence sessions on Guadalcanal.
11:36The name?
11:38Bougainville.
11:40Biggest of the Solomon Islands.
11:42The central link in the ring being forged around Brabal.
11:46Volcanic prize, ripe for ripping from the Japanese spine.
11:51Week after week, from Guadalcanal's hard-won Henderson Field,
11:55Army, Navy, Marine, and New Zealand pilots take off to soften up Bougainville
12:00in preparation for another assault by the United States Marines.
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13:31The invasion date is set.
13:33The landing beach is chosen.
13:35The command selected.
13:37Admiral Wilkinson and the 3rd Amphibious Force.
13:41Bougainville must be taken to provide a forward base
13:43from which fighter planes can escort the heavy bombers to Brabal.
13:47The whole complex movement of men, ships, supplies has only one purpose.
13:53To advance and support war's newest weapon, the airplane.
13:58But before planes fly from Bougainville,
14:00the way must first be cleared by war's oldest ingredient, the foot soldier.
14:06The 3rd Marines take on the job.
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14:14There are many D-days in the Pacific.
14:17Many an H-hour.
14:19When met with each comes a new sense of foreboding.
14:22Of emptiness.
14:24Of fear.
14:26As the opening salvos sound the notes of war's eternal theme.
14:31Death.
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14:49Across Empress Augusta Bay, toward the beaches of Cape Torokino,
14:53the Marines go in to meet the dank challenge of Bougainville.
14:57It is November 1st, 1943.
15:00Before the invaders lie the wildest jungle,
15:03the deepest swamps they have yet encountered in the South Pacific.
15:07And hidden in the tangle of jungle and swamp, the enemy.
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15:49What the Marines have won, the Seabees take over.
15:52Hard on the heels of the rifle and come the engineers.
15:56It was a battlefield yesterday, will be an airfield tomorrow.
16:27Black cats come out at night.
16:30The lumbering Catalinas which scour the seas in search of enemy ships.
16:34The eyes of the cat see through the dark where the Imperial Japanese Navy
16:38has scheduled four last runs of the Tokyo Express.
16:41Down the slot of water separating the Solomon Islands.
16:45And these last runs have famous names.
16:48The Battle of Kula Gulf.
16:50The Battle of Kulambangara.
16:52The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay.
16:55The Battle of Cape St. George.
16:57The call of the black cat is the call to battle.
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17:19Inside the groping ships, in combat intelligence centers,
17:23the intricate apparatus of search and detection picks up the scent.
17:27Out somewhere, in the ominous dark,
17:30are ships with names like Amagiri and Izuki,
17:33which must be found, destroyed.
17:38Inside ships with names like Honolulu and Mount Pelier,
17:41American sailors prepare to thwart the last stand
17:44of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the South Pacific.
17:48Invisible to one another,
17:50closing warships close on a darkening sea,
17:53swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
17:57where ignorant navies clash by night.
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19:08Bougainville, with its new Piva and the Taurikina airstrips.
19:13Only 210 miles from Rabaul.
19:16The ring is closing.
19:18The Marines have gone,
19:20and the defense perimeter around the thriving airfields
19:22is guarded by the 14th Army Corps.
19:25Who cares what has happened to the 40,000 isolated Japanese
19:28elsewhere on the island?
19:30And off-duty life is not too bad.
19:33Just relax and take it easy.
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20:21The greatest concentration of Japanese artillery
20:23in the South Pacific has been secretly brought up
20:25along hidden jungle trails.
20:28With sudden, furious assault on the American perimeter outpost,
20:31Hill 700, the enemy reopens the Battle of Bougainville.
20:35Four full months after the initial landings,
20:38back into the jungle that is everybody's enemy,
20:41back into the devil's furnace,
20:43goes the American infantry.
20:45Days of savage, bloody struggle lie ahead
20:49until the 37th Division breaks the enemy.
20:52This time for good.
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23:11With final victory on Bougainville,
23:13other bases, other rings are forged around and around Rabaul.
23:18Up the New Guinea coast go the Allies.
23:20Into Cape Gloucester on New Britain go the Marines.
23:23Into the Admiralties goes the United States Army.
23:26Onto the islands of Green and Emerald go more Marines
23:29and veterans of Bella La Bella, soldiers of New Zealand.
23:33And the Navy that cruises unmolested through these waters
23:36is the United States Navy.
23:38Thousands of Japanese have been bypassed,
23:41left to wither on the vine.
23:44Rabaul is being strangled by runways
23:46branded on the encircling jungle islands.
23:50Rabaul and its harbor will be smashed, pulverized, neutralized.
23:56From around the ring they come,
23:58liberators from Guadalcanal,
24:00war hawks from Munda,
24:02forsayers from Emerald,
24:04Mitchells from New Guinea,
24:06avengers from Bougainville.
24:08The holocaust of Allied reprisals spells doom for Rabaul
24:13across the skies of the South Pacific.
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