16. Operation Cartwheel was a proposal which captured Rabaul
Following Japan’s initial successes in the Pacific, the empire established a major island fortress at Rabaul, on the island of New Britain. In February, 1943, MacArthur presented his plan for the reduction of Rabaul. His plan was to first take New Guinea, capture several other islands in the Southwest Pacific, and from them launch an assault on New Britain. The majority of the troops under his command were Anzac. When he presented his plan in 1943, the British objected to much of it, since in their opinion it committed too much to the Pacific theater at the expense of the agreed Germany first overall strategy. Cartwheel was approved, but MacArthur was limited to the troops already present in theater.
At the Quebec Conference in August 1943, the military staffs under Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to simply bypass Rabaul, rather than attempt to capture it, as part of the island-hopping strategy already underway in the Pacific War. MacArthur objected strenuously but was overridden. He then shifted to a drive westward across the northern coast of New Guinea, from which he could attack Mindanao. Rabaul was isolated largely through the American campaign in the Solomon Islands. As American airpower throughout the area came to dominate the skies, the Japanese garrison at Rabaul could neither be supplied nor evacuated. Allied troops landed on New Britain in late 1943, but no assault was made on Rabaul.
