Barge Tunnels

In 1942, Rabaul, newly restored after the devastating 1937 volcanic eruption, was invaded by Japanese forces. The Japanese turned Rabaul into their main army and naval base for the planned invasion into the Pacific and eventually down into Australia.

The heavy aerial bombardment of Rabaul by Allied Forces, forced the Japanese to dig in – literally!! Hundreds of prisoners of war, including a division of Indian troops from the Singapore campaign, were used to dig 400 kilometres of tunnels in the hills surrounding the town. These tunnels contained barracks and hospitals, storage for weapons and munitions and even barges, tanks and aircraft.

This is a photo of one of the many barge tunnels on the side of the road near Blue Lagoon on the Rabaul/Kokopo road. The barges were hidden in tunnels like this and they were pulled to and from the beach on tracks by prisoners.

One tunnel at Karavia village still contains the rusting bodies of five Japanese barges. I will show you that one next week.

Phone communications to The Islands (the mainland was ok) were reconnected last night - late - as you can see by the time on the bottom of my post. It has been in-and-out a couple of times today but seems ok now. Still at snail's pace though!!