About the Author

Normal0MicrosoftInternetExplorer4st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Bruce Gamble is a retired naval flight officer and former historian with the Naval Aviation Museum foundation. He is the author of three previous books about the Pacific war: The Black Sheep, a complete combat history of Marine Fighting Squadron 214; Black Sheep One, a definitive biography of Greg Pappy Boyington; and Darkest Hour: The True Story of Lark Force at Rabaul, a detailed account of the Japanese invasion of New Britain. He lives in northwest Florida.

Reviews

AIR CLASSICS
"Drawing on a variety of sources from both sides, the author has written a detailed reference book that reads like a novel."WWII HISTORY MAGAZINE
"...Fortress Rabaul opens a broader vista on this under-studied campaign with its wide research, thoughtful analysis, and gifted story-teller's panache."

Barrett Tillman, author of Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942-1945"To most of the reading public, the aerial siege of Rabaul remains one of the untold stories of the Pacific War. Nobody is better qualified than Bruce Gamble to relate that lengthy campaign, beginning with the first 15 months of the conflict. The depth and variety of his coverage is exceptional: not only the Allied and the Japanese perspectives, but the personalities and their attendant feuds; and ultimately the successful air blockade that released the unstoppable might of an industrialized America to take the war ever nearer Japan itself."

Col. Walter Boyne, USAF (Ret.), author of Clash of Wings
"This tour de force by Bruce Gamble is an absolute must for anyone interested in the true story of one of World War II's most interesting--and most overlooked--battles. The author rivals Stephen Ambrose with his detailed personal accounts of not only victory and defeat, but also of the more routine events that entail quiet pride or--sometimes--suppressed embarrassment."Eric Hammel, author of Islands of Hell: The U.S. Marines in the Western Pacific
"Not for the first time, Bruce Gamble has done amazing work gathering a dazzling array of tiny, little facts, then arranging them in a big, dazzling story that amazes one's inner historian even as it breaks one's heart on its way to a triumphal conclusion."