Simpson Harbour in Rabaul
Rabaul's harbor, the focal point of the Japanese Naval base. Many ships were sunk here during the war, including warships and merchant ships. Many wrecks remain to this day.
Rabaul was the headquarters of German New Guinea until captured by the British Commonwealth during World War I, when it became the capital of the Australian mandated Territory of New Guinea until 1937.
During World War II it was captured by the Japanese in 1942, and it became the main base of Japanese military and naval activity in the South Pacific. Settlements and military installations around the edge of the caldera are often collectively referred to as Rabaul despite the old town of Rabaul itself being reduced to practical insignificance by the volcanic eruption in 1994.
