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WITH ITS ENGINE ON FIRE, AN AMERICAN DOUGLAS DIVE BOMBER (SBD) LANDS SAFELY ON SHROUT'S CARRIER AFTER BEING HIT BY JAP ANTIAIRCRAFT FIRE OVER RABAUL

CARRIER BATTLE
U.S. task force destroys all but six of 70 attacking Jap planes

From Rabaul Nov. 11 the Jap commanders in the South Pacific dispatched 70 dive bombers, torpedo bombers and Zeros to attack a U.S. carrier task force. The battle lasted one hour and 20 minutes and when it was over, all but six Jap planes had been shot down, their crews perishing in plumes of oily black smoke. Aboard one of the U.S. carriers was LIFE Photographer Bill Shrout who took these pictures.

The carrier battle was part of a major Allied attempt to capture Rabaul. The night before land-based Army bombers made a blistering attack on Rabaul's Vunakanau and Lakunai airfields and on the same day carrier planes from the same task force attacked Jap shipping in Rabaul's Simpson Harbor. Strafing and bombing from masthead height, they sank one enemy cruiser and two destroyers and damaged another cruisesr and 11 destroyers. In addition, they shot down 24 more Jap planes over the harbor.

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A big Jap bomb explodes in the sea just off port bow of a carrier In the raid U.S. ships suffered only minor damage and a few casualties. Closest Japs came were near misses.

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Black smoke pours up from spot where burning Jap plane hit the water near carrier. Exploding bombs make white smoke, but burning Jap planes, when they hit the water, make black smoke.

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