RINGS AROUND RABAUL Struggle for the Solomon Islands Release Date: December 21, 1952 ... (Episode #7) Japan fortifies the island of Rabaul in the Solomon Islands. They use this base to attack Allied shipping, airfields, ports and anything else that comes in their paths. The Americans counter by taking the island of Guadalcanal first and then finally Bougainville. The 3rd Marines land there and take control in 5 weeks of hard fighting. Then the Army engineers only take 5 days to build another airfield to help in cutting off the Japanese on Rabaul. The Allies continue this practice as Rabaul is completely cutoff and is ultimately destroyed. Just another notch in the chain of advancement towards Tokyo.