Jacquinot Bay is a bay in

East New Britain Province East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely ...

, south-eastern

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, at . It is near the mountain where twenty-eight people died when a

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

plane crashed in November 1945. To its west is the Gasmata Bay and the Wide Bay and Rabaul Bay are situated to the north-east. Before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a palm

tree plantation A tree plantation, forest plantation, plantation forest, timber plantation, or tree farm is a forest planted for high volume production of wood, usually by planting one type of tree as a monoculture forest. The term ''tree farm'' also is used to ...

was started here, known as Palmalmal Plantation (Pal Mal Mal). The area also had a Catholic Mission, headed by Father Edward Charles "Ted" Harris.

Wartime history

In April 1942, 156 Australian soldiers and civilians gathered at Pal Mal Mal after fleeing Rabaul. They were rescued by MV ''Laurabada'', which then transported them to

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

. Later, the port was taken over by the Japanese, and remained in their hands until the area was liberated on 4 November 1944. The

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

constructed Jacquinot Bay Airfield in 1944–1945, following an amphibious landing at Jacquinot Bay. Surrendered A6M5s at Jacquinot Bay 1945

References

Bays of New Britain East New Britain Province {{EastNewBritainProvince-geo-stub