Rabaul

Rabaul is a town on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain island in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain Province, built around the deep natural harbor of Simpson Harbour, a flooded volcanic caldera. German colonial authorities founded it as the capital of the Territory of New Guinea in 1910, and after Japan captured it in January 1942 the town became a major Pacific base holding some 110,000 troops by 1943, before Allied forces neutralized it by blockade rather than direct assault. A catastrophic 1937 eruption killed 507 people, and on September 19, 1994, the volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan erupted again, destroying the airport and burying most of the town in ash; the provincial capital moved to nearby Kokopo afterward, though Rabaul continues to be rebuilt within the same volcanic zone.