Bombardments confront the Tokyo Express supply system

The Allies used surface bombardment to prepare operations against Japanese positions, sometimes with Australian, British, and New Zealand ships participating. Japan answered its distribution problem with a hub-and-spoke system centered on Rabaul: merchant convoys fed the major base, then fast destroyers carried cargo to forward garrisons such as Kolombangara. Those overworked destroyers formed the Tokyo Express and had to combine transport speed with the ability to survive submarines and aircraft. The system conserved scarce transport capacity by using combat ships, but it placed too few destroyers on repetitive, exposed routes.