For several months before the landings, the area around the airfields and the coastal plain between Cape Gloucester and Natamo, south of Borgen Bay, was bombed by Allied aircraft, mainly from the US Fifth Air Force. Japanese entrenchments were destroyed and the airfields around Cape Gloucester were put out of action from November. A total of 1,845 sorties were launched by US aircraft around Cape Gloucester, with the expenditure of almost 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition and of bombs. Diversionary air raids were also made by AirSols aircraft in the days before the assault, focused on the Japanese airfields around Rabaul, while naval aircraft bombed Kavieng. Raids were also launched against Madang and Wewak. Meanwhile, the Allies undertook extensive aerial reconnaissance of the area, while ground teams of Marines, Alamo Scouts and Coastwatchers were landed at various locations except Borgen Bay over three separate occasions from PT boats between September and December 1943.