Lat 8° 3' 0S Long 156° 31' 60E  Located at the western edge of the 'the slot'. Island due east of Ghizo Island. In wartime documents and maps, the island is spelled 'Gannonga' or similar. Thanks to Ewan Stevenson for additional information. The Japanese briefly had a small staging base at Ranongga. Several aircraft crashed in the vicinity.

Buri
Village located on the coast of Ranongga. Likley what is now called Emu Harbour at the northern tip of the island. The Japanese maintained a small barge base at this location. The base personnel withdrew to Kolombangara on September 19-23, 1943.

Missions Against Buri June 23, 1943
(13th AF & USN) Eight B-25s (from 69th BS) and half dozen TBF Avengers with an escort of 24 F4U Corsairs from VMF-122 and VMF-213. It is recorded they dropped six 2000 pound bombs on Buri village. (doesn't equate with the number of bombers; however, the diary scribe may have been making a point of just recorded the larger bombs which were 'daisy cutters') They also severely strafed the area. The raid was poorly led and the weather was also very poor. The TBFs bombed very low under the cloud ceiling and one TBF was damaged by it's own bomb blast. Due to the weather, one of the B-25s (#404) vanished and never returned from the raid. [TF-33 War Diary entry; VMF-213 War Diary; Strike Command War Diary; Isolation of Rabaul via Ewan Stevenson]

American Remains Found on Ranonga Island
In 2006, locals discovered the remains of an American buried on the island, with his dog tag. The remains belong to Seaman 1st Class, General Preston Douglas, 2960771 from Newcomb TN. He was a crew member of the USS Helena sunk July 1943 in the Kula Gulf. He had been buried with dog tag on him in a shallow grave about 200 yards from the beach. The locals have no stories about him. It is a mystery as to how he got there, died and who buried him. In mid-September 2006, a team from JPAC recovered his remains. Thanks to John Innes for this informaton.

John Innes adds:
"I note he is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery with date of death as 10th August 1945 (probably not accurate just the date when he was declared KIA)."