:Attacks on Kure and the Seto Inland Sea

{{See also|Bombing of Kure}}

In July 1945 the IJN's remaining large warships were concentrated near the major naval base of Kure. The ships were immobilized by fuel shortages and were being used only as stationary anti-aircraft batteries.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Royal Navy|1995|p=223}} Admiral John S. McCain Sr., the commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force, strongly opposed attacking Kure as he and his staff believed that the ships only posed a minor threat.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Halsey|1947|p=265}}

In his memoirs Admiral Halsey gave four reasons for why he attacked Kure despite McCain's objections. First, he believed that the attack would boost US morale and retaliate for the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Second, it would ensure that the Japanese could not disrupt the planned Soviet invasion of Hokkaido. Third, it would prevent Japan from using its fleet as a bargaining point to secure better peace terms. Finally, he had been ordered to conduct the attack by his superior officer, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

Despite operating as a task group of the US Third Fleet, the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was excluded from the attack on Kure because the Americans did not want Britain to claim a part in destroying the Japanese fleet. The BPF was instead used to attack airfields and the port of Osaka.

Kure had been subjected to several major attacks prior to July 1945. On 19 March 1945, 321 US Navy aircraft attacked Japanese warships in and around the city. This attack was unsuccessful, with no Japanese ships being sunk, though an escort carrier and a light cruiser were badly damaged.{{sfn|Tillman|2010|pp=128-132}} On 5 May B-29 Superfortress bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) successfully bombed the Hiro Naval Aircraft Factory. B-29s laid naval mines in the approaches to the port on 30 March and 5 May, and 40 percent of the city was destroyed in a major air raid conducted by Superfortresses on 1 July.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Craven|Cate|1953|pp=649, 668–669, 675}}

Participating in the attacks were Task Force 38 for the Americans and Task Force 37 for the British. Task Force 37 included the aircraft carriers HMS {{HMS|Formidable|67|2}}, {{HMS|Indefatigable|R10|2}}, and {{HMS|Victorious|R38|2}}.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Rohwer|2005|p=424}}{{confusing-inline|date=December 2024}}

File:ToneUnderAttack1945.jpg

The Third Fleet's attack against Kure began on 24 July.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Potter|1985|p=345}} US carrier aircraft flew 1,747 sorties on this day against Japanese targets.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Morison|2002|p=331}} The attacks sank the aircraft carrier {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Amagi||2}} and the cruiser {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Ōyodo||2}}, which was acting as the Combined Fleet's flagship. The battleships {{ship|Japanese battleship|Hyūga||2}}, {{ship|Japanese battleship|Ise||2}}, and {{ship|Japanese battleship|Haruna||2}}, the heavy cruisers {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Tone|1937|2}} and {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Aoba||2}}, the outdated armored training cruisers {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Iwate||2}} and {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Izumo||2}} and the ex-battleship turned target ship {{ship|Japanese battleship|Settsu||2}} were all heavily damaged and settled in shallow water. The shallow anchorage precluded the use of torpedoes. The US aircraft attempted to reduce their losses from the large number of anti-aircraft guns in the area by the use of variable time-fused bombs.

The British Pacific Fleet conducted a number of attacks against Osaka and targeted the Inland Sea. As a result the escort carrier {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Kaiyō||2}} was severely damaged and grounded, the escort ships No. 4 and No. 30 were also sunk for the loss of four aircraft.

File:80-G-351745 Japanese Aircraft Carrier KATSURAGI.tif

US strikes against Kure resumed on 28 July, further damaging the battleships Ise and Haruna and the heavy cruiser Aoba. The aircraft carrier {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Katsuragi||2}} which had largely escaped attack in the earlier raid, and the unserviceable light aircraft carrier {{warship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Ryūhō||2}} were attacked, with Katsuragi suffering heavy damage. These air strikes were among the largest conducted by the US Navy during the war, and were the most destructive of shipping.

On 28 July, the USAAF attacked Kure ships with 79 B-24 Liberator bombers from Okinawa. Four bomb hits were made upon the beached cruiser Aoba, breaking off her stern. Two B-24s were shot down and 14 others damaged.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Craven|Cate|1953|p=698}}

Allied losses included 102 aircrew and 133 planes lost in combat or accidents during the attacks. These losses were higher than those suffered by the Third Fleet in most of its operations, and were the result of the heavy anti-aircraft defences around Kure.

The Allied attacks on Kure and the inland sea left {{warship|Japanese battleship|Nagato||2}} at Yokosuka as the only remaining operational capital ship in Japan's inventory. The destruction of the battleships and heavy cruisers at Kure was seen by British official historian Stephen Roskill as avenging the losses suffered by the United States at Pearl Harbor.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Roskill|1961|p=374}} The attacks allowed the Soviet Pacific Fleet to operate in the Sea of Japan without fear of attack by Japanese ships.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Frank|1999|p=158}}

• {{ship|Japanese battleship|Haruna||2}}: Hit by a single bomb which caused light damage on 24 July, hit by eight bombs on 28 July, sunk at her moorings.
• {{ship|Japanese battleship|Hyūga||2}}: Hit by ten bombs on 24 July, sunk in shallow waters.
• {{ship|Japanese battleship|Ise||2}}: Damaged by bombs in an attack by 60 planes on 24 July, struck by sixteen bombs on 28 July, sunk in shallow waters.

File:NH 111642 Japanese aircraft transport ship, RYUHO, ex-TAIGEI depot ship (cropped).tif

• {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Amagi||2}}: Hit by two bombs and received several near-misses on 24 July, hit several more times on 28 July, capsized.
• {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Katsuragi||2}}: Hit by one bomb on 24 July which did little damage. Hit by one 2,000-pound bomb on 28 July which blew a large hole in the flight deck, moderately damaged.
• {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Hōshō||2}}: Slightly damaged by a single bomb or aerial rocket hit on 24 July.
• {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Ryūhō||2}}: Already severely damaged in the March air raid on Kure, attacked again on 24 and 28 July but remained afloat.

• {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Iwate||2}}: Not hit by any bombs, but three near misses on 24 July caused Iwate to sink in shallow water the following day.
• {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Izumo||2}}: Not hit by any bombs, but three near misses on 28 July caused Izumo to capsize.
• {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Aoba||2}}: Bombed and sunk on 24 July, hit by four more bombs and caught fire on 28 July.
• {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Tone|1937|2}}: Hit by three bombs and sunk on 24 July, attacked again on 28 July by rockets and bombs.
• {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Kitakami||2}}: Damaged by strafing on 24 July.
• {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Ōyodo||2}}: Strafed and hit by five bombs on 24 July, near-missed by bombs on 28 July and capsized.
• {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Yakumo||2}}: Damaged and re-designated as a transport ship.

• {{ship|Japanese destroyer|Yoizuki||2}}: Slightly damaged on 24 July.
• Nashi: Sunk on 28 July 1945.
• {{ship|Japanese destroyer|Kaba|1945|2}}: Damaged on 24 July.
• Asagao: Damaged on 28 July.

• Aso: Unryū-class aircraft carrier, attacked on 24 July, caught fire.
• I-404: I-400-class submarine, severely damaged on 28 July, scuttled.

File:Japanese escort carrier Kaiyō beached in Beppu Bay, Japan, while being scrapped, circa in 1946-1947 (NH 85386).jpg

• {{ship|Japanese battleship|Settsu||2}}: Ex-battleship, grounded after one bomb hit and five near-misses on 24 July, hit by two bombs on 28 July. (Hiroshima Bay, Etajimacho Ozu)
• {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Kaiyō||2}}: Escort carrier, attacked on 24 and 28 July, damaged and grounded. (Beppu Bay, Ōita)
• {{ship|Japanese submarine tender|Komahashi||2}}: Submarine tender, attacked on 27 July and sunk in shallow water. (Owase Port, Mie)
• I-205: Unfinished I-201-class submarine, sunk on 28 July. (Kurahashi Island)
• Hagi: Matsu-class destroyer, damaged on 28 July. (south of Iwaishima, Yamaguchi)
• {{ship|Japanese destroyer|Tsubaki|1944|2}}: Moderately damaged on 24 July. (off the coast of Okayama)
• Escort ship No. 4: Sunk on 28 July. (off the coast of Toba, Mie)
• Escort ship No. 30: Sunk on 28 July. (off the coast of Yura, Wakayama)

File:IJN carrier Amagi capsized off Kure in 1946.jpg|Amagi capsized in Kure harbor, 1946

File:Piction (15321469815).jpg|Bombed out wreck of Hyūga sunk in shallow waters of Hiroshima Bay, 1945

File:80-G-351361 Japanese Battleship Ise.tiff|Ise, sunk in Ondo-no-seto strait, October 1945

File:Sunken Japanese battleship Haruna off Koyo, Etajima (Japan), on 8 October 1945 (80-G-351726).jpg|alt=a heavily damaged Haruna, having sunk from the stern, several days after coming under attack at her moorings|Heavily damaged Haruna sunk at her moorings in Kure harbor, October 1945.

File:Settsu sunk at Kure.jpg|Settsu grounded at Etajima, October 1945

File:Oyodo cruiser capsized 1945.jpg|Ōyodo capsized in shallow waters, 28 July 1945

File:Japanese cruiser Aoba sunk at Kure, Japan, 9 October 1945 (80-G-351754).jpg|Aoba sunk in harbor, October 1945

File:The wreck of Tone in Kure (2).jpg|Tone sunk in Etajima Bay, 29 July 1945

File:The wreck of Izumo sunk after the attack on Kure.jpg|Capsized wreck of Izumo

File:80-G-351365 Japanese Cruiser IWATE (cropped).tif|Iwate, sunk in shallow waters in Kure, October 1945

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last1=Craven|first1=Wesley|last2=Cate|first2=James |title=The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|year=1953|series=The Army Air Forces in World War II}}
• {{cite book|last=Frank|first=Richard B.|title=Downfall. The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire|publisher=Random House |location=New York|year=1999|isbn=978-0-679-41424-7}}
• {{cite book|last1=Halsey|first1=William F.|last2=Bryan|first2=J.|title=Admiral Halsey's Story|url=https://archive.org/details/AdmiralHalseysStory|publisher=Whittlesey House|location=London|year=1947}}
• {{cite book|last=Morison|first=Samuel Eliot|title=Victory in the Pacific|publisher=University of Illinois|location=Champaign|date=2002|orig-year=1960|series=History of United States Naval Operations in World War II|isbn=0-252-07065-8}}
• {{cite book |last=Potter|first=E.B.|year=1985 |title=Bull Halsey |url=https://archive.org/details/bullhalsey00pott|url-access=registration|publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |isbn=978-1-59114-691-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Rohwer|first=Jürgen|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2005|edition=Third Revised|isbn=1-59114-119-2|author-link=Jürgen Rohwer}}
• {{cite book|last=Roskill|first=Stephen W.|title=The War at Sea 1939–1945|volume=III The Offensive|section=Part II 1st June 1944 – 14th August 1945|publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London|year=1961|series=History of the Second World War}}
• {{cite book|last=Royal Navy|title=War with Japan|volume=VI Advance to Japan|publisher=HMSO|location=London|year=1995|isbn=0-11-772821-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Tillman|first=Barrett|title=Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan 1942–1945|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|date=2010|isbn=9781416584407|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/whirlwindairwara00till}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Bombing of Kure}}

{{World War II|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kure, Bombing of July 1945}}

Kure

Category:Naval battles of World War II involving Japan

Category:Naval battles of World War II involving the United States

Kure and the Inland Sea

Category:Japan–United Kingdom military relations

Category:Japan–United States military relations

Category:July 1945 in Asia

Category:Bombing of Kure