Third Fleet Second Sino-Japanese War The attacks on Kure and the Inland Sea by United States and British naval aircraft in late July 1945 sank most of the surviving large warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).

The United States Third Fleet's attacks on Kure Naval Arsenal and nearby ports on 24, 25, and 28 July sank an aircraft carrier, three battleships, five cruisers, and several smaller warships.

[2] 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.

[4] 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.

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.

[1] The Allied attacks on Kure and the inland sea left Nagato 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.