Operation Kita (北号作戦, Hoku-gō sakusen, "North") was conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Pacific War in February 1945.

Its purpose was to return two Ise-class hybrid battleship-aircraft carriers and four escort ships to Japan from Singapore, where they had been based since November the previous year.

Nevertheless, as a result of the intensifying Allied blockade of Japan, the Ise-class battleship-carriers and their escorts were among the last IJN warships to safely reach the country from the Southwest Pacific before the end of the war.

This formed part of an effort to run increased quantities of supplies through the Allied blockade of Japan before the country was cut off from its empire.

During 1944, Allied submarine attacks effectively cut off the supply of oil from Southeast Asia to Japan and greatly reduced Japanese imports of other commodities.

[2] On 11 November 1944, the two Ise-class hybrid battleship-aircraft carriers—Ise and Hyūga, which were grouped as Carrier Division 4 and under the command of Rear Admiral Matsuda Chiaki—sailed from the Japanese home islands to join the main body of the IJN in the Southwest Pacific.

[4] In early February 1945, Ise, Hyūga and an escort of smaller warships received orders to sail to Japan in what was designated Operation Kita.

[8] The ships selected to accompany the battleship-carriers were the light cruiser Ōyodo (which became part of Carrier Division 4 from 10 February) and destroyers Asashimo, Hatsushimo and Kasumi.

[14] The British submarine HMS Tantalus observed the ships leaving port and attempted to attack them on 11 February, but was driven off by a Japanese aircraft.

[19] The four U.S. Navy battleships at Lingayen Gulf sailed on 10 February bound for U.S. bases in the Pacific where they were to receive repairs and undertake preparations ahead of their role supporting the invasion of Okinawa.

[19] Over the next 14 hours the submarines Blackfin, Charr, Flounder, Pargo and Tuna attempted to reach a position where they could attack the Japanese ships, but were unable to do so.

[22] On the same day, the Australian destroyers HMAS Arunta and Warramunga departed Lingayen Gulf and proceeded to a position about 300 mi (260 nmi; 480 km) west of Manila where they were held in readiness to rescue the crews of any aircraft downed while attacking the Completion Force.

[19] USS Bashaw and Flasher, the northernmost submarines that Rear Admiral Fife had deployed, encountered the Completion Force during the afternoon of 13 February.

Bashaw sighted the Japanese ships as they emerged from a rain squall at 3:15 p.m., but one of the battleship-carriers spotted the submarine and launched an aircraft to attack it.

Once again, cloud cover over the Completion Force prevented the Allied aircraft from sighting the Japanese ships, and they were unable to attack due to the prohibition on radar-aimed bombing.

As a result, the only successes gained by the USAAF aircraft involved in the operation were to shoot down a Mitsubishi Ki-57 "Topsy" transport plane near the Completion Force on 13 February as well as several fighters in the area of the ships between the 12th and 14th of the month.

[4] The Japanese ships resumed their journey to Kure via Korea and the Shimonoseki Strait at midnight, and the destroyers Kamikaze and Nokaze were attached to the force for part of the day.

[4][27] At 5:07 am on 16 February, USS Rasher intercepted the Completion Force south of the Chinese city of Wenzhou and fired six torpedoes at one of the escorts, but all missed.

[26] Fife concluded that this was due to the Completion Force's high speed, the poor weather conditions at the time of the operation and the Japanese ships being fitted with equipment that enabled them to detect submarines' radar signals.

[27] The three destroyers also failed to survive the war; Asashimo and Kasumi fell victim to American carrier aircraft while escorting the battleship Yamato during Operation Ten-Go on 6 April, and Hatsushimo sank after striking a mine near Maizuru on 30 July.