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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. The movement of the Japanese force was detected by the Allies, but all attempts to attack it with submarines and aircraft failed. 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. Before departing Singapore, the Japanese ships, which were designated the Completion Force, were loaded with supplies of oil and other important raw materials. 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. The Allies had learned of the Completion Force's composition and goals through intelligence gained from decrypting Japanese radio signals, and plans were developed for coordinated attacks on it by submarines and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft. As part of these preparations, 26 submarines were eventually positioned along the ships' expected route. The Completion Force sailed on 10 February 1945 and was sighted leaving port by a Royal Navy submarine. However, attempts by it and several United States Navy submarines to attack between 11 and 14 February were unsuccessful. More than 88 USAAF aircraft attempted to bomb the Completion Force on 13 and 14 February, but were unable to do so because of bad weather. A further submarine attack on 16 February did not damage any of the Japanese ships. As a result, the Completion Force reached its destination of Kure in Japan on 20 February without having suffered any casualties. Despite this success, the Japanese Government was forced to discontinue its efforts to ship oil from Southeast Asia to Japan in March due to the heavy losses Allied submarines were inflicting on oil tankers, and all the ships of the Completion Force were sunk in or near Japanese home waters before the end of the war. ==Background== 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. By this stage of the war, the oil reserves in Japan had been largely depleted. U.S. Navy submarines sank many Japanese warships during 1944, including the battleship , seven aircraft carriers, two heavy and seven light cruisers.〔Blair (2001), pp. 816–817〕 In early 1945, the Japanese Government assessed that all convoy routes from the south would eventually be cut, and attempted to supplement the supplies of oil brought in by tankers by loading drums of oil on freighters. Several IJN aircraft carriers were also used to transport drums of oil from Singapore to Japan.〔Prados (1995), p. 703〕 On 11 November 1944, the two ''Ise''-class hybrid battleship-aircraft carriers— and , 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.〔Whitley (1998), p. 199〕〔Hackett ''et al''. (2011)〕 This deployment was made to both reinforce the remaining elements of the IJN in the area and place the ships near a source of fuel.〔Willmott (2002), p. 200〕 During their voyage from Japan, each of the battleship-carriers was loaded with about of munitions for the units defending Manila in the Philippines. Due to heavy Allied air attacks on Manila, the two warships unloaded their supplies in the Spratly Islands from 14 November. They sailed for Lingga Roads near Singapore on the 20th of the month and arrived there two days later.〔 The Allies learned from intelligence gained by decrypting Japanese radio signals that the battleship-carriers had sailed. Allied submarines were ordered to keep watch for the ships, but did not intercept ''Ise'' or ''Hyūga'' during their voyage to Singapore.〔Prados (1995), p. 701〕 The two battleship-carriers were deployed to Cam Ranh Bay in Indochina during December and returned to Singapore on 11 January 1945. The U.S. Third Fleet raided the South China Sea between 10 and 20 January in search of the Japanese fleet, but did not locate ''Ise'' or ''Hyūga''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Kita」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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