Operation Vengeance

Operation Vengeance
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a few hours before his death, saluting Japanese naval pilots at Rabaul, April 18, 1943
Date April 18, 1943 Location Bougainville in the South Pacific Result United States victory; Admiral Yamamoto killed
Belligerents
United States	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
William F. Halsey, Jr. John W. Mitchell	Isoroku Yamamoto  † Matome Ugaki  (WIA)
Strength
16 P-38G fighter aircraft	2 G4M1 bombers, 6 A6M2 fighter aircraft
Casualties and losses
1 P-38G fighter aircraft lost, 1 pilot killed	2 bombers destroyed, 19 killed inc. Admiral Yamamoto

Operation Vengeance was the American military operation to kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Imperial Japanese Navy on April 18, 1943, during the Solomon Islands campaign in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was killed on Bougainville Island when his transport bomber aircraft was shot down by United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft operating from Kukum Field on Guadalcanal.

The mission of the U.S. aircraft was specifically to kill Yamamoto and was based on United States Navy intelligence on Yamamoto's itinerary in the Solomon Islands area. The death of Yamamoto reportedly damaged the morale of Japanese naval personnel, raised the morale of the Allied forces, and was intended as revenge by U.S. leaders who blamed Yamamoto for the attack on Pearl Harbor which initiated the formal state of war between Imperial Japan and the United States.

After the war, there was debate over which of the U.S fighter pilots involved in the raid deserved the official credit for downing Yamamoto due to conflicting first-hand reports from the participants. This has never been entirely resolved.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, scheduled an inspection tour of the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. He planned to inspect Japanese air units participating in Operation I-Go that had begun April 7, 1943; in addition, the tour would boost Japanese morale following the disastrous Guadalcanal Campaign and its subsequent evacuation during January and February. On April 14, the U.S. naval intelligence effort code-named "Magic" intercepted and decrypted orders alerting affected Japanese units of the tour.

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Wikipedia