Operation Kita was conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Pacific War in February 1945 to return both Ise-class hybrid battleship-aircraft carriers (Ise pictured) and their escorts to Japan from Singapore, where they had been based since November 1944. Before departing, the Japanese ships (designated the Completion Force) were loaded with oil and other raw materials to help bring supplies through the Allied blockade of Japan. The Completion Force sailed on 10 February 1945 and was sighted leaving port by a Royal Navy submarine. The Allies, who had learned of the Completion Force's composition and goals from decrypting Japanese radio signals, planned coordinated attacks by U.S. submarines and aircraft. All attempts failed and the Completion Force reached its destination of Kure, Japan, on 20 February without suffering any casualties. Due to the intensifying Allied blockade, the Ise-class ships and their escorts were among the last IJN warships to reach Japan safely from the Southwest Pacific. All the ships of the Completion Force were sunk in or near Japanese home waters before the end of the war.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Kita
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1258:
Hulagu Khan and the Mongols sacked and burned Baghdad, a cultural and commercial centre of the Islamic world at the time, ending the rule of the Abbasid caliphate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258)
1763:
Britain, France, and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris to end the Seven Years' War, significantly reducing the size of the French colonial empire while at the same time marking the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1763)
1840:
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha married Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom at the Chapel Royal, becoming prince-consort. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert,_Prince_Consort
1962:
"Rudolf Abel", a Soviet spy arrested by the FBI, was exchanged for Gary Powers, the pilot of the CIA spy plane that had been shot down over Soviet airspace two years earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilyam_Genrikhovich_Fisher
1964:
The Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collided with and sank the destroyer HMAS Voyager in Jervis Bay, Australia, killing 82 of Voyager's personnel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne%E2%80%93Voyager_collision
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
ophidian: Of or pertaining to the suborder Serpentes; of, related to, or characteristic of a snake or serpent. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ophidian
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions. --Bertolt Brecht https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht