Second Half As Land-based Air Fleet
On 1 June 1943, the 1st Air Fleet was reborn as the land-based Air Fleet. On 30 September 1943, a cabinet meeting planned the Absolute National Defence Zone (絶対国防圏, Zettai Kokubōken?) strategy. The plan intended the Kuril Islands, Bonin Islands, Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, Geelvink Bay (Biak), Sunda Islands and Burma to be unsinkable aircraft carriers. The 1st Air Fleet became the main force of this plan. However, it was soundly beaten in the Battle of Philippine Sea. The IJN then moved the air fleet to the Philippines to regroup. However, the IJN lost the air fleet, as it was not combat ready in the Aerial Battle of Taiwan–Okinawa. After the battle it had only 30 aircraft. The only tactic left for them was the Kamikaze Attack.
Read more about this topic: 1st Air Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy), Organisation
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or fleet:
“They may bring their fattest cattle and richest fruits to the fair, but they are all eclipsed by the show of men. These are stirring autumn days, when men sweep by in crowds, amid the rustle of leaves like migrating finches; this is the true harvest of the year, when the air is but the breath of men, and the rustling of leaves is as the trampling of the crowd.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They ... fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)