Operation Vengeance

Operation Vengeance
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto saluting Japanese naval pilots at Rabaul, hours before his death
Date 18 April 1943 Location near Panguna, Bougainville, Territory of New Guinea (now Papua New Guinea) Result American victory
Belligerents
United States	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
William F. Halsey Jr. John W. Mitchell	Isoroku Yamamoto † Matome Ugaki (WIA)
Units involved
13th Air Force 347th Fighter Group 339th Fighter Squadron	11th Air Fleet 26th Air Flotilla 204th Naval Air Group 705th Naval Air Group
Strength
18 P-38G fighter aircraft	2 G4M1 bombers, 6 A6M3 fighter aircraft
Casualties and losses
1 P-38G fighter aircraft lost, 1 pilot killed	2 bombers destroyed, 1 fighter damaged, 20 killed inc. Admiral Yamamoto

Operation Vengeance was the American military operation to kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 18 April 1943 during the Solomon Islands campaign in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was killed near Bougainville Island when his transport 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, made possible because of United States Navy intelligence decoding transmissions about Yamamoto's travel itinerary through 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 that initiated the war between Imperial Japan and the United States.

The U.S. pilots claimed to have shot down three twin-engine bombers and two fighters during the mission, but Japanese records show only two bombers were shot down. There is a controversy over which pilot shot down Yamamoto's plane, but most modern historians credit Rex T. Barber.