Combined Fleet

Reng Kantairedirects here. For other uses of this 1.3 Interwar years
Japanese term, see Reng Kantai (disambiguation).
The Combined Fleet was not maintained as a permanent
organization, but was temporarily created when necessary during eet maneuvers or when called for by exFor theCarrier Striking Task Force, see Kido
traordinary circumstances. Thus, during the period from
Butai.
19051924, the Combined Fleet was created only spoThe Combined Fleet ( Reng Kantai) was the radically as the occasion or circumstances dictated, and
main ocean-going component of the Imperial Japanese disbanded immediately afterwards.
Navy. Until 1933, the Combined Fleet was not a perma- In 1924, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared in an edict
nent organization, but a temporary force formed for the on eet organization thatfor the time beingthe Comduration of a conict or major naval maneuvers from var- bined Fleet would be a standing organization consisting
ious units normally under separate commands in peace- of the IJN 1st Fleet and IJN 2nd Fleet. As this was not
time.
intended to bepermanentand since the commander of

IJN 1st Fleet concurrently directed the Combined Fleet,

the Combined Fleet was not given a Headquarters sta of
its own.

History

From 1933, with the Manchurian Incident and the increasing tension with China, a permanent HQ sta for the
Combined Fleet was established. By the late 1930s, it inThe Combined Fleet was formally created on 18 July cluded most of Japan's warshipsonly the base units, the
1894 by the merger of the Standing Fleet and the Western Special Naval Landing Forces, and the China Area Fleet
Fleet. The Standing Fleet (also known as the Readiness lay outside the Combined Fleet.
Fleet) contained the navy's most modern and combatcapable warships. The Western Fleet was a reserve force
consisting primarily of obsolete ships deemed unsuit- 1.4 World War II
able for front-line combat operations, but still suitable for
commerce protection and coastal defense. Vice-admiral The Combined Fleet came under command of the
Itoh Sukeyuki was appointed the rst Commander-in- Imperial General Headquarters in 1937. With the start
Chief of the Combined Fleet.* [1] for the duration of the of the Pacic War with the attack on Pearl Harbor carrst Sino-Japanese war against China.
ried out by the Combined Fleet's Kido Butai, the Com-

1.1

1.2

Sino-Japanese War (189495)

bined Fleet became almost synonymous with the Imperial Japanese Navy. It comprised the battleships, aircraft
carriers, aircraft, and the components that made up the
main ghting strength of the IJN. It was rst mobilized
on the whole for the Battle of Midway. After the devastating carrier losses at Midway and in the Solomon Islands
campaign, the navy re-organized into a number ofArea
Fleetsfor local operational control of various geographic
zones. The Combined Fleet then evolved into more of an
administrative organization.

Russo-Japanese War (190405)

The Combined Fleet was re-formed during the RussoJapanese War of 190405 to provide a unied overall
command for the three separate eets in the Imperial
Japanese Navy. The IJN 1st Fleet was the main battleship
force, which formed the backbone of the navy and was
intended to be used in a traditional line-of-battle showdown with an equivalent enemy battleship eet (kantai
kessen). The IJN 2nd Fleet was a fast, mobile strike force
with armored cruisers and protected cruisers. The IJN
3rd Fleet was primarily a reserve eet of obsolete vessels
considered too weak for front-line combat service, but
which could still be used in the operation to blockade Port
Arthur. Admiral Togo Heihachiro was commander-inchief of the Combined Fleet during the Russo-Japanese
War.

As the war situation deteriorated for the Japanese and the

territories controlled by the Area Fleetsfell one after
another to the United States Navy, the Imperial General
Headquarters and the Imperial Japanese Navy General
Sta acted to force the American eet into a decisive
battlein the Philippines per the kantai kessen philosophy. In the resultant Battle of the Philippine Sea and the
Battle of Leyte Gulf the Japanese eet was decimated.
1

EXTERNAL LINKS

Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.

Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial
Japanese Navy, 19411945. Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 0-87021-097-1.

4 External links
Nishida, Hiroshi. Imperial Japanese Navy. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
Wendel, Marcus. Axis Database. Retrieved
2007-08-25.
World War II Armed Forces Orders of Battle and
Organizations
Nihon Kaigun

Admiral and commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet Isoroku

Yamamoto

The remnants of the Combined Fleet ed to Okinawa,

but further operations were hindered by lack of fuel and
air cover. By the time of the nal suicide mission of the
battleship Yamato in Operation Ten-Go, the Combined
Fleet had ceased to exist as an eective combat force.
The Combined Fleet was formally dissolved on 10 October 1945.

Commanders of the IJN Combined Fleet

Commander in chief
Chief of sta

References

3.1

Notes

[1] The Combined Fleet

3.2

Books

D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy:

Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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