Editing Combined Fleet (section)

===World War II===
[[File:Portrait of Yamamoto Isoroku.jpg|thumb|right|Admiral [[Isoroku Yamamoto]], commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during the early stage of the [[Pacific War]].]]
The Combined Fleet came under direct command of the [[Imperial General Headquarters]] in 1937. With the start of the [[Pacific War]] with the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] carried out by Combined Fleet's ''Kido Butai'' ([[1st Air Fleet]]), the Combined Fleet became almost synonymous with the Imperial Japanese Navy, under the command of admiral [[Isoroku Yamamoto]] till April 1943 when he died after [[Operation Vengeance|his plane was shot-down]] by [[United States Army Air Forces|US Army Air Forces]] over [[Bougainville Island]].  It comprised the battleships, [[aircraft carrier]]s, [[aircraft]], and the components that made up the main fighting strength of the IJN. It was first 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 of "Area Fleets" for local operational control of various geographic zones. The Combined Fleet then evolved into more of an administrative organization.

As the war situation deteriorated for the Japanese and the territories controlled by the "Area Fleets" fell one after another to the [[United States Navy]], the [[Imperial General Headquarters]] and the [[Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff]] acted to force the American fleet into a "decisive battle" in the [[Philippines]] per the ''[[Kantai Kessen]]'' philosophy.  In the resultant [[Battle of the Philippine Sea]] and the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]] the Japanese fleet was severely depleted.  The remnants of the Combined Fleet fled to [[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]], but further operations were hindered by lack of fuel and air cover.  By the time of the final suicide mission of the [[Japanese battleship Yamato|battleship ''Yamato'']] in [[Operation Ten-Go]], the Combined Fleet had ceased to exist as an effective combat force.