Pacific War Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces to attack targets throughout the Philippines and the South China Sea. The Battle of Iwo Jima ("Operation Detachment") in February 1945 was one of the bloodiest battles fought by the Americans in the Pacific War. Iwo Jima is an 8 sq mile (21 km) island situated halfway between Tokyo and the Mariana Islands. Holland Smith, the commander of the invasion force, aimed to capture the island and prevent its use as an early-warning station against air raids on the Japanese Home Islands, and to use it as an emergency landing field. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,
Attack on Kure (March 1945) series of raids on airfields which took place on 16 and 17 February 1945, in which the American aviators claimed to have destroyed 341 Japanese aircraft in the air and 190 on the ground for the loss of 80 of their own to all causes. The second raid had been made against airfields in the Tokyo region on 25 February, in which the Americans claimed 46 Japanese aircraft while losing 16. After this attack, Task Force 58 returned to its base at Ulithi atoll to rest and prepare for further operations. By this stage of the war, the IJN was