The ship was used for training and defense. The fast battleship Haruna was afloat, relocated from Kure harbor to a bight along the coast of Etajima Island, not far from Hiroshima, Japan. Admiral John “Slew” McCain was against attacking the harbor-bound vessels because they were not a real threat to the US fleet. The B-24 bombers of 494th Bombardment Group of the Seventh Air Force joined the effort from their captured base on Okinawa on 28 July. Much has been written about the reasons for sinking these ships and criticism of these mission orders. Before the attack began on 24 July, 1945, most of these ships were already damaged, without fuel, and trapped in shallow water behind mines near Kure, in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz and Admiral Halsey ordered the US Navy attack on the remaining capital ships of the JIN. In an earnest effort to demoralize Japanese leadership and end the war, the US military branches were in something like a competition to sink the last floating battleships of the Japanese Imperial Navy. Nearly twenty planes from US Navy aircraft carriers and two Army Air Force B-24 bombers were shot down in the vicinity of Kure, Japan, just a few weeks before the end of World War II.
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