Admiral Yamamoto's airplane was ambushed by American P-38s in Operation Vengeance, which brought the plane down over Bougainville, killing him.
It was a very rare targeted action, in which Yamamoto was the purpose of the mission. The mission remains somewhat debatable as a result. Adm. Yamamoto was a very capable Japanese commander, and perhaps for that reason it was justified, although he also held mixed feelings about the war itself.
The intercept was made possible by the U.S. having broken the Japanese naval code and, for that reason, it was also a bit risky as it may have revealed that fact to the Japanese as the P-38s were really beyond their normal range and their presence peculiar.
Sarah Sundin covered this in her blog as well.
Today in World War II History—April 18, 1943: Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of Japanese Combined Fleet, is killed when his plane is shot down by US Thirteenth Air Force P-38s over Bougainville.
She also covered the "Palm Sunday Massacre" in which the Allies shot down over half of an Axis 100 plane supply mission from Sicily to North Africa.
The Soviets denied the Katyn Massacre.
It was Palm Sunday, 1943. Both of my parents would have attended Palm Sunday Mass with their families.
