Battleships and aircraft from the fleet also participated in the Allied naval bombardments on Japanese home islands. For the assaults on Japan, the British commanders accepted the BPF should become a component element of the US 3rd Fleet, commanded by Admiral William Halsey. Battleship , bombaded Hitachi, about 80 mi (130 km) northeast of Tokyo, and Hamamatsu, near Toyohashi. This was the last time a British battleship fired in action; the US fleet commander, William Halsey, excluded British forces from the bombing of Kure naval base. Halsey wrote in his memoirs: "it was imperative that we forestall a possible postwar claim by Britain that she had delivered even a part of the final blow that demolished the Japanese fleet... an exclusively American attack was therefore in American interests". Carrier strikes by British naval aircraft were carried out against land and harbour targets during the attacks on Kure and the Inland Sea, 24–28 July 1945. Naval aircraft attacked the port of Osaka, airfields, and, notably, sank Japanese escort carrier "Shimane Maru" and disabled the "Kaiyō". Two escort ships and several smaller vessels were also sunk.