page_title: 1st Air Fleet
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Air Fleet / Operations
caption_attribution_description: Japanese Navy Aichi D3A1 Type 99 carrier bombers (allied codename Val) prepare to take off from an aircraft carrier during the morning of 7 December 1941. Ship in the background is the carrier Soryu.
context_page_description: The 1st Air Fleet also known as the Kidō Butai, was a name used for a combined carrier battle group comprising most of the aircraft carriers and carrier air groups of the Imperial Japanese Navy, during the first eight months of the Pacific War.
  At the time of its best-known operation, the attack on Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, the 1st Air Fleet was the world's largest fleet of aircraft carriers.
  In its second generation, 1st Air Fleet was a land-based fleet of "kichi kōkūtai".
caption: 1st Air Fleet Aichi dive bombers preparing to bomb American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
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