Ugaki was promoted to vice admiral on 1 November 1942. Ugaki and Yamamoto were traveling in separate Mitsubishi G4M (Allied reporting name "Betty") bombers when United States Army Air Forces fighters shot down both aircraft over Bougainville in the Solomon Islands on 18 April 1943 in what the United States named "Operation Vengeance". Yamamoto was killed, his aircraft crashing in the jungle, while Ugaki′s plane fell into the sea at high speed. Ugaki was one of three survivors, the others being the bomber's pilot, Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Hiroshi Hayashi, and another staff officer, Captain Motoharu Kitamura. On 22 May 1943, the injured Ugaki was attached to the Naval General Staff for hospitalization. After recovering from his injuries, Ugaki took command of the 1st Battleship Division (consisting of , , and ) on 25 February 1944, initially with Nagato as his flagship, then transferring his flag to Yamato in early May 1944. After U.S. forces landed on Biak on 27 May 1944, he argued forcefully that Japan had a strategic imperative to hold Biak, and at least partially as a result of his advocacy the Imperial Japanese Navy planned Operation Kon for the relief of the island and on 30 May 1944 created the Kon Force to carry out the operation. It gave Ugaki additional duty as overall commander of the Kon Force on 10 June 1944, and the Kon Force got underway from Tawi-Tawi in the Philippine Islands that day. but the operation was postponed on 12 June 1944 when the Marianas campaign began with the first U.S. bombardments of Saipan. Battleship Division 1 joined the Van Force of the Mobile Force as it deployed for the defense of the Mariana Islands. In the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea Ugaki's battleships exchanged fire with U.S. Navy carrier aircraft while defending Japanese aircraft carriers on 20 June 1944 and emerged unscathed except for a strafing attack on Nagato. Operation Kon was canceled. Ugaki subsequently commanded Battleship Division 1 during the disastrous Battle of Leyte Gulf of 23–26 October 1944. His battleships saw action in two major engagements of the battle, the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October 1944, in which U.S. aircraft sank Musashi, and the Battle off Samar on 25 October 1944. In the latter action, Yamato and Nagato, the largest battleships in the Imperial Japanese Navy, inflicted only modest damage on United States Navy