Kongō-class battlecruiser

The design of the Kongō-class battlecruisers came about as a result of the IJN's modernization programs, as well as the perceived need to compete with the British Royal Navy. In his design of the class, Thurston relied on many techniques that would eventually be used by the British on . The final design of the battlecruisers resulted in an improved version of the , displacing an estimated 27,940 tonnes (27,500 long tons). It also called for eight 14-inch guns mounted in four twin gun turrets (two forward and two aft) with a top speed of . To ensure transfer of the latest design knowledge to Japan more than 100 technical specialists were sent on 18 months secondments from Japan to Vickers during the construction phase of Kongō. If superintendents, supervisors and trial witnesses are also included then about 200 Japanese spent time in Britain. ==Description==

The ships had a length of overall and a beam of . They had a draft of and displaced at normal load. The boilers, arranged in eight compartments, were mixed-firing with fuel oil sprayed onto the coal for extra power. The ships had a stowage capacity of of coal and of oil, giving them a range of at a speed of . The battlecruisers were designed to reach a speed of and all of them exceeded that speed on their sea trials. The Kongō and Hiei attained and with and , respectively. In their first reconstruction during the late 1920s, the ships were reboilered with 10, 11 (Hiei) or 16 (Haruna) Kampon boilers, and their fuel stowage was rearranged to accommodate of coal and of oil. This increased their range to at 14 knots and allowed the fore funnel to be removed, which greatly decreased smoke interference with the bridge and fire-control systems. Coupled with the addition of external torpedo bulges, this reduced their speed to and caused the IJN to reclassify them as battleships. and the guns had a firing cycle of 30–40 seconds. These guns and their turrets underwent multiple modernizations throughout the ships' careers. During the first reconstruction of the class during the 1920s, the elevation of the main guns was increased to a maximum of +33 degrees. The recoil mechanism of the guns was also changed from a hydraulic to pneumatic system, which allowed for a faster firing cycle of the main guns. By World War II, the guns used Type 91 armor-piercing, capped shells. Each of these shells weighed and had a muzzle velocity of . They had a maximum range of at +20 degrees of elevation Also available was a high-explosive shell that had a muzzle velocity of . A special Type 3 Sanshikidan incendiary shrapnel shell was developed in the 1930s for anti-aircraft use. The ships also mounted four 76 mm/40 anti-aircraft (AA) guns. The high-angle guns were in single mounts. Each of these guns had a maximum elevation of +75 degrees, and could fire a projectile with a muzzle velocity of to a maximum height of . The Kongō class's secondary armament changed significantly over time. During the modernizations of the 1930s, all of the 76 mm guns were replaced with eight /40 dual-purpose guns. These guns were fitted on both sides of the fore and aft superstructures in four twin-gun mounts. During reconstruction, the two foremost 152 mm guns were also removed. The light AA armament of the Kongō class changed dramatically from 1933 to 1944. During the second reconstruction, the ships were fitted with four to eight twin machine-guns, later replaced by gun mounts. Both weapons were license-built French Hotchkiss designs. The 25 mm guns were mounted on the Kongō class in single, double, and triple mounts. This model was the standard Japanese light anti-aircraft gun during World War II, but severe design shortcomings rendered it largely ineffective. The twin and triple mounts "lacked sufficient speed in train or elevation; the gun sights were unable to handle fast targets; the gun exhibited excessive vibration; the magazine was too small, and, finally, the gun produced excessive muzzle blast". Haruna ultimately carried 118 guns in 30 triple, two twin, and 24 single mounts. Armour The Kongō-class battlecruisers were designed with the intention of maximizing speed and maneuverability, and as such were not as heavily armoured as later Japanese capital ships. Vickers Cemented was used in the construction of the Kongō, while the original armour of the other three was constructed of a variation of Krupp Cemented Armour, designed by the German Krupp Arms Works. During the reconstructions that each ship underwent during the interwar period, most of the armour of the Kongō class was heavily upgraded. The main lower belt was strengthened to be a uniform thickness of 8 inches, while diagonal bulkheads of a depth ranging from reinforced the main armoured belt. The upper belt remained unchanged, but was closed by 9-inch bulkheads at the bow and stern of the ships. ==Ships==

Due to a lack of available slipways, the latter two were the first Japanese warships to be built by Japanese private shipyards. On 23 August 1914, Japan formally declared war on the German Empire as part of her contribution to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and Kongō was deployed near Midway Island to patrol the communications lines of the Pacific Ocean, attached to the Third Battleship Division of the First Fleet. On 1 November 1924, Kongō docked at Yokosuka for modifications which improved fire control and main-gun elevation, and increased her antiaircraft armament. Japan's withdrawal from the London Naval Treaty led to reconstruction of her forward tower to fit the pagoda mast style of design, improvements to the boilers and turbines, and reconfiguration of the aircraft catapults aft of Turret 3. Her new top speed of qualified her as a fast battleship. or November 1941, Kongō and her sisters engaged American naval forces in the Battle of Guadalcanal. During this engagement Kongō and Haruna bombarded Henderson Field with 430 14-inch and 33 6-inch shells on 13 October 1942. Following armament and armour upgrades in late 1943 and early 1944, During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Kongō sortied as part of Admiral Kurita's Center Force, seeing her only ship vs ship engagement at the Battle off Samar. During the engagement, Kongō sank the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts, and helped to sink the destroyer Hoel. Kongō also allegedly scored hits to the escort carrier Gambier Bay and the destroyer Johnston, sinking or helping to sink both ships, though as it would turn out these hits were misattributed to her and belonged to the battleship Yamato. Kongō and an escort, , were sunk northwest of Taiwan on 21 November 1944 by the submarine , after being hit on the port bow by two or three torpedoes. Approximately 1,200 of her crew—including her Captain and the commander of the Third Battleship Division, Vice Admiral Yoshio Suzuki—were lost. After conducting patrols off China and in the East China Sea during World War I, Hiei was placed in reserve in 1920. In 1937, following Japan's withdrawal from the London Treaty, Hiei underwent a massive reconstruction along lines similar to those of her sister ships. When the reconstruction was completed on 31 January 1940, Hiei was reclassified as a battleship. She participated in carrier actions against Ceylon and Midway Island, and was subsequently drydocked in July. Following carrier escort duty during the Battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa-Cruz, Hiei departed as the flagship of Rear Admiral Hiroaki Abe's Combat Division 11 to bombard Henderson Field on the night of 12–13 November 1942. When the fleet encountered Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan's Task Group in Ironbottom Sound, the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ensued. In an extremely confusing melee, Hiei would sink the destroyers Monssen and Laffey and help to cripple the heavy cruiser San Francisco—killing two rear admirals in the process—but was hit by about 85 shells from the guns of cruisers and destroyers. Abe transferred his flag to Kirishima, and the battleship was taken under tow by the same ship, but one of her rudders froze in the full starboard position. She once again served escort duty during the disastrous Battle of Midway, before transferring to Truk Lagoon in preparation for operations against American landings on Guadalcanal. After participating in the Battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz, Kirishima joined Hiei in a night attack on 13 November 1942. Following the loss of the latter on the evening of 13 November, Kirishima subsequently engaged American battleships on the night of 14/15 November. She managed to inflict superficial damage on , but she was in turn caught off guard while attacking South Dakota and was crippled by . After a short patrolling duty off Sasebo, Haruna suffered a breech explosion during gunnery drills on 12 September 1920; seven crewmen were killed and the No. 1 turret badly damaged. She participated in the major Japanese offensives in the southern and southwestern Pacific in early 1942, before sailing as part of the carrier-strike force during the Battle of Midway. She was the only one of the four battleships in her class to survive 1944. Haruna remained at Kure throughout 1945, where she was sunk by aircraft of Task Force 38 on 28 July 1945, after taking nine bomb hits at her moorings. She was subsequently raised and broken up for scrap in 1946. ==Notes==

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