Japanese battleship Kongō
She covered the Japanese Army's amphibious landings in British Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942, before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign.[4][a] Kongō was the first of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kongō-class battlecruisers, which were almost as large, costly and well-armed as battleships, but which traded off armored protection for higher speeds.[1][7] Their heavy armament of 14-inch naval guns and their armor protection (which took up about 23.3% of their approximately 30,000-ton displacements in 1913) were greatly superior to those of any other Japanese capital ship afloat at the time.[1] In January 1914, a telegram leaked from Siemens' Tokyo office to Reuters along with further reporting by The New York Times and The Asahi Shimbun led to an investigation by Japanese authorities which revealed a pattern of bribery and kickbacks by German and English armaments corporations.As a result of the Siemens-Vickers Scandal revolving around the contracts of building Kongō, the government of Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyōe resigned March 23, 1914.In October, Kongō and her new sister ship Hiei sortied off the Chinese coast in support of Japanese army units during the Siege of Tsingtao.[20] Provided that new additions did not exceed 3,000 tons of displacement, the existing capital ships were allowed to be upgraded with improved anti-torpedo bulges and armored main decks.In 1927, Kongō underwent major modifications to her superstructure, rebuilding it into the pagoda mast style to accommodate the growing number of fire-control systems for her main guns.[6] Prohibited by the Washington Treaty from constructing new capital ships until 1931, Japan resorted to upgrading their World War I-era battleships and battlecruisers.On 1 December 1931, two months after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Kongō was assigned to the First Battleship Division and also designated the flagship of the Combined Fleet.On 10 January 1935, Kongō was toured by the Nazi German naval attaché to Japan, Captain Paul Wenneker, as part of a gunnery demonstration.[6] On 1 June 1935, Kongō was dry-docked at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in preparation for upgrades that would enable her to escort Japan's growing fleet of aircraft carriers.[7] In addition, her bridge was completely reconstructed according to Japan's pagoda mast style of forward superstructure,[15] and catapults were added to support three Nakajima E8N or Kawanishi E7K reconnaissance and spotter floatplanes.From November 1940 to April 1941, additional armor was added to Kongō's armament barbettes and ammunition tubes, while ventilation and firefighting equipment was also improved.In August 1941, she was assigned to the Third Battleship Division under the command of Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa alongside her fully modified sister warships Hiei, Kirishima and the Haruna.[6] Kongō and Haruna departed from the Hashirajima fleet anchorage on 29 November 1941 to begin the War in the Pacific as part of the Southern (Malay) Force's Main Body, under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Nobutake Kondō.[29] When Britain's "Force Z"—consisting of the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse—was quickly defeated by Japan's land-based aircraft from southern Vietnam, Kongō's battlegroup withdrew from Malayan waters.This battlegroup subsequently sortied from Indochina for three days in mid-December to protect a reinforcement convoy traveling to Malaya, and again on 18 December to cover the Japanese Army's landing at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, in the Philippines.[6] On 21 February, Kongō was joined by Haruna, four fast aircraft carriers, five heavy cruisers and numerous support ships in preparation for "Operation J", Japan's invasion of the Dutch East Indies.[6] On 27 May 1942, Kongō sortied with Hiei and the heavy cruisers Atago, Chōkai, Myōkō, and Haguro as part of Admiral Nobutake Kondō's invasion force during the Battle of Midway.[26] In September, Kongō embarked with Hiei, Haruna, Kirishima, three carriers, and numerous smaller warships in response to the U.S. Marine Corps's amphibious landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.Because of their high speeds, these two battleships could bombard the airfield and then withdraw before being subjected to air attack from either land-based warplanes or American aircraft carriers.[34] During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942, Kongō was attacked by four Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, but she received no hits.On 15 November 1942, following the Japanese defeat and the sinking of Hiei and Kirishima during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Third Battleship Division returned to Truk, where it remained for the rest of 1942.[6] On 11 May 1944, Kongō and Admiral Ozawa's Mobile Fleet departed from Lingga bound for Tawitawi, where they were joined by Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's "Force C".[26] In October 1944, Kongō departed from Lingga in preparation for "Operation Sho-1", Japan's counterattack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history.After a fierce defensive action by the American ships, which sank three Japanese heavy cruisers, Admiral Kurita elected to withdraw, ending the battle.By 05:00, she had slowed to 11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph) and was given permission to break off from the fleet and head to the port of Keelung in Formosa along with the destroyers Hamakaze and Isokaze as escort.[47] At 5:24, while the evacuation was under way, the forward 14-inch magazine exploded, and the broken ship sank quickly, with the loss of over 1,200 of her crew, including the commander of the Third Battleship Division and her captain.
Japanese ship KongōTateyamaEmpire of JapanMount KongōVickers Shipbuilding CompanyBarrow-in-FurnessUSS SealionKongō-classbattlecruiser356 mm (14 in) naval gun6-inch (15 cm) 50 caliber naval guns152 mm (6 in)127 mm (5.0 in)25 mm Type 96 Antiaircraft autocannonWaterline beltGun turretsBarbettesScientific AmericanJapaneseImperial Japanese NavyKongō classGeorge Thurstonlaid downcapital shipcommissionedbattleshiplaunch catapultsfloatplanesfast battleshipSecond Sino-Japanese WarBattle of SingaporePacific Waramphibious landingsBritish MalayaMalaysiaDutch East IndiesIndonesiaBattle of MidwayGuadalcanal CampaignTruk LagoonCaroline IslandsKure Naval BaseHiroshimaSasebo Naval BaseNagasakiLingga Roadsaircraft carrierair raidsBattle of the Philippine SeaBattle of Leyte GulfFormosa StraitKongō-class battlecruiserbattlecruisersbattleshipsengineerHMS InvincibleTurkishHMS ErinVickers Shipbuilding and EngineeringUnited KingdomPortsmouth, Englandfitting-outSiemens scandalThe Asahi ShimbunMatsumoto KazuYamamoto GonnohyōeVickersVickers 14 inch (356 mm)/45 naval gunnaval gunsturretsOffice of Naval Intelligencehigh explosive6-inch (152 mm) 50 calibrecasemates5-inch (127 mm) 40-calibreType 96rapid-fire cannonsSingaporeYokosuka Naval ArsenalGerman EmpireFranceBelgiumWorld War IKaiser Wilhelm IIQingdaoPalau IslandsMarshall IslandsMarianas IslandsCentral PacificYokosukaSiege of TsingtaoImperator Nikolai IdreadnoughtRusso-Japanese WarwarshipEast Asia SquadronRoyal NavyBattle of the Falkland IslandsPacific OceanWashington Naval TreatyUnited Statesdisplacementanti-torpedo bulgesarmoredIse-classFusō-classCrown Prince HirohitoTaiwanSubmarine No. 62pagoda mastaircraft catapultslong tonsLondon Naval TreatyJapanese invasion of ManchuriaNobutake KondōLytton CommissionLeague of NationsNazi GermanPaul Wennekeraircraft carriersfineness ratiocatapultsNakajima E8NKawanishi E7KSasebo Naval DistrictTakeo Kurita