was one of four s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1910s. Completed in 1915, the ship played minor roles in World War I and the Second Sino-Japanese War, but she was very active during the Pacific War. Kirishima patrolled on occasion off the Chinese coast during World War I, and helped with rescue efforts following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.
Starting in 1927, Kirishimas first reconstruction rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed. From 1934, a second reconstruction completely rebuilt her superstructure, upgraded her propulsion machinery, and equipped her with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, she was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kirishima acted primarily as a support vessel and troop transport, moving army troops to mainland China. On the eve of the Pacific War, she sailed as part of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Kido Butai as an escort for the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
As part of the Third Battleship Division, Kirishima participated in many of the Imperial Japanese Navy's early actions in 1942, providing support for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and in the Indian Ocean raid from February to April 1942, during which she helped to sink the destroyer USS Edsall and the Dutch patrol ship Hoofdinspecteur Zeeman. During the Battle of Midway, she escorted Nagumo's four carriers, before redeploying to the Solomon Islands during the Battle of Guadalcanal. She escorted Japanese carrier fleets during the battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz Islands, before sailing as part of a bombardment force under Admiral Nobutake Kondō during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
On the evening of 13 November 1942, Kirishima engaged American cruisers and destroyers alongside her sister ship . On the night of 14/15 November, in one of only two battleship duels of the Pacific War, Kirishima badly damaged the American battleship before being fatally wounded in turn by gunfire from the battleship . Kirishima capsized and sank in the early morning on 15 November in Ironbottom Sound.
thumb|Kirishima being launched, 1 December 1913
Design and description
thumb|Kirishima under construction at a Mitsubishi dockyard in Nagasaki, 1914
The Kongō-class battlecruisers were designed by the British naval architect Sir George Thurston as an improved version of the British , based on specifications provided by the IJN. They have been called the battlecruiser version of the British (formerly Turkish) battleship with their heavy armament and armor protection (which took up 23.3% of their approximately 30,000 ton displacement).
As built, the Kongōs had overall length of , a beam of and a mean draft of . Kirishima displaced at normal load. Their crew numbered 1,221 officers and ratings.
Kirishima was powered by two direct-drive steam turbine sets, built by Mitsubishi under license from Parsons. Each set driving two propeller shafts using steam provided by 36 mixed-firing Yarrow boilers. The turbines were designed to produce which was intended give the Kongō-class ships a speed of . The ships carried of coal and of fuel oil which was sprayed on the coal to increase its temperature. This gave them a range of at .
Armament, protection and fire control
The main battery of the Kongōs consisted of eight Vickers 36-centimeter (14 in) 41st Year Type guns in four twin-turrets, one superfiring pair each fore and aft of the superstructure. Unlike the British turrets on which these were modeled, the shell rooms were above the powder rooms. The turrets were numbered 1 to 4 from the bow. 's guns had a maximum elevation of 25 degrees, but those of her sisters were limited to 20 degrees. This gave Kirishimas guns a range of with armor-piercing shells. Their secondary battery numbered sixteen 15-centimeter (6 in) 41st Year Type guns in single casemates, located amidships in the upper side of the hull. Their elevation was limited to 15 degrees with a range of . The anti-aircraft (AA) armament were composed of four 8-centimeter (3 in) 3rd Year Type guns on single mounts amidships. The ships were also equipped with eight submerged torpedo tubes, four on each broadside.
The waterline belt armor of the Kongō-class ships consisted of Krupp-cemented (KC) steel that had a maximum thickness of and tapered down to at the bottom. It extended between the No. 1 and No. 4 barbettes. Above it were two 152-millimeter thick strakes of KC armor that protected the casemate guns and ran between the No. 1 and No. 3 barbettes. Another strake of 76 millimeter KC armor extended forward to the bow and was the same height as the main belt. A similar strake of the same thickness ran to the stern, but was only half the height. The barbettes were protected by KC plates above the upper deck and 76-millimeter plates below. The face plates of the gun turrets were also 254 millimeters thick while the turret sides were thick. The turret roof was 76 millimeters thick. The exact thickness of the forward conning tower's sides is uncertain with figures of 229 millimeters and 254 millimeters being cited. Its roof thickness of 76 millimeters is not in disupte.
The lower edge of the belt armor was attached to the protective deck above the propulsion machinery and shell rooms. This consisted of of nickel steel, both on the flat and sloped portions of the deck. Also made from nickel steel were the plates of the middle (19 millimeter-) and upper () decks. Inboard of the side of the hull was a torpedo bulkhead that consisted of two layers of steel plates, 25 millimeters and thick respectively. Further protection against torpedoes when stationary was provided by torpedo nets suspended by booms hung off hull sides. When moving these were swing back along the hull. Plates 19 and 25 millimeters thick protected the steering compartment.
Kirishima was fitted with a variety of license-built rangefinder designs from the British company Barr & Stroud. A 3.5-meter (12 ft) FT 18 model was mounted on the roof of the conning tower and 4.5-meter (15 ft) FT 24 unit was installed in the roofs of No. 2 and No. 3 turrets (the unit located on No. 2 turret was on a rotating mount while that on No. 3 turret was fixed). A 2.5-meter (9 ft) FQ 2 rangefinder was positioned on top of the bridge. These rangefinders fed data to the license-built Dumaresq, Dreyer Table and range clock fire-control instruments that processed it and transmitted the aiming data to the gun turrets.
Construction and career
Kirishima was named after Mount Kirishima in accordance with the Japanese ship-naming conventions. The class was ordered in November 1910 The ship was laid down on 17 March 1912 at Mitsubishi's shipyard in Nagasaki. Due to a shortage of available slipways, Kirishima and her sister were the first two capital ships of the IJN to be built in private shipyards. Kirishima was launched on 1 December 1913 and commissioned on 19 April 1915. Her last patrol operation of World War I was off the Chinese and Korean coast in April 1918. In July 1918, Kirishima acted as the transport of Prince Arthur of Connaught for his extended cruise to Canada, before returning to Japan. Kirishima was placed in reserve on 1 December 1919 and began a refit that improved her magazine flooding arrangements to prevent a explosion there like the one that sank the battleship in 1917. In addition a new 5th Year Type rangefinder was mounted on the compass bridge. Still refitting, torpedo control positions were added to the forward superstructure in late 1920. On 1 December, she was reassigned to the Third Division of the Second Fleet. A Caquot kite balloon was installed around 4 May 1921. A fire in No. 1 boiler room occurred on 13 July that damaged the electrical wiring in the compartment. Together with her sister Kongō and the battleship , Kirishima patrolled off the Chinese coast in August. The Second Fleet was deactivated on 1 December and the ship was transferred to the Second Division of the First Fleet.
With the conclusion of World War I and the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922, the size of the Imperial Japanese Navy was significantly lessened, with a ratio of 5:5:3 required between the capital ships of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. The treaty also banned Japan from building any new capital ships until 1931, with no capital ship permitted to exceed . Provided that new additions did not exceed , existing capital ships were permitted to be upgraded with improved torpedo bulges and thicker deck armor.
On 10 September, she collided with the destroyer practicing night torpedo attacks, with both ships sustaining minor damage. After repairs, Kirishima was transferred to the 4th Battle Division of the reactivated Second Fleet. On 18 February 1923, Kirishima and her sisters and Kongō, departed for maneuvers in the Marshall Islands. While entering Ulithi Atoll's lagoon on 3 March, the battlecruiser grazed a coral reef, ripping a lengthy through her double bottom that flooded a boiler room and gave her a five-degree list to starboard. Emergency repairs took until 8 March and she arrived at Sasebo a week later for repairs that lasted until mid-April. Following the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1923, the ship assisted in rescue work until the end of October. She was placed in reserve on 1 December 1923 in preparation for a lengthy refit that commenced at the beginning of 1924. This included rebuilding the structures on the foremast to include a pair of Type 14 high-angle rangefinders and additional fire-control equipment. Other changes included upgrading the torpedoes to the new 6th Year Type and increasing the elevation of the main guns to 33 degrees which increased their range to . The equipment for her kite balloon was removed in December.
1927–1934: Battleship
Stripped of the ability to construct new capital ships, the IJN instead opted to significantly upgrade and reconfigure their existing battleships and battlecruisers to improve their protection against plunging fire and underwater threats. Kirishima began her first reconstruction in early 1927. The 36 coal-fired boilers were removed and replaced with six large mixed-firing and four smaller oil-burning Kampon Ro-Go boilers. Lengerer says that the Kongō-class ships received sixteen, divided between 10 mixed-firing units and six oil burners, contradicting the information in his book with co-author Lars Ahlberg that the ships, except for Haruna, received eight oil burners. Naval historian Ian Sturton seems to split the difference, giving all but Hiei ten boilers with the latter ship receiving sixteen.|group=N This change allowed the forward funnel to be eliminated and the remaining boiler uptakes to be consolidated into a new and larger funnel amidships and a new, smaller, funnel for the aft boilers. This had the virtue of moving the new funnel further away from the forward superstructure and reducing its tendency to smoke it out. Coal capacity was reduced to and the ship's oil capacity was increased to by converting several former coal bunkers and other compartments into oil tanks. These changes increased Kirishimas range to , but decreased her speed to .
The frontal armor of the Kongō-class ships' turrets was increased from 254 millimeters to and their roof armor was doubled by the addition of 76 millimeters of New Vickers Non-Cemented (NVNC) armor. 76 millimeters of KC armor was added to all of the barbettes and the plates protecting the ammunition hoists in the forward turrets was increased to . Turrets No. 2 and 3 had their rangefinders replaced by Barr & Stroud duplex rangefinders while Turret No. 2 was fitted with an auxiliary gunnery director. Four of the submerged torpedo tubes were removed to save weight.
Kirishimas forward superstructure was reconstructed in the pagoda-mast style to accommodate the new and relocated fire-control equipment needed for the longer-range engagements that the IJN planned on. The Type 13 director was placed at the top of the superstructure and had a 8-meter Type 13 duplex rangefinder added to its roof in a rotating mount. The existing Type 14 rangefinders for the secondary guns were repositioned on the pagoda and new rangefinders for the secondary guns were added low on the forward side of the superstructure. A 3.5-meter Barr & Stroud F.T. 18 auxiliary rangefinder was added to the aft compass bridge. The 3.5-meter high-angle rangfinders were replaced by a pair of 4.5-meter Barr & Stroud U.C. 4 models located on lattice towers, one on each broadside between the forward superstructure and the forward funnel. A pair of hydrophones were added in the ship's bow.
The existing 19 millimeters of nickel-steel armor over the propulsion machinery and magazines was strengthened: 76 millimeters of high-tensile steel (HTS) was added over the boiler compartments and of HTS over the turbine rooms. The forward magazines received 102 milleters (4 in) of NVNC armor on the flat part of the armor and 76 millimeters of HTS over the sloping portion while the aft magazines got of NVNC armor. The 44 millimeters of the rear portion of the armor deck had 76 millimeters of additional armor added. The vulnerability of the large openings in the armor deck for the boiler uptakes and the ventilation ducts to plunging fire caused the IJN to reinforce their coamings with of armor for the boiler uptakes, for the boiler-room ventilation shafts and for the engine-room ducts. Kirishima was also fitted with anti-torpedo bulges capable of resisting the explosion of a warhead and a new torpedo bulkhead with a maximum thickness of . The ineffective torpedo nets were also removed. The reconstruction of the Kongō-class battlecruisers added an additional 4,000 tons of armor to the ships, directly violating the terms of the Washington Treaty. On 16 April 1930, the reconstruction was declared complete.
thumb|Kirishima anchored off Beppu following her first reconstruction, October 1932
Six days after Kirishimas reconstruction was completed, Japan pledged to scrap several battleships and signed the London Naval Treaty, which placed further bans on capital ship construction until 1937. From August to October 1930, she was outfitted with a derrick on the aft superstructure and the equipment necessary to handle reconnaissance seaplanes. She was initially equipped with a single Yokosuka E1Y3 Type 14 aircraft. The ship hosted Emperor Hirohito during the fleet maneuvers in October, the subsequent fleet review off Kobe, and the combined exercises of the Imperial Japanese Army and IJN in Okayama Prefecture in November. Kirishima was assigned to Battleship Division 1 of the First Fleet on 1 December and made her first training cruise since the modernization in March-April 1931 off the coast of Shandong Province, China. All of the Kongō-class battlecruisers were reclassified as battleships on 30 May. The ship patrolled the coast of China near Shanghai from 27 March to 5 April 1932, after the First Shanghai Incident. She began a refit on 25 November that saw the installation of six Type 94 Model 2 gunnery directors for the secondary armament. Four of these incorporated the existing rangefinders for those guns and the remaining pair were added to the rear control tower just forward of No. 3 turret. The 8 cm AA guns were removed and eight 40-caliber 12.7 cm Type 89 dual-purpose guns were fitted amidships in four twin-gun mounts. When firing at surface targets, the guns had a range of ; they had a maximum ceiling of at their maximum elevation of +90 degrees. Their maximum rate of fire was 14 rounds a minute, but their sustained rate of fire was around eight rounds per minute. Two twin-gun mounts for license-built Vickers two-pounder (convert|40|mm|in light AA guns were also added to the ship. The aircraft-handling deck between the rear turrets was modified to accommodate a catapult and a total of three seaplanes, although only two Nakajima E4N2 Type 90-2-2s were initially assigned to Kirishima.
On 25 February 1933, based on a report by the Lytton Commission, the League of Nations agreed that Japan had violated Chinese sovereignty in its September 1931 invasion of Manchuria. Refusing to accept the organization's judgment, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations the same day. Immediately following, Japan also withdrew from the Washington and London Naval Treaties, thus removing all restrictions on the number and size of her capital ships.
1934–1941: Fast battleship
thumb|Kirishima and anchored off Qingdao, 26 March 1938
thumb|right|Kirishima, the aircraft carrier , and Destroyer Division 8 anchored in Sukumo Bay, April 1939
From 27 September to 5 October 1934, Kirishima, Kongō, and the battleship made a short patrol off the Chinese coast. Three days later, she began had a brief refit at Sasebo to improve her magazine flooding arrangements. On 15 November, the battleship reduced to reserve and was drydocked in Sasebo three days later in preparation for her second reconstruction, which would convert her into a fast battleship with a speed of . This was intended to enable her to destroy the heavy cruisers that the IJN would be screening the United States Navy's battleline during a night action before the decisive battle to allow the IJN's cruisers and destroyers to attack the battleline proper with torpedoes while the Kongō-class ships disengaged so they could participate in the follow-on daylight decisive battle.
Kirishimas stern was lengthened by to reduce drag and to help offset some of the additional weight. Her boilers were replaced with eight new oil-fired Kampon boilers with superheaters identical to those used in the cruisers and . The new geared turbines were the same ones used by the s and the new boilers provided so much steam that the turbines were rated at , more than double the power of the old machinery. The two rudders were replaced by larger ones and the steering machinery was upgraded to handle the higher speed.
Kirishimas pagoda mast was rebuilt to accommodate for new fire-control equipment. At the very top was a gyrostablilized Type 94 duplex rangefinder. One level below it was a Type 94 gunnery director and below that were two of the secondary directors. The other pair of forward directors for the secondary guns and their rangefinders remained in place at the upper-bridge level. The aft control tower was entirely rebuilt and the auxiliary directors for the secondary guns were located atop it. The auxiliary main-gun director in No. 2 turret was removed.
The ship's aircraft handling equipment was upgraded as the derrick was replaced with a collapsible crane to handle a Kawanishi E7K "Alf" and two Nakajima E8N "Dave" reconnaissance floatplanes. The reconstruction was declared complete on 8 June 1936, although installation of the Type 96 guns was not completed for another week. Unwilling to add additional weight that would slow the ships down, the IJN rejected adding additional side armor, but inclining the existing armor was evaluated. The required structural work would still have added some weight and lengthened the time required for the modernization. Capable of speeds of up to , Kirishima was reclassified as a fast battleship.
In August 1936, Kirishima departed Sasebo alongside to patrol the Chinese coast off Amoy. From March 1937 to April 1939, she was frequently deployed as a support vessel and troop transport during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In November 1938, Kirishima was designated the flagship of the Third Battleship Division, and was under the command of Rear Admiral Chuichi Nagumo.
1941–1942: Pacific War
On 11 November 1941, after a series of transfers between Japanese naval bases, Kirishima was outfitted in preparation for coming hostilities and assigned—alongside her sister ships—to the Third Battleship Division. On 17 November, Kirishima along with Hiei departed Sasebo for Hitokappu Bay, in the Kurile Islands, where rendezvoused with the six Japanese aircraft carriers of the First Air Fleet Striking Force, also known as the Kido Butai, for a secret mission known only to the command staff of each ship. It was only after the fleet departed Hitokappu Bay on 26 November that her crew learned of the mission's intent, a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that would begin the Pacific War. Kirishima would escort the aircraft carriers to their destination until 7 December when the attack began, before Kirshima escorted the carriers back to Japan where she arrived at Kure on 24 December. Three days later Kirishima was drydocked for maintenance and was undocked another three days later and departed Kure for Hashirajima.
On 8 January 1942, Kirishima departed Japan for Truk Naval Base in the Caroline Islands alongside the Carrier Strike Force. She provided escort during the invasion of New Britain on 17 January before returning to Truk. She sortied again in response to American carrier raids in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands at the start of February, before spending the next three weeks transiting between naval ports with her sister ships. On 21 February, Kirishima arrived at Staring Bay along with Kongō and Hiei to join the Kido Butai and their escorts for operations off Java in the Dutch East Indies, departing 4 days later.
On 5 March, Kirishima and Hiei were still patrolling off Java when they stumbled upon the Dutch patrol ship , which had already been damaged by an air raid the previous day. Kirishima and Hiei opened fire and sank the patrol ship with ease. After another week of escorting the carrier fleet, during which the Dutch East Indies surrendered to Japan, Kirishima returned to Staring Bay on the 11th.
In April 1942, Kirishima and the Third Battleship Division joined five fleet carriers and two cruisers in an attack against British naval bases in the Indian Ocean. On 5 April—Easter Sunday—the Japanese fleet attacked the harbor at Colombo in Ceylon, sinking the destroyer and the armed merchant cruiser , while seaplanes from Tone spotted the heavy cruisers and , both of which were later sunk by aerial attack. A floatplane from Kirishima also strafed a withdrawing oil tanker. Upon returning to Japan, Kirishima was drydocked and her secondary armament configuration modified with the addition of 25 mm antiaircraft guns in twin mounts.
At 8:25, Kirishima continued to escort the carriers, sailing alongside the light cruiser , when the four ships were spotted by the periscope of the submarine , with Kirishima appearing to spot the periscope and opening fire with her secondary battery. Nautilus fired two torpedoes from her bow tubes at Kirishima at a range of , before diving away. One of the torpedoes malfunctioned, while Kirishima evaded the other by turning away to the south. Nautilus was then depth charged by Nagara and the destroyers, before the destroyer was left to pin the submarine down while the other ships continued with the carriers. After failing to sink Nautilus, Arashi resumed course to rejoin the fleet, and was spotted by two squadrons of aircraft from allowing them to find the Japanese carriers. Between 10:22 to 10:30, dive bombers from Enterprise fatally wounded Akagi and Kaga, while dive bombers from mangled Sōryū.
Later that day, dive bombers from Enterprise succeeded in bombing Hiryū beyond saving, and result in the last Japanese aircraft carrier being scuttled like her fallen companions. When attempts to save Hiryū were being undertaken, Kirishima was ordered to sail to her location and tow the crippled aircraft carrier. When arriving to Hiryūs position, the burning carrier illuminated Kirishima and put her at threat of submarine attacks, which contributed to the decision to finally abandon Hiryū. Kirishima instead only took on many of Hiryūs over 900 survivors from Destroyer Division 10's , and . Kirishima returned to Hashirajima on 14 June.
Just before 2:00, Kirishima and Hiei trained their guns on the Allied flagship, the heavy cruiser and entered a gunnery duel at 2,500 yards. Kirishima was only hit by one 8-inch shell as the cruiser focused most of her fire on Hiei, but they crippled San Francisco with at least twelve 14-inch shell hits, alongside nearly forty 5-inch and 6-inch shell hits from their secondary batteries and escorting destroyers. The damage destroyed or disabled all of her guns besides 5-inch mount number 8, wrecked her steering and engine control, destroyed all communication equipment, set San Francisco ablaze, and deformed the ship so badly she was not even recognizable as an enemy cruiser to the crew of the destroyer until her searchlights were ignited. A 14-inch (356 mm) hit to the navigation bridge in particular succeeded in killing Admiral Callaghan, Captain Cassin Young, and most of the ship's command staff, with 86 sailors killed in total. San Francisco limped away from the battle while still being pestered by gunfire from the destroyer Amatsukaze as Kirishima ceased fire. Had Kirishima and Hiei been loaded with proper anti-shipping rounds for their main guns instead of type 3 shells, they probably would have sunk San Francisco. Instead, the mangled heavy cruiser remained out of commission until February 1943.
Helena soon came to San Franciscos defense, which resulted in Kirishima turning her guns on her. Kirishima hit the light cruiser with five 14-inch (356 mm) shells that caused negligible damage and killed one sailor. Just after 2:00, Kirishima was credited with a pair of 14-inch shell hits to the destroyer , (although anecdotally Hiei was widely believed to have caused this damage) one shell struck the bridge, with the other hitting the superstructure amidships causing some minor damage. A torpedo from destroyer provided the knockout blow as Laffey would sink at around 2:15. Kirishima then more verifiably attacked the destroyer and landed three 14-inch shells, two 6-inch shells, and four 5-inch shells to Aaron Ward above the waterline that destroyed her gunnery director, disabled steering control, and caused her to lose speed until going dead in the water at 2:35, killing 15 men and wounding 57.
During the gunfight with San Francisco Hiei was hit by seventeen 8-inch shells, two of which disabled her steering gear, severely crippling the ship. Kirishima and the escorting destroyers attempted to assist Hiei - with Kirishima taking her sister ship under tow - but by daybreak the fleet was attacked by aircraft from Henderson Field and the carrier Enterprise, with Hiei absorbing another eight bombs and six torpedoes prompting the destroyers Yukikaze and of Abe's force and the nearby destroyers , , and to evacuate Hieis crew before leaving her to sink.thumb|Kirishima following the heavy cruisers and in-between the first and second [[Naval Battle of Guadalcanal|naval battles of Guadalcanal, 14 November 1942]]After the battle, Kirishima rendezvoused with the distant cover fleet north of Guadalcanal, and later that night detached to continue the mission under the command of Admiral Kondō, escorted by the heavy cruisers and , the light cruisers Nagara and , and nine destroyers. By 7:39 the submarine stumbled upon the force and was initially unable to gain an attack formation as the fleet sailed on. However, later that afternoon at 15:18 Trout located the fleet again and managed to unleash five torpedoes, her target was Kirishima. One torpedo hit Kirishima but turned out to be a dud, inflicting no damage. Another torpedo passed under a destroyer before nearly hitting Atago, but just barely missing. At 20:48, Kirishima was notified a floatplane spotted an American formation consisting of two cruisers and four destroyers heading north at 25 knots, and Admiral Kondō anticipated a surface action under the assumption his force would demolish the enemy ships, as his escorts alone were significantly superior to the formation described in the report, yet alone the addition of a Kongō-class battleship. However, the report was correct about the four destroyers - , , , and - but the two "cruisers" were actually the battleships and , both of which were among the newest of the US battleships and far more capable than Kirishima.
At 0:44, South Dakota suffered a power outage which briefly disabled the ship; it took a full two minutes for her radar to be restored, and only by relying on their secondary battery fire control did South Dakota begin to track Nagara and Sendai at 7,000 yards. The battleship fired three salvos from her 16-inch guns, with no hits scored. Nagara in turn recognized South Dakota as an enemy battleship and reported to Admiral Kondō aboard Kirishima before turning to engage the Americans. At 00:52 South Dakota presented a perfect broadside as Kirishima opened fire at 11,000 yards and scored two first salvo hits; one was a 6-inch shell that hit a 28 mm AA mount on the forward deck and the other was a 14-inch shell which exploded in South Dakotas bow. Takao, Atago, Nagara, and Sendai joined Kirishima in clobbering South Dakota, and the battleship took at least 27 shell hits, including six 14-inch shells and eight 6-inch shells from Kirishima, seven 8-inch shells and two 5-inch shells from Takao and Atago, and four 5.5-inch shells from Nagara and Sendai. The damage destroyed or disabled South Dakotas radar, directors, fire control instruments, and electrical circuits, blasted holes in the superstructure and ignited at least 28 fires, and caused minor flooding damage, killing over 40 men and wounding 180 others. Captain Gatch only survived due to the armored conning tower.
thumb|[[USS Washington (BB-56)|USS Washington sinking Kirishima with her 16-inch guns at a distance of 8,400 yards (7,700 meters)]]
However, Washington remained undetected and began to track Kirishima, Takao, and Atago with her main battery. Washington began to close the range when Atago noticed another enemy battleship off starboard. At 1:00, Captain Ijuin ordered "stand by for a gun and torpedo action to starboard," but it was too late. At that moment, at a distance of , Washington fired a full broadside of nine 16-inch guns and immediately straddled Kirishima, which proceeded to continue firing on South Dakota. Washingtons second salvo then scored a 16-inch shell hit to Kirishimas compass bridge, and her third salvo scored several 16-inch hits to Kirishimas amidships, which detonated her secondary-battery magazines and shredded her torpedo-defense system. Kirishima incorrectly identified Washington as an "Idaho-class battleship" which was washed up to her deck and sinking by the bow, only for the supposedly sinking Washington to hit Kirishima with another two 16-inch shells below the waterline. Kirishimas World War I design was not designed to handle World War II era deep penetration shells, and these two hits in particular cracked and mangled Kirishimas interior above and below the waterline. Meanwhile Washington hit Kirishima with several 5-inch shells from her secondary guns to her forward funnel and surrounding superstructure.
Sixteen-inch shells then destroyed Kirishimas 14-inch gun turret 1, forcing the crew to flood its magazines, and holed her bow above and below the waterline before penetrating her stern above the waterline, while 5-inch shells detonated in her aft funnel and director. Two more 16-inch shells then hit the battleship's stern below the waterline, one destroying her steering gear and the other detonating inside her 14-inch gun turret 4 hydraulic pump room and disabling turrets 3 and 4. Another salvo of 16-inch shells from Washington set fire to the 14-inch turret 2 magazines and forced them to be flooded as well, and at least six 5-inch shells hit the pagoda mast and set it ablaze. Washington's final salvo landed a pair of waterline hits, one penetrating her belt and exploding inside one of Kirishima's three hydraulic pump rooms, while the last 16-inch shell hit and destroyed Kirishimas twin rudders. In total, Kirishima was hit by at least twenty 16-inch shells and seventeen 5-inch shells from Washington.|group=N
Listing at 18 degrees to starboard, Kirishimas engines remained relatively untouched by gunfire as the crippled battleship attempted to sail away from the battlefield. Takao and Atago fended off Washington with gunfire and torpedoes while Kirishima escaped. Attempts were made to steer the ship using the propellers, but this failed as extreme heat overtook her machinery and killed most of her engineers, rendering the engine room extremely hazardous as Kirishima waddled to safety. Nagara was ordered to tow Kirishima, but this order was refused. In the meantime, fires previously thought to have been put under control strengthened and spread to the aft magazines and forced them to be flooded. Natural flooding reversed the worsening list to port then back to starboard, until seawater reached and disabled Kirishimas starboard boilers. Captain Ijuin concluded the ship was fatally damaged by that point and ordered the port boilers shut down to allow the crew to evacuate. The destroyers Teruzuki, , and Samidare came alongside Kirishima to rescue survivors. Ijuin's choice to abandon Kirishima proved to be the correct path as mere minutes later at 3:25, she finally lost buoyancy and suddenly capsized to starboard. Kirishima's superstructure almost crushed Teruzuki as she went down and took 212 men with her, while the remaining 300 men aboard Kirishima - including Captain Ijuin - were thrown overboard by the sudden sinking before Samidare rescued them. The three destroyers rescued 1,100 sailors. The remains of the ship lie upside down, with the bow section missing from the bridge forward due to a magazine explosion as the wreck was falling to the sea bed. The ship's forward anchor chain is wrapped around her stern section.