thumb|Kongō on the ways at Barrow, showing two of the propellers and the port rudder, [[Scientific American, 1913]]
was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battlecruiser of the , among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I.
Kongō underwent two major reconstructions. Beginning in 1929, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1935, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, her speed was increased, and she was equipped with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Kongō was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kongō operated off the coast of mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. In 1942, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore.
Kongō fought in many major naval actions of the Pacific War during World War II. 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. Throughout 1943, Kongō primarily remained at Truk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands, Kure Naval Base (near Hiroshima), Sasebo Naval Base (near Nagasaki), and Lingga Roads, and deployed several times in response to American aircraft carrier air raids on Japanese island bases scattered across the Pacific. Kongō participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (19-20 June) and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 (22–23 October), sinking the destroyer escort and helping to cripple the destroyer in the latter engagement. Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine while transiting the Formosa Strait on 21 November 1944. She was the only Japanese battleship sunk by a submarine in the Second World War. and were ordered in 1910 in the Japanese Emergency Naval Expansion Bill after the commissioning of in 1908. These four battlecruisers of the Kongō class were designed to match the naval capabilities of the battlecruisers of the other major naval powers at the time, and they have been called the battlecruiser versions of the British (formerly Turkish) battleship . 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.
Armament
thumb|300px|left|Kongō on full power trials 8 May 1913
Originally, Kongōs main battery was designed to consist of ten 12-inch (305 mm) main guns. However, her builders, Vickers, convinced the Japanese to go with a larger weapon after Kongō was laid down. Because of this, Kongōs main armament as built consisted of eight Vickers 14 inch (356 mm)/45 naval gun heavy-caliber main naval guns in four twin turrets (two forward and two aft), making her the most powerfully armed capital ship when she was commissioned. In keeping with the Japanese doctrine of deploying more powerful vessels before their opponents, Kongō and her sister ships were the first vessels in the world equipped with guns. Her main guns carried ammunition for 90 shots, and they had an approximate barrel lifetime of 250 to 280 shots. In 1941, separate dyes were introduced for the armor-piercing shells of the four Kongō-class battleships to assist with targeting, with Kongōs armor-piercing shells using red dye. The 6-inch/50-calibre gun was capable of firing both antiaircraft and antiship shells, though the positioning of these guns on Kongō made antiaircraft firing mostly impractical. During her second reconstruction, the older three-inch guns were removed and then replaced with eight 5-inch (127 mm) 40-calibre dual purpose guns. These guns could fire from eight to 14 rounds per minute, with a barrel lifetime of between 800 and 1,500 rounds. Of Kongōs guns, the 5-inch guns had the widest variety of shell types: antiaircraft, antiship, and illumination shells.
Armor
Being a battlecruiser, Kongōs armor was fairly thin. She was equipped with a 6- to 8-inch (152–203 mm) main belt. Kongō deck armor consisted of armor plating ranging from 1-inch (25 mm), 1.5-inches (38 mm), to 2.75-inches (7 cm), depending on the area. She was equipped with nine-inch (229 mm) barbette armor protecting the ammunition to her main guns, as well as turret armor consisting of 10-inch (254 mm) turret faces, and 9-inch (229 mm) plating over the sides and rear.
Service history
1913–1929: Battlecruiser
thumb|Japanese battlecruiser Kongo as first built
On 16 August 1913, Kongō was completed and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Twelve days later, she departed from Portsmouth headed for Japan. She was docked at Singapore from 20 to 27 October, before arriving at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 5 November, where she was placed in First Reserve. With the defeat of the German East Asia Squadron by the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914, there was little or no need for IJN operations in the Pacific Ocean. Kongō spent the rest of World War I either based at Sasebo or on patrol off the coast of China. This treaty also banned the signatories from building any new capital ships until 1931, with no capital ship permitted to exceed in displacement. 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 April 1923, Kongō gave transportation to Crown Prince Hirohito during his official visit to the Japanese possession of Taiwan. On 14 June 1924, she collided with Submarine No. 62 during maneuvers. In November 1924, Kongō docked at Yokosuka, where modifications were made to her main armament, increasing the elevation of her main guns and improving her fire-control systems. 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. In May 1928, her steering equipment was upgraded, before she was placed in reserve in preparation for major modifications and reconstruction in 1929–31. After minor fitting-out work, Kongōs reconstruction begun in September 1929 and was declared complete on 31 March 1931. 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. Additional rangefinders and searchlights were fitted to her superstructure in January 1932, and Captain Nobutake Kondō assumed command of the vessel in December. In 1933, aircraft catapults were fitted between the two rear turrets. In November 1934, Kongō was placed in Second Reserve in preparation for further modifications. On 10 January 1935, Kongō was toured by the Nazi German naval attaché to Japan, Captain Paul Wenneker, as part of a gunnery demonstration.
thumb|A view taken from the aircraft carrier , 30 March 1942. Kongō is closest to the camera, following , , and .
Kongōs armor was also extensively upgraded. Her main belt was strengthened to a uniform thickness of eight inches (up from varying thicknesses of six to eight inches), and also diagonal bulkheads of depths ranging from were added to reinforce the main armored belt. The turret armor was strengthened to , while were added to portions of the deck armor. On 4 December 1941, the Main Body arrived off the coast of southern Thailand and northern Malaya in preparation for the invasion of Thailand and the Malayan Peninsula four days later. When Britain's "Force Z"—consisting of the battleship and the battlecruiser —was quickly defeated by Japan's land-based aircraft from southern Vietnam, Kongōs 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. The Main Body departed Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina on 23 December bound for Taiwan, arriving two days later. Following the destruction of the British heavy cruisers and on 5 April 1942, this naval task force moved southwest to locate the remainder of the British Eastern Fleet, then under the command of Admiral James Somerville. On 7 April, the Japanese oil tankers were a ways off from the main formation, resulting in Kongō refueling multiple destroyers, photographing and being refueled. On 9 April, one of Harunas reconnaissance seaplanes spotted the aircraft carrier south of Trincomalee. On the same day, Japanese air attacks sank the carrier, On 14 July she was assigned as the flagship of the restructured Third Battleship Division. In August, Kongō was drydocked at Kure to receive surface-detection radar and additional range finders.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Cape Esperance, the Japanese Army opted to reinforce its troops on Guadalcanal. To protect their transport convoy from enemy air attack, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto sent Haruna and Kongō, escorted by one light cruiser and nine destroyers, to bombard the American air base at Henderson Field. 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. On the night of 13–14 October, these two battleships shelled the area of Henderson Field from a distance of about , firing 973 14-inch high-explosive shells. In the most successful Japanese battleship action of the war, A large Japanese troop and supply convoy reached Guadalcanal on the next day. From 15 February through 20 February 1943, the Third Battleship Division was transferred from Truk to the Kure Naval Base. On 27 February, Kongō was drydocked to receive upgrades to her antiaircraft armament, with the additions of two triple 25 mm gun mounts and the removal of two of her 6-inch turrets, while additional concrete protection was added near her steering gear. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Kongō escorted Japanese fast carriers, and remained undamaged in counterattacks from US carrier aircraft on 20 June. When she returned to Japan, 13 triple and 40 single 25-mm mounts were added to her anti-aircraft armament, for a total of over 100 mounts. In August, two more 6-inch guns were removed and another eighteen single mounts installed. The next day, a massive air wave from American aircraft attacked, and Kongō took light damage from bomb near misses, but nothing that could have handicapped her combat ability. This was due to the vast majority of the air attacks being focused on Musashi, which sank after nine hours to at least 17 bombs and 19 torpedo hits. Admiral Kurita ordered a false retreat – successfully fooling the Americans – then two hours later raced his ships back in the direction of the Leyte Gulf landings. At 7:13, she took a bomb near miss to her stern, then five minutes later spotted the destroyer and fired three salvos. One of her 14-inch (356 mm) shells landed mere inches from Johnston, spraying red dye on the bridge. However, this was followed at 7:22 by aircraft strafing which disabled her main battery rangefinder.
At 7:25, Kongō entered a rain squall which completely blinded her guns, taking her out of the action. She then noticed a spread of five torpedoes a distance ahead of her, fired from the destroyer . She did not need to evade these torpedoes as is commonly stated in American narratives and simply watched them pass ahead.
Finally, at 9:20, Kongō located the destroyer escort , which was out of torpedoes and almost entirely out of ammo after heavy fighting, and was an easy target for the Japanese battleship. Mistaking her for a destroyer, she switched to high explosive rounds and fired off several salvos from her secondary battery, and scored a pair of 6-inch (152 mm) shell hits, one hitting below the waterline and destroying Samuel B Robertss forward fire room, cutting her speed to 17 knots, and the other exploding in her aft superstructure. Permission to fire the main guns was given, and a single broadside scored three or four 14-inch (356 mm) shell hits which destroyed the rest of her engines and all power. The abandon ship order was issued shortly afterwards, and Samuel B Roberts sank by the stern just after 10:00.
Miscredited hits
Many Western narratives on the battle off Samar have unfortunately vastly overexaggerated Kongōs battle performance during the engagement, with some crediting her with either sinking or helping to sink every ship Taffy 3 lost. During the 7:30 timeframe, Kongō has been credited with three 14-inch (356 mm) shell hits to the destroyer Johnston at , cutting her speed to 17 knots and destroying three of her five 5-inch (127 mm) guns, enabling the crippled destroyer to be finished off by the light cruiser leading the destroyers , , , and . However, Kongō was blinded by rain squalls, had her main battery rangefinder disabled by aircraft, and was much farther than American reports. Evidence points to the battleship crippling and helping to sink Johnston. Similarly, Kongō has been identified with badly damaging the destroyer Hoel early into the battle, enabling her to be further crippled then finished off by other vessels. For the same reasons for why she could not help to sink Johnston, Kongō was also not in a position to help to sink Hoel given she could not even see the destroyer at . All evidence points towards the heavy cruiser Haguro scored the initial devastating damage which wounded Hoel for the rest of her time afloat.
Sinking
On 16 November, following a US air raid on Brunei, Kongō, along with Yamato, Nagato and the rest of the First Fleet, departed from Brunei bound for Kure in preparation for a major reorganization of the fleet and battle repairs. On 20 November, they entered the Formosa Strait. Shortly after midnight on 21 November, the submarine made radar contact with the fleet at . Maneuvering into position at 02:45, Sealion fired six bow torpedoes at Kongō followed by three stern torpedoes at Nagato fifteen minutes later. One minute after the first salvo was launched, two of the torpedoes were seen to hit Kongō on the port side, while a third sank the destroyer with all hands. 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.