Japanese battleship Kongo
Encyclopedia : J : JA : JAP : Japanese battleship Kongo
| |
| Career |
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 1911 |
| Laid down: | January 17, 1911 |
| Launched: | May 18, 1912 |
| Commissioned: | August 16, 1913 |
| Fate: | Sunk on 21 November 1944 in the Formosa Strait |
| Removed from the Navy list: | 20 January 1945 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 36,600 tons |
| Length: | 222 m (728 feet 4 inches) |
| Beam: | 31 m (101 feet 8 inches) |
| Draught: | 9.7 m (31 feet 9 inches) |
| Propulsion: | steam turbines, 4 shafts |
| Speed: | 30 knots |
| Range: | 10,000 nm at 14 kts |
| Complement: | 1360 |
| Armament: | Eight 14 inch guns, sixteen 6 inch guns, eight 5 inch DP, up to 118 × 25 mm AA |
Design and build
In 1908, the commissioning of the HMS Invincible armed with eight 12-inch guns, into the Royal Navy rendered all of the Imperial Japanese Navy's warships obsolete, including those under design. In response, the Japanese Diet passed the 1911 Naval Emergency Expansion bill, funding the design and construction of one battleship and four armored cruisers. The battleship was to be the Fuso and the first of the cruisers was the Kongo.
Kongo was the last major Japanese warship to be built abroad, being built by Vickers-Armstrong in England. Kongo was the creation of Vickers's chief designer, Sir George Thurston. Freed from the Royal Navy's tight design specifications, he came up with what was immediately recognised to be a fine and superbly-balanced warship, mounting eight 14-inch main guns. The key feature of the Kongo-class was that it had its main gun turrets all either aft or fore, eliminating the amidship turret which had a poor firing arc. Thurston's design was so influential that the Royal Navy stopped work on their HMS Tiger, the second of the Lion class battlecruisers, and had her built on a design very similar to that of Kongo.
Kongo was laid down on January 17, 1911, launched on May 18, 1912 and completed and sent to Japan on August 16, 1913. Named after Mount Kongo in Osaka Prefecture, Kongo was the first battleship in the world to carry 14-inch main armament (Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century).
Between the wars, Kongo was heavily rebuilt twice by the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1929, the Navy was unable to build more battleships as a result of the 5:5:3 limitation of the Washington Naval Treaty. Kongo and her sisters were therefore given heavier horizontal armour and torpedo bulges, as well as equipped to carry three Model 90 type 0 floatplanes. All 36 Yarrow-type boilers were removed and replaced with ten new boilers. On 31 March 1931 the reconstruction was completed and Kongo was rerated a battleship.
Japan withdrew from the Washington Naval Treaty in 1933, and in 1935 began rebuilding the Kongo class again. Their sterns were lengthened by 25 feet. Kongo was upgraded with oil-fired Kampon boilers and Parsons-geared turbines. A catapult and rails for three Nakajima E8N1 Type 95 ("Dave") and Kawanishi E7K1 Type 94 ("Alf") floatplanes was installed. The 1935 rebuild saw their maximum speed increased to 30 knots, and they were reclassified as "fast battleships." The reconstruction was finished on 8 January 1937.
Since Kongo and her sisters were originally battlecruisers, built for speed, they were initially the only battleships that could keep up with the fast fleet carriers. This made them the perfect heavy escorts for the aircraft carriers that were beginning to serve as the key offensive elements of the Japanese Navy.
Service during the Second World War
Kongo entered the Second World War under the command of Captain Koyanagi Tomiji. On 1 August 1941 she was assigned to the Third Battleship Division (BatDiv 3) of the First Fleet at Hashirajima in Hiroshima Bay, along with Hiei, Kirishima, and Haruna. On 29 November 1941 the second section of BatDiv 3 (BatDiv3/2), composed of Kongo and Haruna, was attached to Admiral Kondo Nobutake's Second Fleet, Southern (Malay) Force's Main Body, along with cruiser division (CruDiv) 4's Atago, Maya and Takao, as well as eight destroyers, and departed for Makung, Pescadores. On 2 December, the Main Body arrived at Makung and was notified that hostilities would commence on 8 December.
On 4 December 1941, the Main Body set sail for the South China Sea to provide distant support to the invasion forces. On the afternoon of 9 December, the Main Body was sailing southeast of Indochina near the Poulo Condore Islands when the submarine I-65 sighted a British force steaming northwest. This was Force Z under Admiral Sir Tom S. V. Phillips, sortied out of Singapore to intercept the Japanese landings on Malaya. The Main Body sortied for a night engagement with Force Z but was unable to make contact, despite the two forces coming within five miles of each other. Later that day, the Main Body and other ships that had joined the search departed after receiving word that the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse had been overwhelmed and sunk by 88 torpedo-bombers out of Saigon and Thu Dau Mot in French Indochina.
The Main Body spent the next two months covering a number of invasions: supporting the second Malaya convoy while northeast of Natuna Besar Island; covering the landings at Lingayen Gulf, Philippines; and providing distance cover from around Palau for air strikes on Ambon Island in the Dutch East Indies. On 21 February 1942, the Main Body arrived at Staring Bay near Kendari, Celebes and met up with the Carrier Striking Force under Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi, fresh from their 19 February strike on Darwin. Four days later, BatDiv 3/2, Atago, Takao and two destroyers were detached from the Main Body under Vice Admiral Kondo at the start of Operation J, the invasion of the Dutch East Indies. Tasked with hunting shipping attempting to escape Java, BatDiv 3/2 bombarded Christmas Island, 190 miles south of Java, on 7 March 1942. By its return to Staring Bay on 9 March, following surrender of the Dutch East Indies, Kondo's force had sunk eight British, American and Dutch ships. From 10 to 25 March, the crews of Kongo and her three sister ships are put on standby alert and allowed their first rest and relaxation after three months of continuous operations.
On 26 March 1942, BatDiv 3 sortied out of Staring Bay through the Timor Sea into the Indian Ocean with the Carrier Striking Force: Carrier Division (CarDiv) 1's Akagi, CarDiv 2's Hiryu and Soryu, CarDiv 5's Shokaku and the Zuikaku. During the following Indian Ocean raid, the Japanese attacked the British forces at Colombo, Ceylon on 5 April and at Trincomalee four days later. During the fighting around Trincomalee, Kongo was attacked by nine Bristol Blenheim bombers of the Royal Air Force’s No. 11 Squadron. The Bristols scored no hits and lost five to the Zeros of the Japanese' Combat Air Patrol. At the end of the Indian Ocean operations, Kongo returned to Japan and was drydocked at Sasebo Navy Yard for an anti-aircraft gun refitting from 23 April to 2 May.
Midway
On 27 May 1942, Kongo and Hiei departed Hashirajima, having been reassigned into Bat Div 3, section 1 of the Second Fleet's Strike Force, Support Force, Main Body, also composed of five cruisers and seven destroyers for the strike at Midway Atoll. On 6 June, two days after the stunning loss of the carriers Kaga, Akagi, Soryu, and Hiryu in the Battle of Midway, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto order BatDiv 3 and other vessels to detach from the Second Fleet and go north to meet up with the Second Mobile Force's carriers Junyo and Ryujo, then attacking the Aleutian Island. Later reinforced by Zuikaku, this force patrolled 700 miles south of Kiska in anticipation of an American counter-attack that did not materialize.By mid-July, Kongo had been reassigned to the Second Fleet, Advanced Force, Vanguard Group, BatDiv 3, along with Haruna. On 11 September 1942, BatDiv 3 sortied out of Chuuk towards the Solomon Islands as the Second Fleet accompanied the carriers of the Third Fleet towards the Battle of Guadalcanal that had begun with the American landing on 7 August. Three days later, Kongo came under attack from eight heavy bombers but was undamaged. The fleets were ordered back to Truk on 20 September, but BatDiv 3, the light cruiser Isuzu and nine destroyers were assigned to the Emergency Bombardment Force. Kongo and Haruna bombarded Henderson Field on Lunga Point, Guadacanal beginning at 0127 on 13 October 1942. BatDiv 3 passed Lunga Point on an easterly course, firing their main armament to the starboard before a 180-degree turn and firing to the port while returning. Six-inch shore batteries responded, but did not have the range to hit the battleships. Kongo fired 104 1,378-lb high-explosive Type 3 "Sanshikidan" 14-inch shells, 331 1,485-lb. Type 1 armor-piercing 14-inch shells, and 27 6-inch shells. This was the first time she fired the Type 3s. More than 40 American aircraft were lost on the ground in the bombardment and the airfield rendered temporarily unusable. An attack by four PT boats of the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three was driven off by the destroyer screen. The bombardment ended at 0230.
The 25 October 1942, the Advanced Force was 525 miles northwest of Espiritu Santo when it was spotted by a B-17 of the land-based 11th Bombardment Group, Heavy. During the following day's Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Kongo came under attack by four Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers from the USS Enterprise but was undamaged. She returned to Chuuk and, on November 1, Captain Koyanagi was promoted to Rear Admiral.
Eight days later BatDiv 3 departed Chuuk for the Ontong Java Plateau north of the Solomons as part of the screen for the Main Body. The attempt to locate and sink Enterprise with air attacks failed. During the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal that began on 12 November, BatDiv 3 provided distant cover for the bombardment force that was to shell Henderson Field before withdrawing on the 15th. On 16 December 1942, Captain Ijuin Matsuji took command of Kongo and Rear Admiral Koyanagi was reassigned as Commander of the destroyer squadron (ComDesRon) at Rabaul. On 30 January 1943, a task force of ships from the Second and Third Fleets steamed north of the Solomons as a feint while destroyers from Rabaul evacuated the 12,000 troops off of Guadacanal before returning to Sasebo.
From 27 February to 13 March 1943, Kongo was drydocked while concrete protection was added around the steering mechanism, new watertight bulkheads and emergency fuel pumps were installed, and several 6-inch secondary guns were replaced with antiaircraft guns. These measures were taken after the loss of Hiei and Kirishima in the Guadalcanal naval battle. Back in Chuuk on 12 May 1943, BatDiv 3 and others were reassigned to the Attu Task Force in response to the American invasion of Attu Island. A powerful force including three carriers had formed up in Tokyo Bay when word came on 22 May that Attu had fallen, and the task force was disbanded. Captain Shimazaki Toshio took command on 17 July, while Ijuin, promoted to Rear Admiral, was reassigned ComDesRon 3, Second Fleet. In late October 1943, a fleet including BatDiv 3 sortied out of Chuuk to intercept a predicted second raid on Wake Island by the six carriers under Rear Admiral Alfred Montgomery but no contact was made.
From 30 January to 14 February 1944, BatDiv 3 was drydocked at Sasebo again as her AA guns were reconfigured. In early March, BatDiv 3 disembarked troops on the Lingga Islands, south of Singapore, before beginning several months of training. On 11 May, BatDiv 3 steamed with the Mobile Fleet from Lingga to Tawi-Tawi in the far south of the Philippines. On 13 June, the signal was given to start Operation A-Go, which became known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Mobile Fleet left Tawi-Tawi, being spotted by the USS Redfin outside the anchorage. The fleet arrived in Guimaras the next day and left Guimaras on the 15th through the Visayan Sea, spotted again by Flying Fish and two days later by Cavalla in the Philippine Sea. On 20 June, BatDiv 3 and the carrier Chiyoda came under attack by Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bombers and Avenger torpedo-bombers from the carriers Bunker Hill, Monterey and Cabot. Kongo was again untouched though Haruna and Chiyoda were damaged in the disastrous battle. The fleet retired to Nakagusuku Bay, Okinawa
She also participated in the Battle off Samar on 25 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in which she was severely damaged in the attempt to repel the Allied invasion of Leyte.
Kongo was subsequently ordered home to Japan for a refit. However, while part of a fleet in the Formosa Strait, she was struck by three torpedoes from the U.S. submarine Sealion on 21 November, 1944 at 3 AM. Two of her boiler rooms were ruptured and she began to list to port. At 5:24 AM, she was subject to a large explosion and sank.
She was the only battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy to be sunk by a submarine, and the last battleship ever sunk by a submarine. Unusually, a crewmember of the Sealion had placed a portable film optical recording machine by the intercom of the conning tower when ordered to battle stations. The result is thought to be the only surviving sound recording of a submarine attack upon warships during the Second World War.
Other
- The battleship was preceded by the 1877 Japanese corvette Kongo.
- A current Japanese class of destroyers shares the name Kongo.
- A fictional Constitution-class starship in the Star Trek multiverse, NCC-1710, was named after Kongo.
External links
- [Tabular record of movement] from combinedfleet.com
- [The Loss of Battleship KONGO: As told in Chapter "November Woes" of "Total Eclipse: The Last Battles of the IJN - Leyte to Kure 1944 to 1945"], 1998.
- [Sound recording of attack on Kongo and accompanying warships by Sealion], HNSA-Historic Naval Sound and Video
| Kongo-class battleship |
| Kongo | Hiei | Kirishima | Haruna |
| List of ships of the Japanese Navy |
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