Figure 1: Photograph of the Imperial Japanese
Navy (IJN) Kongo printed on a post
card. It was taken between 1925 and 1928. The Japanese language caption in
upper left center gives information on the ship's construction, displacement,
dimensions and armament. Text in upper right identifies Kongo and Haruna
as having this appearance. However, only Kongo had the searchlight
platform between the first and second smokestacks, as seen here. US Naval
Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2:
Photograph of Kongo taken between about
1925 and 1928. Part of the Japanese language caption in upper left is cut off,
but the remainder reads: "Battlecruiser ... Vickers Co., U.K. ...
completed August 1913 ..." and gives information on the ship's
displacement, dimensions and armament. US Naval Historical Center
Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3:
Kongo in port, prior to
her 1929-31 reconstruction. The original photograph, which came from Office of
Naval Intelligence files, is dated 1929. US Naval Historical Center
Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: View of Kongo’s
starboard midsection, showing her masts, smokestacks, gunfire controls and
other details. Note searchlight tower between the first and second smokestacks,
and the large smoke deflector on the forward stack. The original photograph,
which came from Office of Naval Intelligence files, is dated 1929. US Naval
Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: View of Kongo's starboard midsection. The
original photograph, which came from Office of Naval Intelligence files, is
dated 1929. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for
larger image.
Figure 6:
Photograph taken of Kongo
after her 1929-31 reconstruction. Japanese language text at bottom left is a
warning against reproduction of the photograph. That at right reads (from right
to left): "Large battleship Kongo, Haruna, Kirishima".
All three ships had a similar appearance during this period. The original print
was received from the Board of Economic Warfare, circa 1942. US Naval
Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7:
Halftone reproduction
of a photograph taken of Kongo in
1933, after her 1929-31 reconstruction. The original print came from Office of
Naval Intelligence files. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on
photograph for larger image.
Figure 8:
Halftone reproduction
of a photograph taken of Kongo in
1934. The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. US Naval
Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9:
Halftone reproduction
of a photograph taken after Kongo's
1936-37 modernization. The original print came from Office of Naval
Intelligence files. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph
for larger image.
Figure 10:
Kongo off Amoy, China, in
October 1938. Photographed from USS Pillsbury (DD-227). The original
print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. US Naval Historical
Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11:
Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 1944. Japanese Carrier Division Three under attack
by planes from the US Navy’s Task Force 38, 20 June 1944. The battleship in the
lower center is either Haruna or Kongo. The carrier Chiyoda
is at right. Photographed from a USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) plane. Official
US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on
photograph for larger image.
The Imperial
Japanese Navy’s (IJN) Kongo (which
means “indestructible”) was a 36,600-ton battle cruiser that was built by the
Vickers Shipbuilding Company at Barrow-in-Furness, England, and was
commissioned on 16 August 1913. Kongo
was the last Japanese capital ship built outside of Japan. The ship was
approximately 728 feet long and 101 feet wide, had a top speed of 30 knots, and
had a crew of 1,360 officers and men. Kongo
also proved to be one of the fastest ships in the Japanese battle fleet. As
built prior to World War I, Kongo was
armed with eight 14-inch guns, 16 6-inch guns, eight 3-inch guns, four 6.5-mm
machine guns, and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes. However, this armament changed
dramatically prior to and during World War II, with her final armament
consisting of eight 14-inch guns, eight 6-inch guns, eight 5-inch guns, and an
amazing 122 25-mm anti-aircraft cannons.
During World
War I, Kongo was used primarily to
patrol off the coast of China. From 1929 to 1931, Kongo was modernized at the Yokosuka Dockyard and from then on was
rated as a battleship. She was overhauled and modernized yet again from 1936
to1937, receiving new machinery and a lengthened hull to increase her speed to
more than 30 knots. This combination of high speed and heavy armament made Kongo an extremely valuable warship and
she was used extensively during World War II.
When war
began between Japan and the western powers on 7 December 1941, Kongo was supporting the Japanese
amphibious landings on the Malayan peninsula. As Japan’s southern offensive
continued, Kongo assisted in the
Japanese invasion of Java. She then used her 14-inch guns to bombard Christmas
Island and was part of the raid against British shipping in the Indian Ocean
and the Bay of Bengal. During the Battle of Midway in early June 1942, Kongo was part of Vice Admiral Nobutake
Kondo’s covering group.
During the
tumultuous and bloody battle for the island of Guadalcanal (which began in
August 1942), Kongo bombarded Henderson
Field on 14 October 1942, participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
later that month, and escorted the Japanese aircraft carrier force during the
naval battle of Guadalcanal in mid-November. Although the battleship did not
see combat during 1943 and the first part of 1944, she accompanied the Japanese
carrier division during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in mid-June 1944.
After the
American invasion of Leyte Island in the Philippines in October 1944, Kongo was part of the Japanese
counterattack against the US Navy. This resulted in the enormous Battle of
Leyte Gulf, a confrontation that essentially destroyed Japan’s Navy as a major
fighting force. As part of the Japan’s Center Force battle group, Kongo survived a submarine attack on 23
October 1944, a carrier air attack in the Sibuyan Sea the next day, the Battle
off Samar Island against US escort carriers and destroyers on 25 October, and a
US Army Air Corps high-level bombing attack as she withdrew from the area on 26
October. But Kongo’s luck ran out
almost a month later. On 21 November 1944, soon after moving through the
Formosa Strait on her way back to Japan, Kongo
was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Sealion
(SS-315). The resulting fires apparently were uncontrollable, since Kongo blew up and sank a few hours after
she was hit. Kongo had the dubious
honor of being the only battleship sunk by a submarine attack during the
Pacific War.
