Tuesday, March 5, 2013

IJN Kongo

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.