Kongo Class Battleship Summary

This is a 3D printed sculpt of the Kongo class battleship by EBard Models.

The Kongō class was a class of four battlecruisers built by the British for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The lead ship of the class, Kongō, was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. Her sister ships, Haruna, Kirishima and Hiei, were all completed in Japan.

When she was commissioned, Kongo was the most advanced battlecruiser in the world. She was the first among battlecruisers and battleships to be equipped with 356 mm main battery guns. Unlike previous Japanese dreadnoughts, Kongo received a thinner armor belt while her deck armor and torpedo protection were reinforced.

During the late 1920s, all but Hiei were reconstructed and reclassified as battleships. After the signing of the London Naval Treaty in 1930, Hiei was reconfigured as a training ship to avoid being scrapped. Following Japan's withdrawal from the treaty, all four underwent a massive second reconstruction in the late 1930s. Following the completion of these modifications, which increased top speeds to over 30 knots, they were reclassified as fast battleships.

The Kongō-class battleships were the most active capital ships of the Japanese Navy during World War II, participating in most major engagements of the war. Hiei and Kirishima acted as escorts during the attack on Pearl Harbor, while Kongō and Haruna supported the invasion of Singapore. All four participated in the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. Hiei and Kirishima were both lost during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, while Haruna and Kongō jointly bombarded the American Henderson Field airbase on Guadalcanal. The two remaining Kongō-class battleships spent most of 1943 shuttling between Japanese naval bases before participating in the major naval campaigns of 1944. Haruna and Kongō engaged American surface vessels during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in late October 1944. Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion in November 1944, while Haruna was sunk at her moorings by an air attack in Kure Naval Base in late July 1945.

Ships of Class:

• Kongo
• Hiei
• Kirishima
• Haruna

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