Japanese battleship Hiei

Hiei in her 1942 configuration
History
Empire of Japan
Name:	Hiei
Namesake:	Mount Hiei
Ordered:	1911
Builder:	Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Laid down:	4 November 1911
Launched:	21 November 1912
Commissioned:	4 August 1914
Fate:	Sunk following the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 14, 1942
General characteristics
Class and type:	Kongō-class battlecruiser
Displacement:	36,600 long tons (37,187 t)
Length:	222 m (728 ft 4 in)
Beam:	31 m (101 ft 8 in)
Draught:	9.7 m (31 ft 10 in)
Propulsion:	Steam turbines, 4 shafts
Speed:	30 knots (35 mph; 56 km/h)
Range:	10,000 nmi (19,000 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h)
Complement:	1360
Armament:	As Built: 8 356 mm (14 in)/45 cal guns (4x2) 16 152 mm (6 in)/50 cal guns (16x1) 8 12-pounder (76 mm (3 in)) guns 4 6.5 mm (0.26 in) machine guns 8 submerged 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4x2) After 1935 Refit: 8 356 mm (14 in)/45 cal guns (4x2) 16 152 mm (6 in) guns (8x2) 8 127 mm (5 in) DP guns (8x1) 20 1-inch (2.5 cm) Type 96 antiaircraft autocannons (10x2)
Armor:	Belt: 203 mm (8 in) (amidships); 76 mm (3 in) (ends) Deck: 69.85 mm (2.75 in) Bulkheads: 127 to 228.6 mm (5 to 9 in) (fore); 152 to 203 mm (6 to 8 in) (aft) Turrets: 228.6 mm (9 in) Conning Tower: 254 mm (10 in)

Hiei (比叡^?) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. Designed by British naval architect George Thurston, she was the second launched of four Kongō-class battlecruisers, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Laid down in 1911 at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Hiei was formally commissioned in 1914. She patrolled off the Chinese coast on several occasions during World War I, and helped with rescue efforts following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.

Starting in 1929, Hiei was converted to a gunnery training ship to avoid being scrapped under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. She served as Emperor Hirohito's transport in the mid-1930s. Starting in 1937, she underwent a full-scale reconstruction that completely rebuilt her superstructure, upgraded her powerplant, and equipped her with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing fleet of aircraft carriers, she was reclassified as a fast battleship. On the eve of the US entry into World War II, she sailed as part of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Combined Fleet, escorting the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.