Japanese battleship Kongō

Kongō in her 1944 configuration
History
Empire of Japan
Name:	Kongō
Namesake:	Mount Kongō
Ordered:	1911
Builder:	Vickers Shipbuilding Company, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	17 January 1911
Launched:	18 May 1912
Commissioned:	16 August 1913
Struck:	20 January 1945
Fate:	Sunk by USS Sealion in the Formosa Strait, 21 November 1944
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:	1913: 8 × 356 mm (14 in) naval gun (4×2) 16 × 6-inch (15 cm) 50 caliber naval guns (16×1) 8 × 76 mm (3 in) naval guns (8×1) 4 × 6.5 mm (0.26 in) machine gun 8 × submerged 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes 1944: 8 × 356 mm (14 in) naval gun (4×2) 8 × 152 mm (6.0 in) naval gun (8×1) 8 × 127 mm (5 in) guns (4×2) 122 × 25 mm Type 96 Antiaircraft autocannon
Armor:	Decks: 2.3–1.5 in (58–38 mm) (later strengthened +101 mm on ammo storage, +76 mm on engine room) Turrets: 9 in (230 mm) Barbettes: 10 in (250 mm) Belt: 8–11 in (200–280 mm)

Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible", named for Mount Kongō) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battlecruiser of the Kongō class, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I.

Kongō underwent two major reconstructions. Beginning in 1929, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1935, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, her speed was increased, and she was equipped with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Kongō was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kongō operated off the coast of mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. In 1942, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore.

Kongō fought in a large number of major naval actions of the Pacific War during World War II. She covered the Japanese Army's amphibious landings in British Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942, before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign. Throughout 1943, Kongō primarily remained at Truk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands, Kure Naval Base (near Hiroshima), Sasebo Naval Base (near Nagasaki), and Lingga Roads, and deployed several times in response to American aircraft carrier air raids on Japanese island bases scattered across the Pacific. Kongō participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 (22–23 October), engaging and sinking American vessels in the latter. Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion while transiting the Formosa Strait on 21 November 1944. She was the only Japanese battleship sunk by submarine in the Second World War, and the last battleship sunk by submarine in history.