Victory at Sea - Kongo

Kongō (金剛, “Indestructible Diamond”), named for the mountain, was the first battleship of her class, serving in both the first and second world wars. At the time of construction in the early 1910s she was a capital ship (the last Japanese Capital ship to be built outside of Japan) and was among the most heavily armed ships in any Navy. She received two major reconstructions throughout her life, the first being in 1929, she was rebuilt as a battleship, then later in 1935, along with her sister vessels, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, resulting in an increased rate of knots that would allow her to keep pace with the developing carrier groups – thus reclassifying her a s a fast-battleship.

Kongō’s World War II service history includes covering the Japanese amphibious landings in British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies in 1942, shortly before engaging American forces and Midway and during the Guadalcanal campaign. 1943 saw her almost entirely stationed in the Caroline Islands, only being deployed in response to aircraft carrier raids against Japanese Islands scattered across the Pacific. She was part of the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf in 1944, successfully sinking enemy vessels in the latter. Her ultimate fate was at the hands of a US Submarine (USS Sealion) whilst crossing the Formosa Strait on 21 November 1944. She has the unfortunate distinction of being the sole Japanese battleship sunk by submarine in WW2.