Japanese Battlecruiser Kirishima

Laid down on the 17th of March 1912 and launched on the 1st of December 1913, Kirishima was the third of the four-ship Kongō-class battlecruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her three sisters were Kongō, Hiei and Haruna. Commissioned into the fleet on the 19th of April 1915, she saw no action during the First World War, although she undertook patrols off the Chinese coast.

In 1927 Kirishima underwent a reconstruction to transform her into a battleship. Additional armour was added and her speed increased. In 1934 a more extensive reconstruction was undertaken, with her superstructure completely rebuilt, aircraft facilities added and her machinery upgraded. She was redesignated a fast battleship and primarily used to escort Japan’s fast aircraft carriers.

During the Second World War, she provided support for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and in the Indian Ocean raid of April 1942. During the Battle of Midway, she provided escort to Nagumo’s four carriers, before redeploying to the Solomon Islands during the Battle of Guadalcanal. She escorted Japanese carrier fleets during the battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz Islands, before sailing as part of a bombardment force under Admiral Nobutake Kondō during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

On the evening of 13 November 1942, Kirishima engaged American cruisers and destroyers alongside her sister ship Hiei. On the night of 14/15 November, in one of only two battleship duels of the Pacific War, Kirishima attacked and damaged the American battleship USS South Dakota before being fatally crippled in turn by the battleship USS Washington. Kirishima capsized and sank in the early morning on 15 November 1942 in Ironbottom Sound taking 212 of her crew with her.