Kongos a Cruising
It happened 110 years ago this week.
War games, south of the Bungo Straits between the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, 25 October 1915. The Japanese “Blue” Navy’s 3rd Squadron, exercising its brand new quartet of Kongo-class battlecruisers, showing their teeth against the “Red” Navy’s 2nd Squadron. The photo was taken from the deck of the Haruna, with the Hiei, Kirishima, and Kongo in the foreground.
When built, the Kongos weighed 27,000 tons and were scary to just about every other fleet in the world. Powered by 36 good English Yarrow boilers driving two steam turbines, they could make 27.5 knots, carried as much as 10 inches of armor, and were equipped with an eight-pack of Vickers 14″/45s (or “41st Year Guns” in Japan).
Class leader Kongo herself was built at Vickers in England (Barrow-in-Furness) and delivered in August 1913, while Hiei, Kirishima, and Haruna were constructed at Yokosuka Navy Yard, and the private yards of Mitsubishi and Kawasaki, respectively.
Japanese Battlecruiser Haruna fitting out at Kawasaki’s Kobe shipyard, Japan, in October 1914, with one of her 14-inch Vickers being installed.
The four sisters were united in squadron service by August 1915, just weeks before the above image was snapped.
All would be lost in the inferno of the Pacific War.
Japanese Battleship Haruna sunk in shallow water near Kure, September 1945 LIFE George Silk