was one of four s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1910s. Completed in 1915, the ship played minor roles in World War I and the Second Sino-Japanese War, but she was very active during the Pacific War. Kirishima patrolled on occasion off the Chinese coast during World War I, and helped with rescue efforts following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.
Starting in 1927, Kirishimas first reconstruction rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed. From 1934, a second reconstruction completely rebuilt her superstructure, upgraded her propulsion machinery, and equipped her with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, she was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kirishima acted primarily as a support vessel and troop transport, moving army troops to mainland China. On the eve of the Pacific War, she sailed as part of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Kido Butai as an escort for the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
As part of the Third Battleship Division, Kirishima participated in many of the Imperial Japanese Navy's early actions in 1942, providing support for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and in the Indian Ocean raid from February to April 1942, during which she helped to sink the destroyer USS Edsall and the Dutch patrol ship Hoofdinspecteur Zeeman. During the Battle of Midway, she escorted 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 . On the night of 14/15 November, in one of only two battleship duels of the Pacific War, Kirishima badly damaged the American battleship before being fatally wounded in turn by gunfire from the battleship . Kirishima capsized and sank in the early morning on 15 November in Ironbottom Sound.
Design and description
The Kongō-class battlecruisers were designed by the British naval architect Sir George Thurston as an improved version of the British , based on specifications provided by the IJN.Lengerer & Ahlberg, pp. 465–466Evans & Peattie, p. 160 They have been called the battlecruiser version of the British (formerly Turkish) battleship with their heavy armament and armor protection (which took up 23.3% of their approximately 30,000 ton displacement).Friedman 1985, p. 234
As built, the Kongōs had overall length of , a beam of and a mean draft of . Kirishima displaced at normal load.Lengerer & Ahlberg, pp. 473, 475 Their crew numbered 1,221 officers and ratings.Whitley, p. 179
Kirishima was powered by two direct-drive steam turbine sets, built by Mitsubishi under license from Parsons. Each set driving two propeller shafts using steam provided by 36 mixed-firing Yarrow boilers. The turbines were designed to produce Lengerer & Ahlberg, pp. 479–480, 483 which was intended give the Kongō-class ships a speed of . Kirishima slightly exceeded that speed during her sea trials on 19 January 1915, reaching from .Low & Kingsepp, p. 9 The ships carried of coal and of fuel oil which was sprayed on the coal to increase its temperature. This gave them a range of at .Whitley, pp. 179–180
Armament, protection and fire control The main battery of the Kongōs consisted of eight Vickers 36-centimeter (14 in) 41st Year Type guns in four twin-turrets, one superfiring pair each fore and aft of the superstructure. Unlike the British turrets on which these were modeled, the shell rooms were above the powder rooms. The turrets were numbered 1 to 4 from the bow. 's guns had a maximum elevation of 25 degrees, but those of her sisters were limited to 20 degrees. This gave Kirishimas guns a range of with armor-piercing shells. Their secondary battery numbered sixteen 15-centimeter (6 in) 41st Year Type guns in single casemates, located amidships in the upper side of the hull. Their elevation was limited to 15 degrees with a range of . The anti-aircraft (AA) armament were composed of four 8-centimeter (3 in) 3rd Year Type guns on single mounts amidships. The ships were also equipped with eight submerged torpedo tubes, four on each broadside.Lengerer & Ahlberg, pp. 473, 488–489, 570Lengerer 2025, p. 16
The waterline belt armor of the Kongō-class ships consisted of Krupp-cemented (KC) steel that had a maximum thickness of and tapered down to at the bottom. It extended between the No. 1 and No. 4 barbettes. Above it were two 152-millimeter thick strakes of KC armor that protected the casemate guns and ran between the No. 1 and No. 3 barbettes. Another strake of 76 millimeter KC armor extended forward to the bow and was the same height as the main belt. A similar strake of the same thickness ran to the stern, but was only half the height. The barbettes were protected by KC plates above the upper deck and 76-millimeter plates below. The face plates of the gun turrets were also 254 millimeters thick while the turret sides were thick. The turret roof was 76 millimeters thick. The exact thickness of the forward conning tower's sides is uncertain with figures of 229 millimeters and 254 millimeters being cited. Its roof thickness of 76 millimeters is not in disupte.Lengerer 2012, pp. 146–149Low & Kingsepp, p. 12
The lower edge of the belt armor was attached to the protective deck above the propulsion machinery and shell rooms. This consisted of of nickel steel, both on the flat and sloped portions of the deck. Also made from nickel steel were the plates of the middle (19 millimeter-) and upper () decks. Inboard of the side of the hull was a torpedo bulkhead that consisted of two layers of steel plates, 25 millimeters and thick respectively. Further protection against torpedoes when stationary was provided by torpedo nets suspended by booms hung off hull sides. When moving these were swing back along the hull. Plates 19 and 25 millimeters thick protected the steering compartment.Lengerer 2012, pp. 148–149
Kirishima was fitted with a variety of license-built rangefinder designs from the British company Barr & Stroud. A 3.5-meter (12 ft) FT 18 model was mounted on the roof of the conning tower and 4.5-meter (15 ft) FT 24 unit was installed in the roofs of No. 2 and No. 3 turrets (the unit located on No. 2 turret was on a rotating mount while that on No. 3 turret was fixed). A 2.5-meter (9 ft) FQ 2 rangefinder was positioned on top of the bridge. These rangefinders fed data to the license-built Dumaresq, Dreyer Table and range clock fire-control instruments that processed it and transmitted the aiming data to the gun turrets.Lengerer & Ahlberg, pp. 570–574
Construction and career Kirishima was named after Mount KirishimaSilverstone, p. 333 in accordance with the Japanese ship-naming conventions. The class was ordered in November 1910 with the name ship of the class to built in Britain and the others in Japan with significant British aid.Lengerer & Ahlberg, pp. 464–465, 468–470 The ship was laid down on 17 March 1912 at Mitsubishi's shipyard in Nagasaki.Hackett, Kingsepp & Ahlberg Due to a shortage of available slipways, Kirishima and her sister were the first two capital ships of the IJN to be built in private shipyards. Kirishima was launched on 1 December 1913 and commissioned on 19 April 1915.
1914–1927: Battlecruiser
The sisters were then assigned to the 1st Battleship Division of the First Fleet. After seven months of trials, she was reassigned to the 3rd Battleship Division of the Second Fleet, with Captain Shima Takeshi in overall command of the ship. In April 1916, Kirishima and Haruna departed Sasebo Naval Base to patrol the East China Sea for ten days. She remained in Sasebo until April 1917, when she again briefly deployed to the Chinese coast with her sisters and . Kirishima was drydocked in Sasebo Naval Arsenal on 1 June to have her hull repainted. The IJN took advantage of this to have a Type 13 fire-control director installed in the foremast spotting top for her main guns.Low & Kingsepp, p. 14 Her last patrol operation of World War I was off the Chinese and Korean coast in April 1918. In July 1918, Kirishima acted as the transport of Prince Arthur of Connaught for his extended cruise to Canada, before returning to Japan. Later that year an auxiliary director that could control all the main guns was installed in Turret No. 2.
Following the end of World War I, the Japanese Empire gained control of former German possessions in the central Pacific per the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.Willmott & Keegan, p. 22 Kirishima was placed in reserve on 1 December 1919 and began a refit that improved her magazine flooding arrangements to prevent an explosion there like the one that sank the battleship in 1917. In addition a new 5th Year Type rangefinder was mounted on the compass bridge. Still refitting, torpedo control positions were added to the forward superstructure in late 1920. On 1 December, she was reassigned to the Third Division of the Second Fleet. A Caquot kite balloon was installed around 4 May 1921. A fire in No. 1 boiler room occurred on 13 July that damaged the electrical wiring in the compartment. Together with her sister Kongō and the battleship , Kirishima patrolled off the Chinese coast in August. The Second Fleet was deactivated on 1 December and the ship was transferred to the Second Division of the First Fleet.Low & Kingsepp, p. 15
With the conclusion of World War I and the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922, the size of the Imperial Japanese Navy was significantly lessened, with a ratio of 5:5:3 required between the capital ships of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. The treaty also banned Japan from building any new capital ships until 1931, with no capital ship permitted to exceed . Provided that new additions did not exceed , existing capital ships were permitted to be upgraded with improved torpedo bulges and thicker deck armor.Lengerer 2025, p. 8
On 10 September, she collided with the destroyer practicing night torpedo attacks, with both ships sustaining minor damage. After repairs, Kirishima was transferred to the 4th Battle Division of the reactivated Second Fleet. On 18 February 1923, Kirishima and her sisters and Kongō, departed for maneuvers in the Marshall Islands. While entering Ulithi Atoll's lagoon on 3 March, the battlecruiser grazed a coral reef, ripping a lengthy through her double bottom that flooded a boiler room and gave her a five-degree list to starboard. Emergency repairs took until 8 March and she arrived at Sasebo a week later for repairs that lasted until mid-April. Following the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1923, the ship assisted in rescue work until the end of October. She was placed in reserve on 1 December 1923 in preparation for a lengthy refit that commenced at the beginning of 1924. This included rebuilding the structures on the foremast to include a pair of Type 14 high-angle rangefinders and additional fire-control equipment. Other changes included upgrading the torpedoes to the new 6th Year Type and increasing the elevation of the main guns to 33 degrees which increased their range to . The equipment for her kite balloon was removed in December.Low & Kingsepp, pp. 17–20