Kirishima
| Country | Japan |
| Ship Class | Kongo-class Battleship |
| Builder | Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard |
| Laid Down | 17 Mar 1912 |
| Launched | 1 Dec 1913 |
| Commissioned | 19 Apr 1915 |
| Sunk | 15 Nov 1942 |
| Displacement | 32,156 tons standard; 36,601 tons full |
| Length | 728 feet |
| Beam | 101 feet |
| Draft | 32 feet |
| Machinery | Steam turbines, four shafts |
| Speed | 30 knots |
| Range | 10,000nm at 14 knots |
| Crew | 1,360 |
| Armament | 8x14in, 16x6in, 8x5in DP, 118x25mm anti-aircraft |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseThe four Kongo-class ships were the first modern warships in the Japanese Navy. They were designed by Britain's Sir George Thurston, and strongly influenced the design of the forthcoming Tiger-class battlecruisers. They were originally rated as battlecruisers, but 1933-1934 reconstruction and rearmament at Kure reclassified them as battleships.
ww2dbaseAs WW2 broke out, Kirishima first served as naval support off the Chinese coast beginning in 1938, then escorted the Japanese aircraft carriers during the raid on Pearl harbor. She was active during the Japanese southward offensive in early 1942. In Mar and Apr, she was part of the powerful force that raided the British in the Indian Ocean. During the Solomons Campaign later in 1942, Kirishima was present during the carrier battles of the Eastern Solomons in August and the Santa Cruz Islands in October. She received minor damage in the night surface action off Guadalcanal on 13 Nov. Two nights later, serving as flagship of another Japanese surface force, she was engaged by the American battleships Washington and South Dakota. She exchanged gunfire with the latter, but because American destroyers' spotlights blinded Kirishima's lookouts, she could not locate Washington which was located 8,000 yards away. Because her guns were trained accurately on South Dakota already, Kirishima did not attempt to shift her guns at Washington's direction. At the end of the engagement, she was hit by nine 16-in shells and forty 5-in shells, all from Washington, and became disabled. With her superstructure aflame and rudders stuck, Kirishima was scuttled by opening her Kingston valves a few miles west of Savo Island about two and half hours after the start of the engagement. About 250 men were lost during the battle.
ww2dbaseKirishima's wreck was discovered and examined in August 1992, resting upside down with its forward end blown off some 4000 feet below the surface.
ww2dbaseSources: Interrogations of Japanese Officials, Naval Historical Center, Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Mar 2007
Battleship Kirishima Interactive Map
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Kirishima Operational Timeline
| 19 Apr 1915 | Kirishima was commissioned into service. |
| 21 Oct 1938 | Kirishima launched a E8N1 Type 95 floatplane and photographed HMS Birmingham off Xiamen, China. |
| 26 Nov 1941 | Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo led the Japanese Carrier Division 1 (Akagi and Kaga), Carrier Division 2 (Hiryu and Soryu), Carrier Division 5 (Shokaku and Zuikaku), first section of Battleship Division 3 (Hiei and Kirishima), Cruiser Division 8 (Tone and Chikuma), Destroyer Squadron 1, Destroyer Squadron 17, and Destroyer Squadron 18 out of Hitokappu Bay in the Kurile Islands for the Hawaii Operation, the attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. |
| 1 Feb 1942 | Akagi, Kaga, Zuikaku, Hiei, Kirishima, and Chikuma departed Truk, Caroline Islands in an attempt to catch the enemy carrier force that had attacked the Marshall Islands. They were escorted by destroyers Shiranuhi, Kasumi, and Urakaze. |
| 26 Mar 1942 | Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Japanese First Air Fleet, built around a nucleus of five aircraft carriers (Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku), and supported by battleships (Kongo, Hiei, Haruna, and Kirishima), cruisers (Tone, Chikuma, Abukuma), and destroyers, sailed from Staring Bay, Celebes, Dutch East Indies to the west of Timor into the Indian Ocean with the intention of attacking the Royal Navy's bases at Colombo and Trincomalee in Ceylon. |
| 3 Apr 1942 | The Japanese fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo entered the Indian Ocean. |
| 5 Apr 1942 | In the morning, Japanese carriers launched 36 D3A2 dive bombers and 53 B5N2 torpedo bombers, escorted by 36 Zero fighters, against the British naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, sinking merchant cruiser HMS Hector, damaging port facilities, while shooting down 25 British aircraft; 7 Japanese aircraft were lost in this attack. Around noon, cruiser Tone's floatplane spotted British cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire 200 miles southwest of Ceylon; 53 carrier aircraft were launched to attack, sinking Dorsetshire at 1350 hours (234 killed) and Cornwall at 1400 hours (190 killed); 1,122 survived from both ships. |
| 9 Apr 1942 | Japanese carrier aircraft attacked the harbor at Trincomalee, Ceylon at 0700 hours. Two hours later, empty British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire were detected 90 miles further south. At 1035 hours, Japanese carrier aircraft attacked and sank HMS Hermes (307 killed) and HMAS Vampire (9 killed); hospital ship Vita rescued survivors from both warships. At 1207 hours, 20 Japanese carrier dive bombers sank British oiler Athelstane (all aboard survived) and British corvette HMS Hollyhock (48 were killed, 17 survived) in the Indian Ocean. |
| 24 Aug 1942 | A Japanese force centered around carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku sailed down into the Solomon Islands with light carrier Ryujo and cruiser tone operating independently south of the main fleet. At 0415, 19 torpedo bombers and 7 seaplanes were launched to search for American ships. At 1250, the search plane from cruiser Chikuma reported sighting USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise; the search plane was quickly shot down, but the Japanese nevertheless gained an idea of the American position. Shokaku launched 18 dive bombers and Zuikaku launched 9 dive bombers starting at 1300 hours. At 1315, two bombers from Enterprise surprised Shokaku, but the torpedo they launched would fail to hit the Japanese carrier. At 1400 hours, a second strike was launched by Shokaku (9 dive bombers and 3 fighters) and Zuikaku (18 dive bombers and 6 fighters). At around the same time, Battle of the Eastern Solomons crew its first casualty when Ryujo was discovered and fatally damaged by several 1,000-pound bombs. At 1440, the first attack wave from the Japanese carriers attacked Enterprise, scoring three bomb hits (70 were killed, 70 were injured), but the Japanese would lose 18 dive bombers and 6 fighters in the engagement. The second wave failed to locate the American carriers and returned before dark. Japanese warships attempted to engage the US fleet after dark, but the force failed to locate the American fleet, and discontinued the search at 2330 hours. |
| 15 Nov 1942 | US battleship Washington sank Japanese battleship Kirishima by gunfire off Savo Island in the Solomon Islands. |
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Visitor Submitted Comments
4 Jan 2019 09:48:33 AM
Washington hit Kirishima with 20-21 16inch shells; more of them were underwater hits that flooded her hull- she was not scuttled. See Combined Fleet website for documentation.
All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.
» Mikawa, Gunichi
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Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, at Guadalcanal
26 Jun 2014 05:27:43 PM
Info is incorrect on American BBs that engaged the Kirishima. The BBs in question were the USS Washington (a North Carolina class ship) and the USS South Dakota that engaged and sank her.