Japanese battleship Kirishima

Sinking of USS Edsall

On 1 March 1942, one of Kirishima's floatplanes attempted to bomb an enemy merchant vessel. However, south of Java, the Japanese fleet was surprised by the appearance of the destroyer USS Edsall which was attempting to escape the Dutch East Indies for safety in Australia. Initially mistaking Edsall for an Omaha-class light cruiser, Kirishima joined Hiei and the heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma in chasing the destroyer, but did not join Hiei and Chikuma in opening fire at 27,900 yards, which achieved several straddles but not a direct hit. However, dive bombers from Akagi, Sōryū, and Hiryū disabled Edsall and set her on fire with one hit and one near miss. Now correctly identifying Edsall as a destroyer, Kirishima finally opened fire with both her main and secondary battery at 19,400 yards shortly joined by Hiei, then Tone and Chikuma, and 13 minutes later Edsall succumbed to a hail of 14-inch, 8-inch, and 6-inch gunfire and sank with the loss of 196 men. During a 90-second film reel taken by Tone of Edsall sinking, a 14-inch shell hit from Kirishima lifted the destroyer out of the water.^{[18][56][57][N 5]}

On 5 March, Kirishima and Hiei were still patrolling off Java when they stumbled upon the Dutch patrol ship Hoofdinspecteur Zeeman, which had already been damaged by an air raid the previous day. Kirishima and Hiei opened fire and sank the patrol ship with ease. After another week of escorting the carrier fleet, during which the Dutch East Indies surrendered to Japan, Kirishima returned to Staring Bay on the 11th.^[18][58]

In April 1942, Kirishima and the Third Battleship Division joined five fleet carriers and two cruisers in an attack against British naval bases in the Indian Ocean. On 5 April—Easter Sunday—the Japanese fleet attacked the harbor at Colombo in Ceylon, sinking the destroyer HMS Tenedos and the armed merchant cruiser HMS Hector, while seaplanes from Tone spotted the heavy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire, both of which were later sunk by aerial attack. A floatplane from Kirishima also strafed a withdrawing oil tanker.^[18] On 8 April, Japanese carrier aircraft attacked the Royal Navy base at Trincomalee in Ceylon, only to find that all of Admiral James Somerville's remaining warships had withdrawn the previous night; they still sank the cargo ship SS Sagaing. Returning from the attack, a floatplane from Kirishima's sister ship Haruna spotted the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and escorting destroyer HMAS Vampire, which were quickly sunk by a massive aerial attack.^[59] Upon returning to Japan, Kirishima was drydocked and her secondary armament configuration modified with the addition of 25 mm antiaircraft guns in twin mounts.^[18]

Battle of Midway

On 27 May 1942, Kirishima departed Hashirajima to escort Admiral Nagumo's Carrier Strike Force for what became the Battle of Midway, providing escort for Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū alongside Haruna. The battle began on 4 June as the carriers attacked Midway Island, and at 7:10, Kirishima was operating abreast of Akagi when the group was attacked by US Air Force B-26 bombers. Kirishima assisted Japanese fighters with her AA complement - including firing type 3 AA shells from her 14-inch guns - and helped to shoot down two bombers, one of which attempted to crash into Akagi's bridge before missing.^[18][60][61]

At 8:25, Kirishima continued to escort the carriers, sailing alongside the light cruiser Nagara, when the four ships were spotted by the periscope of the submarine USS Nautilus, with Kirishima appearing to spot the periscope and opening fire with her secondary battery. Nautilus fired two torpedoes from her bow tubes at Kirishima at a range of 4,500 yd (4,100 m), before diving away. One of the torpedoes malfunctioned, while Kirishima evaded the other by turning away to the south.^[18][62][63] Nautilus was then depth charged by Nagara and the destroyers, before the destroyer Arashi was left to pin the submarine down while the other ships continued with the carriers.^[62][64] After failing to sink Nautilus, Arashi resumed course to rejoin the fleet, and was spotted by two squadrons of aircraft from USS Enterprise allowing them to find the Japanese carriers.^[18][62][65] Between 10:22 to 10:30, dive bombers from Enterprise fatally wounded Akagi and Kaga, while dive bombers from USS Yorktown mangled Sōryū.^[66]

Later that day, dive bombers from Enterprise succeeded in bombing Hiryū beyond saving, and result in the last Japanese aircraft carrier being scuttled like her fallen companions. When attempts to save Hiryū were being undertaken, Kirishima was ordered to sail to her location and tow the crippled aircraft carrier. When arriving to Hiryū's position, the burning carrier illuminated Kirishima and put her at threat of submarine attacks, which contributed to the decision to finally abandon Hiryū. Kirishima instead only took on many of Hiryū's over 900 survivors from Destroyer Division 10's Yūgumo, Makigumo and Kazagumo.^[18][67] Kirishima returned to Hashirajima on 14 June.^[18]

Guadalcanal Campaign

Kirishima sailed to Kure on 9 July where she received AA upgrades and new floatplanes, before escorting Shōkaku and Zuikaku to Truk, but on the 20th the route was cancelled as the fleet refueled from oilers before sailing to Guadalcanal to counterattack American carrier operations. This would culminate in the battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August in which Shōkaku and Zuikaku dueled the aircraft carriers Enterprise and USS Saratoga. They crippled Enterprise with three bomb hits but in turn Saratoga aircraft sank the detached light carrier Ryūjō while land-based aircraft sank the destroyer Mutsuki and the troop transport Kinryu Maru. The main fleet came under light attacks first by a scout plane from Enterprise then by B-17 bombers, lightly damaging Shōkaku with near misses but achieving nothing else, with Kirishima seeing little action during the engagement.^[18][60] A four-day journey saw Kirishima travel with the fleet to Truk, where Kirishima remained on guard duty outside the naval base for another two days until being allowed to retire, refueling from the fleet oiler Tatekawa Maru. From 10-23 September, Kirishima joined Kongō and Haruna to escort the fleet on patrol duty in the Solomon Islands, then underwent maintenance and guard duty.^[18]

On 11 October, Kirishima departed Truk as part of the escort for the aircraft carriers Shōkaku, Zuikaku, and Jun'yō and the light carrier Zuihō on another attempt to lure American carriers into battle and sink them. From the 12th to 15th, Kirishima and Hiei took a detour as distant cover for Kongō and Haruna's bombardment of Henderson field, and then for the bombardment conducted by the heavy cruisers Chōkai and Kinugasa, before returning to the main fleet. During their absence, planes from Zuikaku sank the destroyer USS Meredith. On the 25th, a Catalina flying boat spotted the Japanese fleet, but Kirishima's floatplane badly damaged the American aircraft and chased it off. Later that day a flight of six B-17s attacked Kirishima but failed to inflict damage. The next day saw the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet face the Japanese ships, badly damaging Shōkaku and the heavy cruiser Chikuma with bomb hits but failing to score any sinkings as Kirishima let loose with her AA defense against the American planes. Kirishima was attacked by three SBD dive bombers but not hit. In turn, Japanese aircraft left Hornet on the edge of sinking, until the destroyers Akigumo and Makigumo finished the carrier off 12 hours later. Japanese aircraft also sank the destroyer USS Porter, and badly damaged several other American ships, ending the battle in a Japanese victory as Kirishima returned to Truk on 30 October.^[18]

First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal

On 9 November 1942, Kirishima departed Truk alongside Hiei and eleven destroyers in preparation for a second bombardment mission on Henderson Field, a former Japanese air base which had been captured by the Americans and used against Japanese shipping to great effect. The previous bombardment by Kongō and Haruna is considered the most successful Japanese battleship action of the war but was not enough to capture the airfield just yet so Kirishima and Hiei were to enact the same plan yet again. They would sail with the light cruiser Nagara and 11 destroyers as escorts. They sailed smoothly for the first days of their journey, but rain squalls broke up the destroyer formation and left them operating in small clusters. However, by 1:25 on the 13th, signs of enemy ships began to appear. As it turned out, the force was spotted by US Navy reconnaissance aircraft several days in advance. The US deployed a force of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers and eight destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan to meet the Japanese force in Ironbottom Sound, and at the exact moment the Japanese spotted the American ships, the light cruiser USS Helena located the Japanese ships on radar at 27,000 yards. Over the next 25 minutes, both fleets closed to point blank range. At 1:50, Hiei and the destroyer Akatsuki ignited their searchlights and illuminated the light cruiser USS Atlanta. American ships then sank Akatsuki with a hail of gunfire while Hiei engaged Atlanta with her 14-inch and 6-inch guns before the cruiser was torpedoed by the destroyer Ikazuchi and sank hours later, opening up the first naval battle of Guadalcanal. However, Kirishima and Hiei were loaded with type 3 AA shells in their main guns, which carried limited effectiveness in damaging enemy ships; handicapping them for the duration of the battle.^[68][69][70]

Just before 2:00, Kirishima and Hiei trained their guns on the Allied flagship, the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco and entered a gunnery duel at 2,500 yards. Kirishima was only hit by one 8-inch shell as the cruiser focused most of her fire on Hiei, but they crippled San Francisco with at least twelve 14-inch shell hits, alongside nearly forty 5-inch and 6-inch shell hits from their secondary batteries and escorting destroyers. The damage destroyed or disabled all of her guns besides 5-inch mount number 8, wrecked her steering and engine control, destroyed all communication equipment, set San Francisco ablaze, and deformed the ship so badly she was not even recognizable as an enemy cruiser to the crew of the destroyer Amatsukaze until her searchlights were ignited. A 14-inch (356 mm) hit to the navigation bridge in particular succeeded in killing Admiral Callaghan, Captain Cassin Young, and most of the ship's command staff, with 86 sailors killed in total. San Francisco limped away from the battle while still being pestered by gunfire from the destroyer Amatsukaze as Kirishima ceased fire. Had Kirishima and Hiei been loaded with proper anti-shipping rounds for their main guns instead of type 3 shells, they probably would have sunk San Francisco. Instead, the mangled heavy cruiser remained out of commission until February 1943.^{[69][71][72][73][74]}

Helena soon came to San Francisco's defense, which resulted in Kirishima turning her guns on her. Kirishima hit the light cruiser with five 14-inch (356 mm) shells that caused negligible damage and killed one sailor. Just after 2:00, Kirishima was credited with a pair of 14-inch shell hits to the destroyer USS Laffey, (although anecdotally Hiei was widely believed to have caused this damage) one shell struck the bridge, with the other hitting the superstructure amidships causing some minor damage. A torpedo from destroyer Yukikaze provided the knockout blow as Laffey would sink at around 2:15. Kirishima then more verifiably attacked the destroyer USS Aaron Ward and landed three 14-inch shells, two 6-inch shells, and four 5-inch shells to Aaron Ward above the waterline that destroyed her gunnery director, disabled steering control, and caused her to lose speed until going dead in the water at 2:35, killing 15 men and wounding 57.^{[18][72][75][76][77][78]}

During the gunfight with San Francisco Hiei was hit by seventeen 8-inch shells, two of which disabled her steering gear, severely crippling the ship. Kirishima and the escorting destroyers attempted to assist Hiei - with Kirishima taking her sister ship under tow - but by daybreak the fleet was attacked by aircraft from Henderson Field and the carrier Enterprise, with Hiei absorbing another eight bombs and six torpedoes prompting the destroyers Yukikaze and Teruzuki of Abe's force and the nearby destroyers Shigure, Ariake, and Yūgure to evacuate Hiei's crew before leaving her to sink.^{[18][78][79][80]}

After the battle, Kirishima rendezvoused with the distant cover fleet north of Guadalcanal, and later that night detached to continue the mission under the command of Admiral Kondō, escorted by the heavy cruisers Takao and Atago, the light cruisers Nagara and Sendai, and nine destroyers. By 7:39 the submarine USS Trout stumbled upon the force and was initially unable to gain an attack formation as the fleet sailed on. However, later that afternoon at 15:18 Trout located the fleet again and managed to unleash five torpedoes, her target was Kirishima. One torpedo hit Kirishima but turned out to be a dud, inflicting no damage. Another torpedo passed under a destroyer before nearly hitting Atago, but just barely missing. At 20:48, Kirishima was notified a floatplane spotted an American formation consisting of two cruisers and four destroyers heading north at 25 knots, and Admiral Kondō anticipated a surface action under the assumption his force would demolish the enemy ships, as his escorts alone were significantly superior to the formation described in the report, yet alone the addition of a Kongō-class battleship. However, the report was correct about the four destroyers - USS Walke, Preston, Benham, and Gwin - but the two "cruisers" were actually the battleships Washington and South Dakota, both of which were among the newest of the US battleships and far more capable than Kirishima.^[18]

Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal

The battle began after 00:05 on 15 November 1942 when Washington detected the Japanese fleet on radar at 19,600 yards, followed immediately by the destroyer Uranami spotting the American warships. At 18,500 yards, Washington and South Dakota fired the first shots at Sendai and her immediate destroyers, scoring a few straddles but failing to inflict real damage. However, the Japanese scored first blood when Nagara and five destroyers neutralized the American destroyers. Walke was blown in half by a torpedo from the destroyer Samidare and sank within ten minutes; while Preston was hit simultaneously by three 5.5-inch shells from Nagara, which detonated her aft magazines, and also by a torpedo from the destroyer Ayanami, which sunk her rapidly. Benham was fatally wounded by a torpedo, probably from the destroyer Shirayuki, and she sank not long after the battle; Gwin was badly damaged by gunfire from Ayanami, which eliminated the last of Washington's and South Dakota's escorts. In exchange, Washington sank Ayanami with long range gunfire.^[81][79][82]

At 0:44, South Dakota suffered a power outage which briefly disabled the ship; it took a full two minutes for her radar to be restored, and only by relying on their secondary battery fire control did South Dakota begin to track Nagara and Sendai at 7,000 yards. The battleship fired three salvos from her 16-inch guns, with no hits scored. Nagara in turn recognized South Dakota as an enemy battleship and reported to Admiral Kondō aboard Kirishima before turning to engage the Americans. At 00:52 South Dakota presented a perfect broadside as Kirishima opened fire at 11,000 yards and scored two first salvo hits; one was a 6-inch shell that hit a 28 mm AA mount on the forward deck and the other was a 14-inch shell which exploded in South Dakota's bow. Takao, Atago, Nagara, and Sendai joined Kirishima in clobbering South Dakota, and the battleship took at least 27 shell hits, including six 14-inch shells and eight 6-inch shells from Kirishima, seven 8-inch shells and two 5-inch shells from Takao and Atago, and four 5.5-inch shells from Nagara and Sendai. The damage destroyed or disabled South Dakota's radar, directors, fire control instruments, and electrical circuits, blasted holes in the superstructure and ignited at least 28 fires, and caused minor flooding damage, killing over 40 men and wounding 180 others. Captain Gatch only survived due to the armored conning tower.^{[81][83][84][85][N 6]}

However, Washington remained undetected and began to track Kirishima, Takao, and Atago with her main battery. Washington began to close the range when Atago noticed another enemy battleship off starboard. At 1:00, Captain Ijuin ordered "stand by for a gun and torpedo action to starboard," but it was too late. At that moment, at a distance of 8,400 yards (7,700 m), Washington fired a full broadside of nine 16-inch guns and immediately straddled Kirishima, which proceeded to continue firing on South Dakota. Washington's second salvo then scored a 16-inch shell hit to Kirishima's compass bridge, and her third salvo scored several 16-inch hits to Kirishima's amidships, which detonated her secondary-battery magazines and shredded her torpedo-defense system. Kirishima incorrectly identified Washington as an "Idaho-class battleship" which was washed up to her deck and sinking by the bow, only for the supposedly sinking Washington to hit Kirishima with another two 16-inch shells below the waterline. Kirishima's World War I design was not designed to handle World War II era deep penetration shells, and these two hits in particular cracked and mangled Kirishima's interior above and below the waterline. Meanwhile Washington hit Kirishima with several 5-inch shells from her secondary guns to her forward funnel and surrounding superstructure.^{[18][81][83][86][87]}

Sixteen-inch shells then destroyed Kirishima's 14-inch gun turret 1, forcing the crew to flood its magazines, and holed her bow above and below the waterline before penetrating her stern above the waterline, while 5-inch shells detonated in her aft funnel and director. Two more 16-inch shells then hit the battleship's stern below the waterline, one destroying her steering gear and the other detonating inside her 14-inch gun turret 4 hydraulic pump room and disabling turrets 3 and 4. Another salvo of 16-inch shells from Washington set fire to the 14-inch turret 2 magazines and forced them to be flooded as well, and at least six 5-inch shells hit the pagoda mast and set it ablaze. Washington's final salvo landed a pair of waterline hits, one penetrating her belt and exploding inside one of Kirishima's three hydraulic pump rooms, while the last 16-inch shell hit and destroyed Kirishima's twin rudders. In total, Kirishima was hit by at least twenty 16-inch shells and seventeen 5-inch shells from Washington.^{[18][79][81][87][N 7]}

Listing at 18 degrees to starboard, Kirishima's engines remained relatively untouched by gunfire as the crippled battleship attempted to sail away from the battlefield. Takao and Atago fended off Washington with gunfire and torpedoes while Kirishima escaped. Attempts were made to steer the ship using the propellers, but this failed as extreme heat overtook her machinery and killed most of her engineers, rendering the engine room extremely hazardous as Kirishima waddled to safety. Nagara was ordered to tow Kirishima, but this order was refused. In the meantime, fires previously thought to have been put under control strengthened and spread to the aft magazines and forced them to be flooded. Natural flooding reversed the worsening list to port then back to starboard, until seawater reached and disabled Kirishima's starboard boilers. Captain Ijuin concluded the ship was fatally damaged by that point and ordered the port boilers shut down to allow the crew to evacuate. The destroyers Teruzuki, Asagumo, and Samidare came alongside Kirishima to rescue survivors. Ijuin's choice to abandon Kirishima proved to be the correct path as mere minutes later at 3:25, she finally lost buoyancy and suddenly capsized to starboard. Kirishima's superstructure almost crushed Teruzuki as she went down and took 212 men with her, while the remaining 300 men aboard Kirishima - including Captain Ijuin - were thrown overboard by the sudden sinking before Samidare rescued them. The three destroyers rescued 1,100 sailors.^[18][81][87]

Kirishima's wreck was discovered by Robert Ballard during an expedition to map the wrecks from the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1992, but a technical emergency caused Ballard's investigation of the wreck to be aborted, with only a small portion of the wreckage imaged. A further expedition to the wreck by Paul Allen's RV Petrel in January 2019 provided more extensive imaging.^[89] The remains of the ship lie upside down, with the bow section missing from the bridge forward^[90] due to a magazine explosion as the wreck was falling to the sea bed.^[91] The ship's forward anchor chain is wrapped around her stern section.^[90]