*** Welcome to piglix ***

Japanese battleship Haruna

A portside view of Haruna – a large warship with a tall superstructure and two funnels – steaming at full speed in high seas with waves coming over the bow
Haruna in 1934, following her second reconstruction
History
Japanese Navy EnsignEmpire of Japan
Name: Haruna
Namesake: Mount Haruna
Ordered: 1911
Builder: Kawasaki Shipyards
Laid down: 16 March 1912
Launched: 14 December 1913
Commissioned: 19 April 1915
Fate: Sunk at her moorings on 28 July 1945; raised and scrapped in 1946
General characteristics
Class and type: Kongō-class battlecruiser
Displacement: 36,600 long tons (37,187 t)
Length: 222 m (728 ft 4 in)
Beam: 31 m (101 ft 8 in)
Draft: 9.7 m (31 ft 10 in)
Installed power: 64,000 shp (48,000 kW)
Propulsion:
  • 4 × Brown-Curtis turbines
  • 4 × shafts
Speed:
  • 1915–1934: 26 kn (48 km/h; 30 mph)
  • 1934–1945: 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement: 1,360
Armament:
  • 1915:
  • 8 × 356 mm (14 in) guns (4×2)
  • 16 × 152 mm (6 in) guns (16×1)
  • 8 × 76 mm (3 in) guns (8×1)
  • 8 × 530 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (submerged)
  • 1945:
  • 8 × 356 mm (14 in) (4×2)
  • 16 × 152 mm (6 in) guns (16×1)
  • 12 × 127 mm (5 in) guns (6×2)
  • 108 × 25 mm (0.98 in) Type 96 AA guns
Armor:
  • Turrets: 9 in (230 mm)
  • Belt: 8 in (200 mm)
  • Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm)–2.75 in (70 mm)
Aircraft carried: 3 × reconnaissance floatplanes
Notes: Unless otherwise noted, all statistics apply to after the second reconstruction.

Haruna (榛名?), named after Mount Haruna, was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. Designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston, she was the fourth and last battlecruiser of the Kongō class, amongst the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Laid down in 1912 at the Kawasaki Shipyards in Kobe, Haruna was formally commissioned in 1915 on the same day as her sister ship, ''Kirishima''. Haruna patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I. During gunnery drills in 1920, an explosion destroyed one of her guns, damaged the gun turret, and killed seven men. During her career, Haruna underwent two major reconstructions. Beginning in 1926, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1933, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, her speed was increased, and she was equipped with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Haruna was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Haruna transported Imperial Japanese Army troops to mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. On the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore.


...
Wikipedia

...