page_title: Kongō-class battlecruiser
section_title: Haruna
hierarchical_section_title: Kongō-class battlecruiser / Ships / Haruna
caption_attribution_description: English: Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Haruna undergoes trials after her second reconstruction.
context_page_description: The Kongō-class battlecruiser was a class of four battlecruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy immediately before World War I. Designed by British naval architect George Thurston, the lead ship of the class, Kongō, was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan, by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. Her sister ships, Haruna, Kirishima and Hiei, were all completed in Japan.
  During the late 1920s, all but Hiei were reconstructed and reclassified as battleships. After the signing of the London Naval Treaty in 1930, Hiei was reconfigured as a training ship to avoid being scrapped. Following Japan's withdrawal from the treaty, all four underwent a massive second reconstruction in the late 1930s. Following the completion of these modifications, which increased top speeds to over 30 knots, all four were reclassified as fast battleships.
  The Kongō-class battleships were the most active capital ships of the Japanese Navy during World War II, participating in most major engagements of the war. Hiei and Kirishima acted as escorts during the attack on Pearl Harbor, while Kongō and Haruna supported the invasion of Singapore.
context_section_description: Haruna was laid down at Kobe by Kawasaki on 16 March 1912, launched 14 December 1913, and formally commissioned 19 April 1915. After a short patrolling duty off Sasebo, Haruna suffered a breech explosion during gunnery drills on 12 September 1920; seven crewmen were killed and the No. 1 turret badly damaged. After a long period of time in reserve, Haruna underwent her first modernization from 1926 to 1928. The process upgraded her propulsion capabilities, enabled her to carry and launch floatplanes, increasing her armour capacity by over 4,000 tons, and was shortly thereafter reclassified as a Battleship. She was overhauled a second time from 1933 to 1935, which additionally strengthened her armour and reclassified her as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Haruna primarily served as a large-scale troop transport for Japanese troops to the Chinese mainland. On the eve of the commencement of World War II, Haruna sailed as part of Vice-Admiral Nobutake Kondō's Southern Force. On 8 December 1941, Haruna provided heavy support for the invasion of Malaya and Singapore. She participated in the major Japanese offensives in the southern and southwestern Pacific in early 1942, before sailing as part of the carrier-strike force during the Battle of Midway. Haruna bombarded American positions at Henderson Field at Guadalcanal, and provided escort to carriers during the Solomon Islands campaign. In 1943, she deployed as part of a larger force on multiple occasions to counter the threat of American carrier strikes, but did not actively participate in a single battle. In 1944, Haruna was an escort during the Battle of the Philippine Sea and fought American surface vessels off Samar during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She was the only one of the four battleships in her class to survive 1944. Haruna remained at Kure throughout 1945, where she was sunk by aircraft of Task Force 38 on 28 July 1945, after taking nine bomb hits at her moorings. She was subsequently raised and broken up for scrap in 1946.
caption: Haruna in 1934, following her second reconstruction
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