Wreck of IJN Kongo

 Second World War 1939-1945, ship wreck

The Kongo was part of the Kongo class battlecruisers (later reclassified as battleships.)The members of this class were the Kongo, Haruna, Hiei, and Kirishima. All of the ships in this class were sunk in World War II. The Hiei was sunk or scuttled after the damages she received from the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and U.S. airstrikes the next day, while the Kirishima sank as a result of the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Kongo was sunk by the U.S. submarine U.S.S. Sealion on 21 November 1944., making her the only Japanese battleship to be sunk by a submarine. Haruna was sunk in the waters of Japan by combined attacks of carrier based planes of the U.S. Navy and by U.S. Army Airforce planes in 1945.