In February 1911, the Japanese Navy, which had obtained a full set of design drawings for the Kongo class, strengthened its armor and increased the number of main guns on this basis, which was a first-class super dreadnought designed and built by Japan itself - Fuso class battleship.
A total of two Fuso-class battleships were built, the Fuso and Yamashiro. The first ship, Fuso, was started in March 1912 and commissioned in 1915. The design displacement is 30,600 tons, the full load displacement is 35,900 tons, the length of the ship is 205.1 meters, the width of the ship is 28.7 meters, and the draft is 8.7 meters. Powered by four Curtis steam turbines, 24 kerosene mixed boilers, 40,000 hp, maximum speed of 22.5 knots, endurance of 8,000 nautical miles/14 knots. The Fuso class strengthened its protection and firepower on the basis of the Kongo class, with a main armor belt of 305 mm, a horizontal armor of up to 76 mm, a main turret of 305 mm on the front, 152 mm on the sides, and a command tower of 330 mm. The Fuso class was equipped with 12 45-caliber 14-inch main guns with six twin-mounted arrangements, with the middle two turrets in front and behind the rear chimney. The secondary guns are 16 152 mm gun profile guns, also equipped with underwater torpedo tubes. The Fuso-class battleships underwent several large-scale modifications during the "Naval Holiday" era, including enhanced underwater and horizontal protection, increased speed, and increased elevation angle of the main gun. By the completion of the last refit, the appearance of the Fu Fu Sang class had changed greatly, the central chimney was merged into one, and the two main turrets in the middle were changed to one toward the bow and one toward the stern. The power was replaced by a fuel-fired boiler and the speed was increased to 24.7 knots.
Fuso-class battleship before conversion
The Fuso class ships No. 3 and 4 were improved and renamed is the Ise class. The biggest change to the Fuso class was the rear rear of the two turret chimneys arranged in a piggyback arrangement. The Ise class and the Fuso class are relatively similar in firepower and protection arrangement. During the naval holiday era, the Ise class also underwent several large-scale modifications, including the installation of aviation facilities, the replacement of boilers, and the increase in the speed of the modified Ise class to 25.3 knots.
Ise-class air battleship with aviation deck
At the outbreak of the Pacific War, The Fuso and Ise-class battleships were rarely used in front-line operations because they were too slow to accompany mobile troops. After the Loss of four main aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway, the Japanese Navy decided to convert the Ise class into an "air battleship", and the two ships removed the No. 5 and No. 6 turrets in the rear, installed flight decks and hangars, added catapults and aircraft transport tracks, and modified the two ships to carry a total of 22 bombers.
In the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Fuso class was assigned to the Second Squadron, and the Ise class was assigned to the Fourth Air Force. In the Surigao Strait, the Fuso and Yamashiro encountered the US Task Force 77, and the FUSO was hit by a torpedo fired by a US destroyer and exploded and sank during the night battle. The Ise was heavily damaged by the combined fire of six battleships and eight cruisers, and was eventually sunk by torpedoes. The Ise class retreated in the Battle of Engano with anti-aircraft fire and effective command, and then successfully carried out operation Kita. In 1945, the Ise-class battleship, as a floating battery to defend the Wu Navy Yard, was hit by multiple aerial bombs in the large-scale air raids of the US aircraft, and was seriously damaged and sunk. The two ships were dissolved in 1947.