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was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. Designed by British naval architect George Thurston, she was the second launched of four s, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Laid down in 1911 at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, ''Hiei'' was formally commissioned in 1914. She patrolled off the Chinese coast on several occasions during World War I, and helped with rescue efforts following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Starting in 1929, ''Hiei'' was converted to a gunnery training ship to avoid being scrapped under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. She served as Emperor Hirohito's transport in the mid-1930s. Starting in 1937, she underwent a full-scale reconstruction that completely rebuilt her superstructure, upgraded her powerplant, and equipped her with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing fleet of aircraft carriers, she was reclassified as a fast battleship. On the eve of the US entry into World War II, she sailed as part of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Combined Fleet, escorting the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. As part of the Third Battleship Division, ''Hiei'' participated in many of the Imperial Japanese Navy's early actions in 1942, providing support for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) as well as the Indian Ocean raid of April 1942. During the Battle of Midway, she sailed in the Invasion Force under Admiral Nobutake Kondō, before being redeployed to the Solomon Islands during the Battle of Guadalcanal. She escorted Japanese carrier forces during the battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz Islands, before sailing as part of a bombardment force under Admiral Kondō during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. On the evening of 13 November 1942, ''Hiei'' engaged American cruisers and destroyers alongside her sister ship . After inflicting heavy damage on American cruisers and destroyers, ''Hiei'' was crippled by enemy vessels. Subjected to continuous air attack, she sank on the evening of 14 November 1942. ==Design and construction== ''Hiei'' was the second of the Imperial Japanese Navy's s, a line of capital ships designed by the British naval architect George Thurston. The class was ordered in 1910 in the Japanese Emergency Naval Expansion Bill after the commissioning of in 1908.〔Stille (2008), p. 14〕 The four battlecruisers of the ''Kongō'' class were designed to match the naval capabilities of the other major powers at the time; they have been called the battlecruiser versions of the British (formerly Turkish) battleship .〔Gardiner and Gray (1984), p. 234〕〔Jackson (2008), p. 27〕 With their heavy armament and armor protection (the latter of which made up 23.3% of their approximately 30,000 ton displacement),〔 ''Hiei'' and her sister ships were vastly superior to any other Japanese capital ship afloat at the time.〔 The keel of ''Hiei'' was laid down at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 4 November 1911, with most of the parts used in her construction manufactured in Britain.〔 She was launched on 21 November 1912, and fitting-out began in December 1913.〔 On 15 December 1913, Captain Takagi Shichitaro was assigned as her chief equipping officer.〔 She was completed on 4 August 1914.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Japanese battleship Hiei」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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