ORIGINAL: warspite1
warspite1ORIGINAL: brian brian
if I recall correctly, Nagumo had a couple of the Kongo class BattleCruisers with him? (these are good for SB missions in WiF, actually)
where were the older Japanese BBs in December, 1941? Java? Philippines?
The Kongos were reclassified as battleships after their reconstruction between the wars.
Yes he had two. The two other battleships of the class were needed to cover the Malayan landings. Not sure what the other battleships were doing (story of the Japanese battlefleet in WWII really [8|]) although I suspect their speed would have precluded them from operating with the carriers.
I'll have a closer look later.
The "main" grouping of battleships was part of a force called the "distant cover force" along with the Carrier Hosho and were designated to cover the First Air fleet (Pearl attack force) as they withdrew from the attack on Pearl. The group set sail and hung around the Bonin Islands and then returned home when it was clear there was no pursuit.
Ise, Hyuga, Yamashiro, and Fuso were all close to the same in terms of combat ability with 12 14 inch guns and a speed of around 25 knots. Nagato at this time was the fleet flagship and along with Mutsu, had 8 16 inch guns and could steam at close to 26 knots. None of these would be considered suitable to run with a carrier task force not to mention trying to keep them fueled for extended operations would have been problematic.
The 4 Kongos were rebuilt the second time with the idea they would be fast escorts for the carriers. They featured a speed of around 30 knots, which is fast enough to keep up with the carriers the Japanese had and appeared to be designed to protect the carriers from enemy heavy crusiers as they would be inferior to any other battleship they ran across. (Technically from a Japanese point of view, this wasn't important as they would be faster than any known American battleship at the time). In their role, they could easily deal with enemy cruisers.
One of the issues with the Kongos that was later exposed is their AA armament was rather lacking, especially compared to their US/UK counterparts both in terms of quantity and quality. The Japanese likely considered AA a very secondary role and the air fleet would depend on planes as a primary defense.
Basically any US battleship was going to be superior to any Kongo in terms of gun power and armor. Having the Kongos come in for shore bombardment would have been extremely risky given that the Japanese had no idea at all where the US carriers were except it was clear they were not at Pearl when they attacked.