Designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston, she was the fourth and last battlecruiser of the Kongō class, amongst the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Haruna transported Imperial Japanese Army troops to mainland China before being redeployed to the 3rd Battleship Division in 1941.

She covered the Japanese landings in Malaya (in present-day Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942 before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign.

Haruna was the fourth and last of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kongō-class battlecruisers, a line of capital ships designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston.

[1][2] Their heavy armament and armor protection (which contributed 23.3 percent of their displacement) were greatly superior to those of any other Japanese capital ship afloat at the time.

A later investigation by the Imperial Japanese Navy concluded that a faulty fuse ignited the gunpowder bags in the breech, detonating the shell while still in the barrel.

[12] Provided that new additions did not exceed 3,000 long tons (3,048 t), existing capital ships were allowed to be upgraded with improved anti-torpedo bulges and deck armor.

[14] By the end of 1934, Japan would also announce that it would withdraw from the Washington and London Naval Treaties, thus removing all restrictions on the number and size of its capital ships.

[5] However, on 1 August 1933, Haruna was drydocked at Kure Naval Arsenal in preparation for upgrades that would enable her to escort Japan's growing fleet of aircraft carriers.

[18] One month later, Haruna transported Japanese Army forces to mainland China in preparation for campaigns into Chinese Nationalist territory.

[5] Haruna and Kongō departed the Hashirajima fleet anchorage on 29 November 1941, to participate in the opening stage of the Pacific War as part of the Southern (Malay) Force's Main Body, under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Nobutake Kondō.

The battlegroup subsequently sortied from Indochina for three days in mid-December to protect a reinforcement convoy traveling to Malaya and again on 18 December to cover the Army's landing at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines.

[5] On 11 December 1941, an erroneous report was published in the U.S. media that an American B-17 heavy bomber had bombed and mortally damaged Haruna during battle off Lingayen Gulf off the Philippines.

[21][22] On 18 January 1942, Kondō's Main Force arrived in Palau alongside two fast carriers, with the intention of covering Japan's invasion of Borneo and the Dutch East Indies.

[23] Following the destruction of HMS Dorsetshire on 5 April 1942, Haruna was sent southwest to locate the remainder of the British Eastern Fleet, under the command of Admiral James Somerville.

[5] On 29 May 1942, Haruna joined her sister ship Kirishima as part of Vice-Admiral Chūichi Nagumo's carrier strike force during the Battle of Midway.

To protect their transport convoy from enemy air attack, Admiral Yamamoto sent Haruna and Kongō, escorted by one light cruiser and nine destroyers, to bombard Henderson Field.

In the most successful Japanese battleship action of the war,[19] the bombardment heavily damaged both runways, destroyed almost all available aviation fuel, incapacitated 48 of the airfield's 90 aircraft, and killed 41 men.

[27] During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942, Haruna was attacked by a PBY Catalina flying boat but received no damage.

In mid-November, the battleship and other warships provided distant cover for the ultimately unsuccessful efforts to bombard Henderson Field again and land reinforcements on Guadalcanal.

On 15 November 1942, following the Japanese defeat and loss of Hiei and Kirishima during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the 3rd Battleship Division returned to Truk, where it remained for the rest of 1942.

[1] In late January 1943, she participated in "Operation Ke", as part of a diversionary force and distant cover supporting Japanese destroyers that were evacuating personnel from Guadalcanal.

From 23 February to 31 March 1943, Haruna was drydocked in Kure Naval Arsenal for upgrades, receiving additional Type 96 25 mm (0.98 in) antiaircraft guns and armor.

On 17 May 1943, in response to the American invasion of Attu Island, Haruna sortied alongside Musashi, the 3rd Battleship Division, two fleet carriers, two cruisers and nine destroyers.

On 18 September 1943, Haruna left Truk as part of a counterattack force in response to American raids on the Brown Islands in Micronesia, but no contact was made and the ship returned to the base.

[5] On 11 May 1944, Haruna and Admiral Ozawa's Mobile Fleet departed Lingga for Tawi-Tawi, where they were joined by Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's "Force C".

Haruna survived with only minor damage from bomb splinters, but Musashi was sunk and the heavy cruiser Myōkō was crippled and forced out of the battle alongside two more destroyers to escort her.

[34] Haruna failed to hit Gambier Bay again as Yamato caused the majority of the fatal damage which sank the flat top.

On 22 November 1944, she ran aground on a coral reef near Lingga, suffering serious damage to her watertight compartments and forcing her to return to Sasebo, where the hull was patched and repaired.

On 9 December, three more American submarines—USS Sea Devil, Plaice, and Redfish—intercepted the task group and they proceeded to permanently cripple the aircraft carrier Junyō with three torpedo hits.