She participated in the Battle off Cape Engaño in late 1944, where she was one of the ships that decoyed the American carrier fleet supporting the invasion of Leyte away from the landing beaches.

[5] Each of the boilers consumed a mixture of coal and oil, and the ships carried enough of both to give them a range of 9,680 nautical miles (17,930 km; 11,140 mi) at a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph).

[1] The fuel storage of the ships was increased, which gave them a range of 7,870 nautical miles (14,580 km; 9,060 mi) at a speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), despite the additional weight.

[2] The twelve 35.6-centimetre (14 in) Type 41 guns of the Ise class were mounted in three pairs of twin-gun, superfiring turrets that were numbered one through six from front to rear.

[12] During the mid-1930s reconstruction, the torpedo tubes were removed and the Vickers two-pounders were replaced by 20 licence-built Hotchkiss 2.5-centimetre (1 in) Type 96 light AA guns in 10 twin-gun mounts.

[12] This was the standard Japanese light AA gun during World War II, but it suffered from serious design shortcomings that heavily reduced its effectiveness.

[12] Between 20 November 1931 and 10 February 1932, Ise had her anti-aircraft armament entirely replaced, her forward superstructure was further enlarged so that it became a pagoda mast, and her stern was modified in preparation for a catapult and crane at Kure Naval Arsenal.

Ise's crew participated in the state funeral of Marshal-Admiral The Marquis Tōgō Heihachirō, victor of the 1905 Battle of Tsushima, on 15 June 1934.

[12] Beginning on 1 August 1935, Ise was drydocked at Kure Naval Arsenal and underwent an extensive reconstruction and modernisation that lasted until 23 March 1937.

[12] To provide distant support for the 1st Air Fleet attacking Pearl Harbor on 8 December,[Note 4] the division, reinforced by the battleships Nagato and Mutsu and the light carrier Hōshō, sortied from Hashirajima to the Bonin Islands and returned six days later.

[12] Ise and the rest of the 2nd Battleship Division set sail on 28 May with the Aleutian Support Group at the same time most of the Imperial Fleet began an attack on Midway Island (Operation MI).

[19][20] Commanded by Vice-Admiral Shirō Takasu, the division was composed of Japan's four oldest battleships, including Ise, accompanied by two light cruisers, 12 destroyers, and two oilers.

[21] The loss of four Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in June severely limited the ability of the IJN to conduct operations and alternatives were sought.

Plans for full conversions of battleships into aircraft carriers were rejected on the grounds of expense and, more critically, time, so the IJN settled on removing the rear pair of turrets from the Ise-class ships and replacing them with a flight deck equipped with two rotating catapults.

[24] These changes increased the ship's overall length to 219.62 metres (720 ft 6 in) and the removal of the heavy gun turrets and their barbettes reduced her displacement to 39,805 long tons (40,444 t) at deep load, despite the addition of more fuel oil storage.

[4] The rebuild was officially completed on 8 October 1943 and Ise made a sortie to Truk later that month, conveying a detachment of the 52nd Division and supplies.

Ise and her sister ship Hyūga were transferred to the Third Fleet and assigned to the newly reformed Fourth Carrier Division on 1 May, commanded by Rear Admiral Chiaki Matsuda.

[26] After the Americans began attacking Japanese installations in the Bonin Islands on 10 October 1944, the aircraft of the Fourth Carrier Division were ordered to prepare for combat by the commander of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Soemu Toyoda.

[12] The ships of the Fourth Carrier Division were assigned to the Main Body of the 1st Mobile Fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa.

This accomplished little else as the Japanese aircraft failed to penetrate past the defending fighters; the survivors landed at airfields on the Philippine island of Luzon.

They finally found them, but Admiral William Halsey, Jr., commander of Task Force 38, decided that it was too late in the day to mount an effective strike.

The first attack began at 08:20, with the old battleship engaging enemy aircraft with San Shiki anti-aircraft shells from her main guns with unknown effect.

[12] Saved by heavy anti-aircraft fire and expert manoeuvring,[29] the battleship dodged all the torpedoes, and was struck by only one bomb, near the port catapult.

Unable to locate either group of ships, Ozawa ordered Matsuda to reverse course at 23:30 and head for Amami Ōshima to refuel.

They arrived two days later and remained there until 12 December when they departed for Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, where they were on standby for an attack on an American supply convoy bound for the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

Later that afternoon, Ōyodo launched one of her floatplanes which spotted the submarine USS Bashaw on the surface about 22 km (14 mi) ahead of the convoy.

Hyūga opened fire with her main guns and forced Bashaw to submerge when one of her shells landed within 1.6 km (0.99 mi) of the submarine.

From this time until the surrender of Japan, Ise remained docked at Kure, without fuel or aircraft, and repainted in an olive green camouflage with vari-coloured splotches.

Re-designated as a fourth-class reserve ship on 20 April, Ise was towed to the island of Ondo Seto (between Kure and Kurahashijima) to serve as a floating anti-aircraft battery.

The underwater portion of Ise's wreck was ignored until the following year and she was scrapped in place by the Kure Dockyard of the Harima Zōsen Corporation from 9 October 1946 to 4 July 1947.