Aviation Battleship HIJMS Ise

Originally designed by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as a Fuso-class battleship, HIJMS Ise was redesigned so much that it and HIJMS Hyuga were redesignated a separate class.  Armed with twelve 14-inch guns in six turrets, HIJMS Ise was commissioned in December 1917, and its first assignment was to the 1918-1922 international anti-Communist intervention in the Russian Civil War.  Rebuilt several times in the 1930s to improve its speed and armament, it was still considered outdated in World War II, and was too slow to catch the American aircraft carriers that launched the Doolittle Raid in 1942.  After the Americans sank four Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway, weakening Japan's military projection power, the IJN had HIJMS Ise rebuilt as an "aviation battleship," removing the last two turrets and installing a 230-foot flight deck. 

Now the ship could theoretically launch dive bombers and seaplanes, but not recover them.  However, HIJMS Ise was never used as an aircraft carrier, as Japan could not train enough new naval aviators, making it in practical terms the front half of a battleship.  It could not provide sufficient cover for other Japanese ships against American airplanes during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, which it barely survived.  After leaving Singapore for the Kure Naval Arsenal in February 1945, it was painted in green camouflage and reclassified as a floating anti-aircraft battery to protect the naval base.  HIJMS Ise failed in this role too, as it was spotted by the Americans and sunk during the July 1945 bombing of Kure, which destroyed dozens of Japanese warships.  This model of HIJMS Ise is on display aboard the museum battleship HIJMS Mikasa in Yokosuka, Japan.