English: The Haruna was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was first commissioned as a battlecruiser in 1915 but underwent two major renovations in 1926 and 1933 and was reclassified as a battleship. During World War II, the Haruna was involved in many of the most critical naval actions of the Pacific Theater, including at Midway, Guadalcanal, the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. On December 10, 1941, a B-17C bomber piloted by Floridian Colin Purdie Kelly, Jr. was involved in action against Japanese ships off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines. The crew spotted a large ship they believed to be the Haruna and from a height of 20,000 feet dropped three 600-pound bombs. Though smoke obscured the target, Kelly and his crew members believed that at least one bomb struck the ship and that it was probably destroyed. The Haruna was not in the vicinity, however, and Kelly's plane likely hit the Japanese cruiser Natori, causing minor damage. Japanese fighters engaged and hit Kelly?s aircraft on its return to base, killing the waist gunner and prompting Kelly to order the rest of his crew to bail out. Kelly was the last to leave the damaged plane and was killed. Press reports at the time credited Kelly with having destroyed the Haruna, but in fact it continued in service until it ran aground on a coral reef in November 1944. The vessel was reactivated briefly in 1945 following extensive repairs, but was destroyed by the U.S. Navy?s Task Force 38 while anchored at Kure Naval Base in July 1945.