In keeping with the Japanese doctrine of deploying more powerful vessels before their opponents, Kongō and her sister ships were the first vessels in the world equipped with guns. Her main guns carried ammunition for 90 shots, and they had an approximate barrel lifetime of 250 to 280 shots. In 1941, separate dyes were introduced for the armor-piercing shells of the four Kongō-class battleships to assist with targeting, with Kongōs armor-piercing shells using red dye. The secondary battery of Kongō originally consisted of sixteen 50 calibre guns in single casemates located amidships ("50 calibre" means that the lengths of the guns were 50 times their bore, or 300 inches), eight guns, and eight submerged torpedo tubes. Her six-inch naval guns could fire five to six rounds per minute, with a barrel lifetime of about 500 rounds. The 6-inch/50 calibre gun was capable of firing both antiaircraft and antiship shells, though the positioning of these guns on Kongō made antiaircraft firing mostly impractical. During her second reconstruction, the older three-inch guns were removed and then replaced with eight 5-inch/40 calibre dual-purpose guns. These guns could fire from eight to 14 rounds per minute, with a barrel lifetime of about 800 to 1,500 rounds. Of Kongōs guns, the 5-inch guns had the widest variety of shell types: antiaircraft, antiship, and illumination shells. Kongō was also armed with many antiaircraft machine guns. By October 1944, Kongōs secondary armament was reconfigured to eight guns, eight guns, and 122 Type 96 antiaircraft rapid-fire cannons. Service history 1913–1929: Battlecruiser On 16 August 1913, Kongō was completed and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy (I.J.N.). Twelve days later, she departed from Portsmouth headed for Japan. She was docked at Singapore from 20 to 27 October, before arriving at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 5 November, where she was placed in First Reserve. In January 1914, she docked at Kure Naval Base for armament checks. On 3 August 1914, the German Empire declared war on France and then invaded via Belgium, sparking the beginning of World War I in the West. Twelve days later, Japan issued a warning to Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire, ordering him to withdraw the German troops from their base at Tsingtao, China. When the German Empire did not respond, Japan declared war on Germany on 23 August, occupying the former German possessions in the Caroline Islands, Palau Islands, Marshall Islands, and Marianas