Tone-class Heavy Cruiser

Tone-class Heavy Cruiser

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This article refers to the entire Tone-class; it is not about an individual vessel.

ww2dbaseThe Tone-class heavy cruisers were designed to provide long range air scouting for task forces that these ships may serve with. As the result, all of their primary guns were placed forward of the ships so that the entire aft sections could be devoted to aircraft operations. The maximum of eight aircraft aboard each ship were launched from the two gunpowder-propelled catapults, giving them excellent capabilities to conducting scouting operations even though in practice each ship only carried five aircraft. During the war, both ships of this class, Tone and Chikuma, participated in the majority of the Pacific War's battles and campaigns.

ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.

Last Major Revision: Jul 2009

Tone-class Heavy Cruiser Interactive Map

Tone-class Heavy Cruiser Operational Timeline

20 Nov 1938	Tone was commissioned into service.
20 May 1939	Chikuma was commissioned into service.
26 Nov 1941	Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo led the Japanese Carrier Division 1 (Akagi and Kaga), Carrier Division 2 (Hiryu and Soryu), Carrier Division 5 (Shokaku and Zuikaku), first section of Battleship Division 3 (Hiei and Kirishima), Cruiser Division 8 (Tone and Chikuma), Destroyer Squadron 1, Destroyer Squadron 17, and Destroyer Squadron 18 out of Hitokappu Bay in the Kurile Islands for the Hawaii Operation, the attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
1 Feb 1942	Akagi, Kaga, Zuikaku, Hiei, Kirishima, and Chikuma departed Truk, Caroline Islands in an attempt to catch the enemy carrier force that had attacked the Marshall Islands. They were escorted by destroyers Shiranuhi, Kasumi, and Urakaze.
1 Mar 1942	Chikuma, Yugure, and other destroyers sank merchant ship Modjokerto in the Indian Ocean about 250 nautical miles southwest of Tjilatjap, Java, Dutch East Indies at 1145 hours.
26 Mar 1942	Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's Japanese First Air Fleet, built around a nucleus of five aircraft carriers (Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku), and supported by battleships (Kongo, Hiei, Haruna, and Kirishima), cruisers (Tone, Chikuma, Abukuma), and destroyers, sailed from Staring Bay, Celebes, Dutch East Indies to the west of Timor into the Indian Ocean with the intention of attacking the Royal Navy's bases at Colombo and Trincomalee in Ceylon.
3 Apr 1942	The Japanese fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo entered the Indian Ocean.
5 Apr 1942	In the morning, Japanese carriers launched 36 D3A2 dive bombers and 53 B5N2 torpedo bombers, escorted by 36 Zero fighters, against the British naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, sinking merchant cruiser HMS Hector, damaging port facilities, while shooting down 25 British aircraft; 7 Japanese aircraft were lost in this attack. Around noon, cruiser Tone's floatplane spotted British cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire 200 miles southwest of Ceylon; 53 carrier aircraft were launched to attack, sinking Dorsetshire at 1350 hours (234 killed) and Cornwall at 1400 hours (190 killed); 1,122 survived from both ships.
9 Apr 1942	Japanese carrier aircraft attacked the harbor at Trincomalee, Ceylon at 0700 hours. Two hours later, empty British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire were detected 90 miles further south. At 1035 hours, Japanese carrier aircraft attacked and sank HMS Hermes (307 killed) and HMAS Vampire (9 killed); hospital ship Vita rescued survivors from both warships. At 1207 hours, 20 Japanese carrier dive bombers sank British oiler Athelstane (all aboard survived) and British corvette HMS Hollyhock (48 were killed, 17 survived) in the Indian Ocean.
24 Aug 1942	A Japanese force centered around carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku sailed down into the Solomon Islands with light carrier Ryujo and cruiser tone operating independently south of the main fleet. At 0415, 19 torpedo bombers and 7 seaplanes were launched to search for American ships. At 1250, the search plane from cruiser Chikuma reported sighting USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise; the search plane was quickly shot down, but the Japanese nevertheless gained an idea of the American position. Shokaku launched 18 dive bombers and Zuikaku launched 9 dive bombers starting at 1300 hours. At 1315, two bombers from Enterprise surprised Shokaku, but the torpedo they launched would fail to hit the Japanese carrier. At 1400 hours, a second strike was launched by Shokaku (9 dive bombers and 3 fighters) and Zuikaku (18 dive bombers and 6 fighters). At around the same time, Battle of the Eastern Solomons crew its first casualty when Ryujo was discovered and fatally damaged by several 1,000-pound bombs. At 1440, the first attack wave from the Japanese carriers attacked Enterprise, scoring three bomb hits (70 were killed, 70 were injured), but the Japanese would lose 18 dive bombers and 6 fighters in the engagement. The second wave failed to locate the American carriers and returned before dark. Japanese warships attempted to engage the US fleet after dark, but the force failed to locate the American fleet, and discontinued the search at 2330 hours.
25 Aug 1942	Tone, Amatsukaze, and Tokitsukaze was assigned to Carrier Division 1.
5 Nov 1943	During the US raid on Rabaul, New Britain, Chikuma was damaged by a near miss from a dive bomber piloted by Lieutenant (jg) John Lucas.
24 Jul 1945	British TF 37 launched 416 sorties, 261 of which were sent against the Japanese home islands and 155 were for defensive patrols; escort carrier Kaiyo was damaged by British carrier planes. On the same day, American TF 38 launched 600 aircraft against Kure, Nagoya, Osaka, and Miho, sinking battleship-carrier Hyuga, heavy cruiser Tone, and target ship Settsu, and damaging carrier Ryuho, carrier Amagi, battleship-carrier Ise, battleship Haruna, heavy cruiser Aoba, light cruiser Oyodo, transport Kiyokawa Maru; the Aichi aircraft factories at Nagoya were seriously damaged.

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Tone-class Heavy Cruiser