Tone
| Country | Japan |
| Ship Class | Tone-class Heavy Cruiser |
| Laid Down | 1 Dec 1934 |
| Launched | 21 Nov 1937 |
| Commissioned | 20 Nov 1938 |
| Sunk | 24 Jul 1945 |
| Displacement | 15,200 tons standard |
| Length | 650 feet |
| Beam | 61 feet |
| Draft | 21 feet |
| Speed | 35 knots |
| Crew | 850 |
| Armament | 8x8in guns, 8x5in guns, 57x25mm anti-aircraft, 12x24in torpedo tubes |
| Aircraft | Aichi E13A and Nakajima E8N reconnaissance flying boats |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseNamed after a river, the heavy cruiser Tone participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor as escort to the six aircraft carriers, and launched her seaplanes to scout Wake Island immediately before its invasion. Upon returning to South Pacific, she participated in a series of attacks that expanded Japan's control of the sea into the Indian Ocean to the west and Java to the south. At Midway, Tone's reconnaissance planes discovered several American ships but failed to recognized them as part of a carrier group. After Midway, she was involved in many campaigns, including the Solomons and the daring counterattack on the American invasion of the Philippines (which failed despite of the tactical victory off Samar which Tone was a part of).
ww2dbaseTone was in Hiroshima Bay in Jul 1945 when American aircraft attacked the remnants of the Japanese Navy there. She was hit by three bombs from planes from USS Monterey, and sank in the shallow bay. With its superstructure still showing on the surface, she continued to be a target of attack in the subsequent bombing run several days later.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Sep 2005
Heavy Cruiser Tone Interactive Map
Photographs
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Tone Operational Timeline
| 20 Nov 1938 | Tone 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. |
| 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. |
| 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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Visitor Submitted Comments
All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.
» Kobe, Yuji
Event(s) Participated:
» Attack on Pearl Harbor
» Battle of Wake Island
» New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 1, Bismarck Islands
» Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java
» Attack on Darwin
» Raids into the Indian Ocean
» Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands
» Solomon Islands Campaign
» Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign
» Preparations for Invasion of Japan
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Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Foreign Minister, Aug 1939
21 Feb 2009 11:45:53 AM
Would like to have seen a photo. Short history about the Tone. built by Mitsubishi 1934, Displ. 15,200 tons, Lenght 649ft,Speed 35.2kts., Range 9,000nm., Armament 8x203mm (8in),8x127mm (5in),12x25mm anti-aircraftguns,4x3 610mm (nominal rotating TT)5 aircraft, 2 catapults. Launched 21 Nov. 1937 completed 20 Nov. 1938. Sunk 24 July 1945 shallow water near Kure,Japan salvaged and broken up 1948. The Tone paricipated in the Peal Harbor attack and launched seaplanes on 8 Dec. to recon. damage to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, she particpated in many operations during the Pacific War.