Chikuma
Country | Japan |
Ship Class | Tone-class Heavy Cruiser |
Builder | Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard |
Laid Down | 1 Oct 1935 |
Launched | 19 Mar 1938 |
Commissioned | 20 May 1939 |
Sunk | 25 Oct 1944 |
Displacement | 15,200 tons standard |
Length | 649 feet |
Beam | 60 feet |
Draft | 21 feet |
Speed | 35 knots |
Crew | 850 |
Armament | 8x200mm, 8x130mm, 75x25mm anti-aircraft, 12x610mm torpedo tubes |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseChikuma was a Tone-class heavy cruiser built at Nagasaki by Mitsubishi. With her large seaplane capacity, long-range scouting missions fitted her well. She was a member of Sentai 6 (Sixth Squadrion) until transferred to Sentai 8 in Nov 1939. She participated in exercises and patrolled off southern China until the outbreak of the Pacific War. She participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that sparked off the war, as an escort to the fleet carriers; one of her seaplanes flew pre-strike reconnaissance mission over Pearl Harbor before the attack. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, she sailed for Wake Island to assist in the conquest there. During Japan's conquest of the South Pacific in the opening six months of the war, Chikuma played a part in many of the key events aside aircraft carriers. She was also present beside the carriers when they met their end at Midway in Jun 1942. On 24 Aug 1942 she participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and then on 26 Oct Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, both off the Solomon Islands. In the latter action, she was moderately damaged by American dive bombers and was placed out of commission in Japan until late Feb 1943. In early 1944, she was transferred to Sentai 7. She participated in a cruiser raid into the Indian Ocean in Mar, then fought off the Mariana Islands in Jun. Off Philippines, she was attacked by submarine and aircraft on 23 and 24 Oct as she headed toward the eastern shore of the island of Samar; at the battle bearing the island's name, she helped in the sinking of escort carrier Gambier Bay, but was later seriously damaged by torpedoes. Destroyer Nowaki took on Chikuma's crew as Chikuma was abandoned. When Nowaki was later sunk, all but one of Chikuma's crew survived.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Oct 2006
Photographs
Chikuma Operational Timeline
20 May 1939 | Chikuma was commissioned into service. |
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. |
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. |
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Visitor Submitted Comments
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» Attack on Pearl Harbor
» Battle of Wake Island
» New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 1, Bismarck Islands
» Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java
» Raids into the Indian Ocean
» Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands
» Guadalcanal Campaign
» Solomon Islands Campaign
» Mariana Islands Campaign and the Great Turkey Shoot
» Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign
Document(s):
» Interrogation Nav 82, Captain Tsuneo Shiki
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Chiang Kaishek, 31 Jul 1937
21 Apr 2018 07:58:15 AM
In WoWS the Chikuma has no torps.