was the second and last vessel in the of heavy cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship was named after the Chikuma River in Nagano Prefecture. Entering service in 1939, Chikuma saw battle during World War II in the Pacific, hunting small allied ships in the Indian Ocean and serving in many escorting missions throughout many large-scale aircraft carrier battles between Japan and the United States. On 25 October 1944, she served in the Battle off Samar where she damaged the destroyer before being crippled by gunfire from the destroyer escort and sunk by air attacks.

Background

Chikuma was designed for long-range scouting missions and had a large seaplane capacity. She was extensively employed during World War II in conjunction with an aircraft carrier task force, or as part of a cruiser squadron with her sister ship, .

The Tone-class cruisers were originally envisaged as the fifth and sixth vessels in the . However, by the time construction began, serious weaknesses in the Mogami-class hull design had become clear following the Fourth Fleet Incident in 1935. As Japan no longer was obligated to abide by the limitations of the London Naval Treaty, a new design was created and new means of construction were utilized. Though the external dimensions were close to the Mogami class, the design was quite different, with four twin 203 mm (8-inch) main battery turrets placed forward of the bridge, the second super firing over the first, reserving the entire stern area as a large sea plane hangar. Unlike the United States Navy, the Japanese did not have a dual role attack/scout aircraft. No reconnaissance units were assigned to the Japanese carriers, and little emphasis was placed on this aspect of carrier warfare. Instead the Japanese reserved all of their carrier aircraft for attack roles. Reconnaissance was left up to float planes carried by cruisers. Chikuma was intended to provide the long range scout planes needed for their carrier Air Fleets.

Chikuma was equipped with the heaviest armor shipped on a Japanese cruiser. It consisted of a main belt 145 mm (5.7-inches) over the citadel, and 150 mm (5.9-inches) over the machinery. She also carried a deck 65 mm (2.55-inches) over the ammo, machinery, and steering spaces and 30 mm (1.2-inches) elsewhere. She was capable of , and could cruise for at

Service career

Early career

thumb|left|Chikuma firing her main guns, 1940

Chikuma was completed at Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyards on 20 May 1939. After several months as a unit of the CruDiv6 (Sentai 6) of the Second Fleet, she was transferred to the CruDiv8 in November 1939. In addition to taking part in regular combat exercises in Japanese home waters, she operated off southern China on three occasions between March 1940 and March 1941.

Early stages of the Pacific War

At the end of 1941, Chikuma was assigned to CruDiv 8 with its sister ship, Tone, and was thus one of the key players in the attack on Pearl Harbor. On 7 December 1941, Tone and Chikuma each launched one Aichi E13A1 Type 0 "Jake" floatplane for a final weather reconnaissance over Oahu. At 0630, Tone and Chikuma each launched short range Nakajima E4N2 Type 90-2 Reconnaissance Seaplane to act as pickets and patrol south of the Striking Force. Chikumas floatplane reported nine anchored American battleships. During the subsequent attack, the battleships , , , and were sunk and , , , and other smaller ships were damaged.

On 16 December, CruDiv 8 was ordered to assist in the second attempted invasion of Wake Island. Anti-aircraft fire damaged the scout plane from Chikuma, which was forced to ditch, but the crew was rescued. After the fall of Wake Island, CruDiv 8 returned to Kure.

On 14 January 1942, CruDiv 8 was based out of Truk in the Caroline Islands, and covered the landings of Japanese troops at Rabaul, New Britain and attacks on Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea. On 24 January Chikumas floatplanes attacked the Admiralty Islands.

After the air raid on Kwajalein on 1 February by Vice Admiral William Halsey, Jr's aircraft carrier , Chikuma departed Truk with the Carrier Striking Force in an unsuccessful pursuit. Chikuma and Tone later escorted carriers during the Raid on Port Darwin, Australia on 19 February, which sank 11 ships to air attacks. From 25 February 1942, Chikuma was involved in supporting the Japanese invasion of Java.

Surface actions

On 1 March 1942, Chikumas floatplane located the 8,806-ton Dutch freighter Modjokerto attempting to escape from Tjilatjap to Australia, enabling a flotilla of destroyers to track the freighter down, with , , , , , and shelling and sinking Modjokerto in three minutes. That afternoon, CruDiv 8's spotted the old destroyer , south-southeast of Christmas Island. Chikuma opened fire with her 8-inch guns at the extremely long range of , and all shots missed. Chikuma was joined by battleships and , which also opened fire with their 14-inch main batteries, but Edsall not only managed to avoid 297 14-inch, 132 6-inch shells from the battleships and an additional 844 8-inch and 62 5-inch rounds from the cruisers, but the destroyer also closed to range and fired its 4-inch guns at Chikuma. Hits from Hiei, Tone and dive bombers from the aircraft carriers and finally stopped Edsall, which was then finished off by Chikuma. Chikuma rescued eight survivors of the sunken destroyer.

On 4 March, Chikuma and the destroyer located and sank the 5,421-ton Dutch merchant Enggano (which had earlier been damaged by a floatplane from the cruiser ). On 5 March, floatplanes from Tone and Chikuma took part on the strike against Tjilatjap. After the surrender of the Dutch East Indies, Chikuma was assigned to Indian Ocean operations.

Final moments and sinking

thumb|The destroyer preparing to assist the sinking Chikuma

Heavily crippled, Chikuma disengaged, but was soon attacked by four TBM Avenger torpedo-bombers. An Avenger from Taffy 2 succeeded in hitting her stern port quarter with a Mark 13 torpedo that severed her stern and disabled her port screw and rudder. Chikumas speed dropped to , then to , but more seriously, she became unsteerable. At 1105, Chikuma was attacked by five TBMs from . She was hit portside amidships by two torpedoes and her engine rooms flooded. At 1400, three TBMs from a composite squadron of ships from and led by Lt. Joseph Cady dropped more torpedoes which hit Chikuma portside. Cady was later awarded the Navy Cross for his action. The destroyer was called to assist Chikuma, but she was ordered back as the destroyer Nowaki replaced her. It is generally thought Nowaki took off survivors from Chikuma, and then scuttled her at in the late morning of on 25 October 1944, but a more recent study suggests Chikuma sank from the effect of the air attack, and Nowaki only arrived in time to pick up survivors from the water.

On 26 October 1944, Nowaki was crippled by gunfire from the light cruisers , and and finished off by a torpedo from DesDiv 103's destroyer . The ship sank south-southeast of Legaspi, Philippines with about 1,400 men, including all Chikuma survivors. The sole survivor from Chikuma was a crew member who was not picked up by Nowaki and drifted ashore on his own, later to be captured by the US Navy.

Chikuma was removed from the navy list on 20 April 1945.

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Tabular record: CombinedFleet.com: Chikuma history (Retrieved 26 January 2007.)
  • Gallery: US Navy Historical Center