Tone (ship, 1938)
 The clays before 1940
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The Tone ( Japanese 利 根 ) was a heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the lead ship of the two-ship Tone class . It was named after the river Tone in the Japanese region of Kantō and was used in the Pacific War.
Calls
At the beginning of the Second World War , the ship was under the command of Kaigun-Taisa Okadu Tantsugu. During the attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Wake Islands , his planes were used for reconnaissance.
In January 1942 the Tone supported the attacks on Rabaul and New Guinea , the following month the air raid on Darwin in Australia and the invasion of Java .
On March 1, she took part in the Battle of the Java Sea , where she intercepted the Dutch freighter Modjokerto . Subsequently, the ship took part in the operations in the Indian Ocean , during which its reconnaissance aircraft discovered Cornwall and Dorsetshire , which were then sunk by aircraft of the Akagi , Hiryū and Sōryū .
In April 1942, during the Battle of Midway , the clay was caught in an air raid, but was not itself damaged. One of their reconnaissance aircraft discovered a group of American ships on June 4, 1942 at 7:28 a.m., but they were incorrectly not identified as the carrier group. After this battle it was used in the invasion of the Alëuts .
In July 1942, Captain Okada was transferred to the Jun'yō , and Captain Kobe Yuji took command of the Tone . In August, the cruiser took part in the operations around Guadalcanal . In the Battle of the East Solomon Islands , he was attacked by American torpedo bombers.
In 1943 the Tone was stationed on Truk and operated on the Marshall Islands and the Carolines . In 1944 the ship operated in the Philippines ; their base was Lingga near Singapore . Then she took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
On October 22, 1944, she ran as part of the cruiser division 7 under the command of Vice Admiral Kazutaka, together with the Chikuma , the Kumano and the Suzuya from Brunei . The division was part of Vice Admiral Kurita's armed forces in the sea and air battles in the Leyte Gulf . This force was attacked eleven times by the American Task Group 38.2, with the Tone being hit by several bombs. The next day, she fought against the American destroyer Heermann in front of Samar . She was pushed aside by air raids and escaped through San Bernardino Street without suffering any further damage.
The necessary repairs were carried out in Maizuru in dry dock . The stay in the shipyard was used to install more anti-aircraft guns and a more modern radar . In January 1945, Captain Okada Yusaku was given command of the clays .
Downfall
On March 19, 1945 she was attacked for the first time in the port of Kure by aircraft of the American Task Force 58 with aerial bombs. There she was anchored with a full crew, but almost without any fuel.
She was attacked again on July 24th. The planes dropped 227 kg and 454 kg standard bombs and 454 kg SAP bombs to combat armored ships. The Tone received three bomb hits from planes of the Monterey . A 227 kg bomb exploded on the upper deck at the base of the funnel and destroyed the inlets of the ventilation shafts to the boiler rooms.
A 454 kg bomb (SAP) with a delay fuse penetrated the upper deck on port side, continued its way inside the ship and penetrated the approximately 6.5 cm thick embankment of the armored citadel above the engine rooms before it exploded. The belt armor tore at the seam to the embankment and was pressed from the inside out. The longitudinal bulkhead to the engine room tore at the connection to the armored deck and was bent into the interior of the ship. Since the port engine room was now open to the sea, severe water ingress took place immediately.
A tug was called to push the ship closer to the coast. Another 454 kg bomb hit the aft, behind the armored citadel, so that two decks inside the ship were devastated and further water ingress occurred. The ship eventually sank to the shallow bottom in Hiroshima Bay . The crew made no attempts to stop the water ingress. She gave up the clays before 2:00 p.m. on the 24th and went ashore. At least 59 seamen were killed and about 127 wounded.
The abandoned ship was attacked again on July 28 by aircraft from the Wasp and the Ticonderoga .
The wreck of the Tone was scrapped in 1948.
Evidence and references
Remarks
- ↑ for 1938 after Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War , p. 823
- ↑ The Japanese rank of Taisa corresponds to the German rank of captain at sea . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a marine rank.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim Wätzig: The Japanese Fleet - From 1868 to today . Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89488-104-6 . P. 183
- ↑ REPORTS OF THE US NAVAL TECHNICAL MISSION TO JAPAN 1945-1946, S-06-1, Reports of Damage to Japanese Warships-Article 1, pages 51 and 52
literature
Literature in Japanese language:
- Heavy Cruisers , Gakken Pacific War Series, 2004, ISBN 4-05-603653-5
- Heavy Cruisers Vol III , Kojinsha, 1990, ISBN 4-7698-0457-1
Literature in other languages:
- Eric Lacroix: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War , Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3
