IJN Heavy Cruiser Chikuma

Chikuma was an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Tone-class heavy cruiser commissioned in 1939.  It was armed with eight 20cm cannons in four turrets on the foredeck, as well as various smaller guns and torpedo tubes, and could launch six seaplanes from the aft deck, making it what my Russian friends would call an "aviation cruiser."  Chikuma and her sister Tone launched scout/picket seaplanes during the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the United States of America into World War II, and later helped capture Wake Island.  Moving away from the Pacific, Chikuma helped attack the city of Darwin, Australia, and sank several Dutch ships around Indonesia and British ships in the Indian Ocean.  It also tried and failed to hunt down USS Hornet (CV-8) to exact revenge for the humiliating Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.

Returning to the Pacific in the summer of 1942, Chikuma and Tone launched several scout planes, which failed to recognize a U.S. Navy fleet as a carrier battle group, leading to the American victory over Japan at the Battle of Midway, the first time both sides used naval aviation in a battle.  Chikuma survived the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and just barely survived the October 1942 Battle of Santa Cruz by ejecting all its torpedoes before a bomb landed over one of its torpedo rooms, though its captain and 190 sailors were killed.  Chikuma also managed to escape the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 despite losing its air cover in the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. 

The imperial cruiser's penchant for escaping and surviving came to an end at the most surprising chapter of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in late October 1944.  In the Battle off Samar, U.S. Navy Task Force 3 (Taffy 3), a small fleet of six escort carriers protected by three destroyers and four destroyer escorts, was abandoned when Admiral Bull Halsey fell for a Japanese feint and took his battleships away from the Philippines.  Taffy 3 had to fight off Admiral Takeo Kurita's four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers, and fought harder than anyone could have expected.  Sailing as fast as they could, the ships of Taffy 3 threw everything in their arsenals at the Japanese fleet. 

While Chikuma sank USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), it was suddenly faced with USS Heermann (DD-532) and a large Avenger torpedo bomber squadron from USS Manila Bay, USS Kitkun Bay, USS Ormanney Bay, and USS Natoma Bay.  Chikuma managed to hit USS Heermann, but Avenger pilot Richard Deitchman launched a torpedo that tore through Chikuma's stern, disabling the rudder and a propeller.  Chikuma's handling became slow and imprecise, and Lt. Joseph Cady's Avenger squadron was able to fire a full spread at the port side.  The 15,000-ton cruiser began to sink, though slowly enough that IJN destroyer Nowaki was able to rescue most of its crew.  As luck would have it, Nowaki was later sunk by three U.S. Navy cruisers (USS Vincennes, USS Biloxi, and USS Miami) and three destroyers (USS Miller, USS Owen, and USS Lewis Hancock) near Legaspi, taking 1400 sailors, including most of Chikuma's survivors, to a watery grave.

Realizing that he had lost three cruisers (Chikuma, Chokai, and Suzuya), and that three other cruisers and a destroyer had been badly damaged, Admiral Kurita feared he would not be able to survive an encounter with the American battleships, which were sailing back toward the Philippines now that Admiral Halsey had gotten the message "WHERE IS REPEAT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR THE WORLD WONDERS" into his head.  Aboard the massive battleship Yamato, the Japanese admiral ordered a retreat.  While both the U.S. Navy and the IJN had taken a lot of damage that day, Japan lost more firepower and tonnage, and spent the remainder of the war suffering more naval defeats.  Yet again, capital-ship firepower had contributed less to the battle than naval aviation, which is why most post-WWII navies moved toward aircraft carriers and light warships rather than sticking to massive gunships. 

This model of Chikuma is on display at Shizuoka Hobby Square.