Japanese cruiser Chikuma (1938)

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Japanese heavy cruiser Chikuma
History
Japan
Name	Chikuma
Namesake	Chikuma River
Ordered	1932 fiscal year
Builder	Mitsubishi
Laid down	1 October 1935
Launched	19 March 1938
Commissioned	20 May 1939[1]
Stricken	20 April 1945
Fate	Sank 25 October 1944 after Battle off Samar[2] 11°25′N 126°36′E / 11.417°N 126.600°E / 11.417; 126.600
General characteristics
Class and type	Tone-class cruiser
Displacement	11,213 tons (standard); 15,443 (final)
Length	189.1 m (620 ft 5 in)
Beam	19.4 m (63 ft 8 in)
Draught	6.2 m (20 ft 4 in)
Propulsion	4-shaft Gihon oil geared turbines 8 boilers 152,000 shp (113,000 kW)
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h)
Range	8,000 nmi (15,000 km) at 18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement	874
Armament	8 × 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (4x2) 8 × 127 mm (5 in)/40 guns 6 × Type 96 25 mm (0.98 in) AA guns 12 × 610 mm (24-inch) torpedo tubes
Armor	100 mm (3.9 in) (belt) 65–30 mm (2.6–1.2 in) (deck)
Aircraft carried	6 x floatplanes

Chikuma (筑摩) was the second and last vessel in the Tone class 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 the 25 of October 1944, she served in the Battle off Samar where she possibly sank the escort carrier USS Gambier Bay (though most modern sources attribute the carrier's sinking to Battleship Yamato) and damaged the destroyer USS Heermann, before being crippled by gunfire from the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts and sunk by air attacks.