was a

heavy cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...

, armed with ten guns, four guns, eight tubes for the Type 93 torpedo, and assorted anti-aircraft guns. ''Chōkai'' was designed with the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

strategy of the great "Decisive Battle" in mind, and built in 1932 by Mitsubishi's shipyard in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

. She was sunk in the

Battle off Samar The Battle off Samar was the centermost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. It was the only major a ...

in October 1944. ''Chōkai'' was named for Mount Chōkai.

Operational history

At the start of the Pacific War, ''Chōkai'' supported the invasion of Malaya and participated in the pursuit of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

's battleship

Force Z Force Z was a British naval squadron during the Second World War, consisting of the battleship , the battlecruiser and accompanying destroyers. Assembled in 1941, the purpose of the group was to reinforce the British colonial garrisons in the ...

. During January and February 1942, ''Chōkai'' was involved in operations to seize the oil-rich Dutch East Indies and the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. Steaming near Cape St. Jacques, ''Chōkai'' struck a reef, sustaining hull damage on 22 February 1942. On 27 February, she reached

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

for repairs. After repairs, ''Chōkai'' was once again assigned to a support role in an invasion, this time the landings at Iri, Sumatra, and the invasion of the Andaman Islands and the seizure of

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South An ...

a few days later. Afterwards, ''Chōkai'' sailed to Mergui, Burma. On 1 April 1942, ''Chōkai'' left Mergui to participate in Operation C, a raid on merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean. First, ''Chōkai'' torpedoed and sank the U.S. freighter ''Bienville'', and later on, the British steamship ''Ganges'' on 6 April. With her role in the operation successfully concluded, ''Chōkai'' returned to

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

on 22 April 1942.

The Guadalcanal campaign

Japanese cruiser Chokai in 1942 at Chuuk Islands

By mid-July 1942, ''Chōkai'' was made the new flagship of Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi and his 8th Fleet. She proceeded towards Rabaul. On 7 August 1942, with Guadalcanal having been invaded by the Americans, ''Chōkai'' headed for the Guadalcanal waters, with Vice Admiral Mikawa aboard. In the

battle of Savo Island The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the , and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks, was a naval battle of the Solomon Islands cam ...

, Mikawa's squadron of heavy cruisers inflicted a devastating defeat on an Allied squadron, sinking four heavy cruisers (three American and one Australian) and damaging other ships. However, ''Chōkai'' sustained several hits from the cruisers and , disabling her "A" turret and killing 34 men. ''Chōkai'' returned to Rabaul for temporary repairs. For the rest of the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

campaign, ''Chōkai'' would fight in an assortment of night battles with the U.S. Navy, sustaining varied, but mostly minor, damage. Chokai-2

Subsequent action

Relieved as the Eighth Fleet flagship shortly after the final evacuation of Guadalcanal, ''Chōkai'' headed back to Yokosuka on 20 February 1943. Tasked with various minor duties for the remainder of 1943 and first half of 1944, ''Chōkai'' was made the flagship of the Cruiser Division Four ("CruDiv 4") comprising , , , and ''Chōkai'' on 3 August 1944. All four ships took part in the

Battle of the Philippine Sea The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invas ...

Battle of Leyte Gulf

CruDiv 4 was part of Admiral

Takeo Kurita was a vice admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Kurita commanded IJN 2nd Fleet, the main Japanese attack force during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. Biography Early life Takeo Kurita ...

's large fleet of IJN battleships, cruisers, and destroyers that took part in the various engagements of the Battle of Leyte Gulf at the Philippines. CruDiv 4 suffered a harrowing submarine attack on 23 October 1944, with the sinking of and (which was Kurita's flagship though he survived), while was left permanently crippled, leaving ''Chōkai'' as the only undamaged ship of CruDiv 4. ''Chōkai'' was then transferred to Cruiser Division Five, where she survived an air attack on 24 October 1944, while the battleship '' Musashi'' was sunk.

Sunk in the battle off Samar

On the morning of 25 October, ''Chōkai'' engaged an American force of escort carriers, destroyers, and

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

s in the

. During her approach to the US escort carriers, ''Chōkai'' was hit several times on the port side amidships by 5"/38 caliber guns of this force's escort carriers and destroyers. It was believed at the time that one of these hits may have set off the eight deck-mounted Japanese Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes; however, 's expedition in 2019 found ''Chōkai''s torpedoes still intact. An explosion was observed aboard ''Chōkai'' before a TBM Avenger from Kitkun Bay dropped a 500 lb (230 kg) bomb on her forward machinery room. Fires began to rage and she went dead in the water. She was scuttled later that day by torpedoes from the destroyer (), which also rescued some of her crew. Two days later ''Fujinami'' was itself sunk with the loss of all hands, including the ''Chōkai'' survivors.

Wreck

''Chōkai'' sits upright in of water on the edge of the Philippine Deep. RV ''Petrel'' discovered the wreck of ''Chōkai'' on 5 May 2019 and dived it via ROV on 30 May 2019.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chokai Takao-class cruisers Ships built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 1932 ships World War II cruisers of Japan World War II shipwrecks in the Philippine Sea Cruisers sunk by aircraft Warships lost in combat with all hands Maritime incidents in October 1944 Ships sunk by US aircraft 2019 archaeological discoveries