IJN Tone (利根 重巡洋艦 Tone jūjun'yōkan^?) was the lead ship in the two-vessel Tone-class of heavy cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was named after the Tone River, in the Kantō region of Japan and was completed on 20 November 1938 at Mitsubishi's Nagasaki shipyards. Tone was designed for long-range scouting missions and had a large seaplane capacity. She was extensively employed during World War II usually providing scouting services to their aircraft carrier task forces. She almost always operated in this capacity in conjunction with her sister shipChikuma. Tone was a remarkably lucky ship; involved in most major IJN fleet battles, suffering almost no crew losses. It was only in the last couple of months of the war that she was caught at Kure and sank to the shallow bottom just a few feet under her keel. The wreck was scrapped in 1947/48 and nothing remains.

This is the first of Kagero's 3D books that I have had the chance to see. Obviously I do not get around much as this is the 13th book in the ship series that is like this one. The book opens with a rather comprehensive history of the development and deployment of the ship during WWII. I was quite surprised at how often the ship returned to Japan for refit and overhaul. I doubt if it spent more than 6 months at any one time out of dry dock. True, her stays were brief, but still a lot more frequent than I would have thought. She also spent quite a lot of time at Truk between missions.

What makes this book truly remarkable is that there is not a single photograph anywhere within its pages. Instead, modern 3D graphic arts provides the reader with 137 renders of the ship's exterior in superb detail. It is as if you walked aboard her with a camera and started photographing everything. Even better, there are images from angles that a man with a camera would not be able to easily reproduce. Every aspect of the ship is covered from stem to stern. In addition, there is a double-sided A2 sheet of the plans of the ship in 1/350 scale. This additional sheet is a real boon for modelers and those who just like to pour over plans.

It is a great read from a historical standpoint and an outstanding visual treat. A book that every IJN fan should have in their collection.

December 2011

Review book courtesy of the fine folks at Kagero. Visit them for more books.

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