The
Tone-class CAs underwent many refits in their lives, but all looked pretty much the same as the war began in December 1941.
Tone and
Chikuma bombarded the ruins of Pearl Harbor with
Hiei and
Kirishima on the night of 7-8 December 1941, and helped them dispatch a makeshift U.S. surface group, sinking heavy cruiser
Minneapolis. However, the following day,
Tone's luck ran out when she was caught by heavy cruisers
Portland and
Astoria while doing advance reconnaissance.
Chikuma lasted until October 1942, when she was destroyed by her own torpedoes detonating in their tubes at the Battle of Santa Cruz. In 1943, the surviving ships,
Hakone and
Azuma, entered their builders' yards for refits, and came out looking like this:
By October 1944, both cruisers had received radar and a few more AA guns, and
Azuma was sunk at the Battle of Samar in this guise:
In July 1945,
Hakone met her end off Kure, being sunk in shallow water by U.S. carrier-based aircraft.