Tone and Chikuma were sisters, heavy cruisers with their seaplanes grouped forward. On 1 March 1942 Tone was with Hiei, Kirishima, and Chikuma when they caught the destroyer Edsall alone, south-southeast of Christmas Island. The four ships fired more than a thousand shells. Dive bombers from Kaga, Hiryu, and Soryu stopped her. She went down by the stern. That sinking is not pinned to one ship. A cameraman on Tone filmed the last of it.
On 25 October 1944 she was in Kurita's cruiser line off Samar, with Chikuma, Kumano, and Suzuya. She was not sunk. The American ships lost that morning are not credited to her alone.
On 24 July 1945 American carrier aircraft sank her at Kure. Not credited to one plane.