Chi-Ha Short Gun
| This page is about the premium Japanese medium tank Chi-Ha Short Gun. For other versions, see Chi-Ha (Family). |
Contents
Description
The Type 97 Chi-Ha Short Gun / Short 12cm SPG (短十二糎自走砲) is a later iteration of the Chi-Ha with a modified turret coming from the Chi-Ha Kai, boasting a Navy short gun (120 mm) meant to defend naval bases and merchant ships in a multipurpose role. The Navy's modification of the Chi-Ha was meant to mimic the role of the Army's Ho-I tank to support infantry as a gun tank during the defense of the homeland.
The Chi-Ha Short Gun was introduced along with the initial Japanese Ground Forces tree in Update 1.65 "Way of the Samurai" as a pre-order premium pack. It packs a relatively powerful 120 mm cannon that can destroy most enemies with one shot. However, it has a considerable reload time of 10s aced, poor turret traverse, and low shell velocity that make it hard to aim and fight with. It will be able to destroy the lightest targets with near misses, and will need some aim on more armoured targets trying to splash the explosive mass into the bottom or top armour of tanks.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, turret, cupola)
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| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 25 mm (11-31°) Front plate 15-17 mm (62-80°) Front glacis 15 mm (37-59°) Lower glacis |
25 mm (25 / 40°) Top 25 mm Bottom |
15 mm (69°) Top 20 mm (5-57°) |
12 mm |
| Turret | 25 mm (9-10°) Turret front 32-35 mm Gun mantlet |
25 mm (9-10°) | 25 mm | 10 mm |
| Cupola | 25 mm (cylindrical) | 10 mm | ||
Notes:
- Suspension wheels and tracks are 15 mm thick.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 45 | 21 | 14.8 | 263 | 324 | 17.77 | 21.89 |
| Realistic | 40 | 19 | 150 | 170 | 10.14 | 11.49 | |
The Type 97 Chi-Ha is an upgraded version of the earlier Type 89 I-Go Ko. The engine has been upgraded, from the Mitsubishi A6120VD air-cooled straight-six diesel with 120 hp to a Mitsubishi SA12200VD air-cooled V12 diesel with 170 hp. As such, the top speed has increased from 27 km/h on the I-Go Ko to 40 km/h on the Chi-Ha.
Modifications and economy
2 × 40 / 50 / 70 % 2 × 112 / 112 / 112 % | Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
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The 120 mm Navy short gun is built to deal with submarines and close range naval combat, and that does translate over in-game as a gun that have a very low muzzle velocity, which on the bright side can be used to shoot at vehicles over cover.
The gun can only fire an HE round by default. However, the shell contains 2.64 kg of TNT equivalent, which is enough to cause a lethal overpressure damage against almost any enemy the tank has to face at its BR.
While the shell is certainly powerful, it is not as powerful as the Ho-Ro's 150 mm howitzer rounds. This means careful aim is still needed when facing a more well-armoured opponents. Against these targets, aim at any deflective angles that can cause the explosion effect to deflect on the weak hull roof.
| 120 mm Navy short gun | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 23 | -8°/+15° | ±180° | N/A | 5.7 | 7.9 | 9.6 | 10.6 | 11.3 | 13.0 | 11.5 | 10.6 | 10.0 |
| Realistic | 3.6 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 5.6 | 6.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| Short Ordinary HE | HE | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Short Ordinary HE | HE | 290 | 13 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 2.64 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 18 (+5) | 0 (+23) | No |
Note:
- Racks disappear after you've fired all shells in the rack.
Machine guns
| 7.7 mm Type 97 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Hull | 3,000 (20) | 499 | ±10° | ±15° |
| Pintle | 1,000 (20) | 499 | -10°/+70° | ±60° |
Usage in battles
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Because the Chi-Ha Short Gun was designed for an infantry support role, its performance shows how tank combat wasn't put in mind for the vehicle. With awfully slow turret traverse and poor shell trajectory harming the tank's combat effectiveness. However, with each shell having 2.64 kg of TNT equivalent of explosives, it can easily deal overpressure damage against most tank it will face.
Most lightly-armoured vehicles and tanks with less than 30 mm of armour will be able to be destroyed from crew knock-out wherever you hit them. But when you start opposing medium to heavy tanks, you should fall back for friendlies to deal with the target. It might be possible fire a shot to deal overpressure damage against weak hull roof, but it's a tricky shot and won't always deal a fatal blow on first hit.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Familiar Chi-Ha chassis
- Ten-seconds reload with a 120 mm cannon
- Huge explosive mass for 120 mm HE shell means it can destroy every tank it faces via overpressure
- Five crew members
Cons:
- Slow reload compared to cannons commonly met at this BR (37 to 75 mm)
- Only fires high explosive rounds
- As the shell is much less effective than the 150 mm howitzers, it requires some knowledge for where to aim on enemy's tanks to cause overpressure effect
- Poor turret traverse, just 5.1°/s
- Very slow muzzle velocity (290 m/s) causes large shell drop
History
Development
The Chi-Ha Short Gun, designated the Short 12 cm Self-propelled artillery (短十 二糎 自走砲) was a navy refit of the Type 97 Chi-Ha Kai to make a similar gun tank as the Army's Type 2 Ho-I with greater firepower to support the Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF).
To get greater firepower than the Type 2 Ho-I, a naval short barrel 120 mm was chosen with an additional bespoke muzzle brake, the official designation of this 120 mm gun is unclear but may greatly be the 12cm/12 short naval gun. Additionally, there was a small storage compartment added onto the back of the ShinHoTo Chi-Ha turret.
Combat usage
The only certain information on this variant is that only a dozen or so vehicles were built and all were assigned to the Yokosuka No. 16 Special Land Battle Corps. The Chi-Ha's weren't the only vehicles assigned to this squadron and saw service next to the Type 2 Ka-Mi and Type 3 Ka-Chi amphibious tanks.
These vehicles would most likely have seen service in defense of the homeland next to the SNLF infantry. But in-case that these tanks would be required to move to forward islands, they would most likely be transport by Daihatsu-class Landing Craft's just like the infantry accompanied and escorted by the Amphibious tanks during landings.
There's only a handful of images of Chi-Ha 120 mm, all being American and taken at the naval yard in Sasebo, Japan, October 1945. None of the vehicles survive today.
American Inspection
Stored Chi-Ha 12 cm's
Inside picture of the breech, seen from the commander's port
Media
- Skins
- Images
Chi-Ha Short Gun coming from the sea
Chi-Ha Short Gun engaging an enemy
Chi-Ha Short Gun back view
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- Videos
See also
- Related development
- Directly Related:
- Type 97 Chi-Ha (base hull)
- Type 97 Chi-Ha Kai (base turret)
- Type 2 Ho-I (reference role)
- Related:
- Type 97 Chi-Ha Long Gun (another navy variant)
- Tanks of comparable role, configuration and era
External links
| Sasebo Naval Arsenal (佐世保海軍工廠) | |
|---|---|
| Destroyers | |
| Mutsuki-class | IJN Mutsuki |
| Hatsuharu-class | IJN Hatsuharu |
| Shiratsuyu-class | IJN Yuudachi |
| Light Cruisers | |
| Agano-class | IJN Agano |
| Unique Ships | IJN Yubari |
| Tanks | Chi-Ha Short Gun |
| Japan medium tanks | |
|---|---|
| Type 97 | Chi-Ha · Chi-Ha Kai · Chi-Ha Kai TD · Chi-Ha Short Gun |
| Type 1 | Chi-He · Chi-He (5th Regiment) · Ho-I |
| Type 3 | Chi-Nu · Chi-Nu II |
| Type 4 | Chi-To · Chi-To Late |
| Type 5 | Chi-Ri II |
| Type 61 MBT | ST-A1* · ST-A2* · ST-A3* · Type 61 |
| Type 74 MBT | ST-B2* · Type 74 (C) · Type 74 (E) · Type 74 (F) · Type 74 (G) |
| Type 90 MBT | Type 90 · Type 90 (B) · Type 90 (B) "Fuji" |
| Type 10 MBT | TKX (P)* · TKX* · Type 10 |
| Other | Ka-Chi |
| USA | ▅M4A3 (76) W · ▅M47 |
| *Prototype | |
| Japan premium ground vehicles | |
|---|---|
| Light tanks | Ha-Go Commander · Type 16 (FPS) |
| Medium tanks | Chi-Ha Short Gun · Chi-He (5th Regiment) · Ka-Chi · Chi-Nu II · Type 74 (G) · Type 90 (B) "Fuji" |
| Heavy tanks | Ro-Go · ▅Heavy Tank No.6 |
| Tank destroyers | Ho-Ri Prototype · Type 75 MLRS |
