Type T-51b
Contents
Description
The Type T-51b is a rank III Japanese motor torpedo boat
with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.89 "Imperial Navy".
General info
Survivability and armour
The T-51b is unarmoured, apart from the 4mm of steel making up the hull. It's a fairly large vessel for its class, and also not the fastest either, this means it will take a higher amount of damage comparatively, and will likely not survive incoming fire for very long. It does however have four compartments, so if fire is concentrated over a small area it will likely survive for a short amount of time.
Mobility
The T-51b isn't a hugely fast vessels by MTB standards, reaching a max of 52 km/h in RB modes, and 73 km/h in AB modes. It's also a fairly long boat, so it has a fairly wide turning circle, and will take some time to adjust direction. Its acceleration and speed in reverse also isn't too impressive. Overall, it's fast enough to cruise around the map and reach the spots it needs to, but it does lack the overall mobility to get out of trouble when fighting faster craft.
Armament
Primary armament
The T-51b is equipped with a triple 25mm mounting, which on the surface offers huge damage potential, a single 25mm cannon is a powerful, the presence of three of these cannons can lead for a very high damage output. However, because of the shield present around the mounting, it does have a significant dead-zone, meaning that the cannons can't fire at a surface target in the red sections of the diagram to the right. This can make the T-51b quite a tedious vehicle to engage other vessels with. The 25mm cannons come with three belts-
- Universal- Predominantly HE rounds with an AP round, good for combating all types of vessels but not the most powerful.
- API- Predominantly AP rounds with one HE round, good for combating armoured vessels.
- HEIT- Full HE belt with few tracers, the highest damage potential against light craft, but little viability against armoured targets.
Overall, taking a mix of API and HEIT belts to switch between will let you cause maximum potential damage to all kinds of boats. The HEIT belt will cause impressive damage to lightly armoured boats- although they are slightly harder to aim as there are few tracers, and the API rounds will shred through the various armoured vessels and support craft you'll meet.
Torpedo armament
The T-51b is armed with four Type 2 torpedoes, they will easily destroy any MTB or large support craft, but as the maximum range is only 3 kilometres you'll need to get a bit closer to the target or choke point than you would with other torpedoes, there's also no 'Torpedo mode' modification to allow for more travel distance, so there's no way to increase the range, this makes engaging Destroyers on the open sea quite tricky, as you'll need to make yourself vulnerable to be able to reach the torpedoes effective range.
Special armament
This boat can carry twelve Type 95 depth charges, which can be dropped to maim other naval targets, they have rather limited viability though as most MTBs will be able to outrun the explosion, however they are useful for sneaking up on the larger ships, as if you can reach them unnoticed one or two of these depth charges will sink the vessel, although overall they have quite limited viability in battle currently.
Usage in battles
The T-51b is a fairly defensive boat. Its lack of ability to engage surface targets from the front means that it lacks the viability to be truly aggressive. It does however work fairly well defensively. The 25mm cannons have a fairly wide arc of fire towards the rear of the boat, so if this section is pointed towards the enemy the cannons can really do some damage. Aiming to engage from this setup is really the most consistent way to safely play the T-51b, sailing around on the move and engaging targets like most conventional MTBs would isn't going to work due to the large dead zones.
Try and utilise the terrain of the map to protect yourself and angle the rear of the vessel towards where enemy boats are likely to come from. Aim to stay somewhat stationary while doing this as well, if you get caught out you can simply accelerate off and lay smoke as you're already facing away from the enemy. Also, try not to pick a location where enemies can potentially engage you at close range, this vessel is large, fairly slow to react, and can only fire from the back, so enemies can quite easily outmanoeuvre the T-51b if given the chance, the 25mm guns will work well up to around 2000 meters, so there's no need to stay at very close range, as all this does is allow enemies to take advantage of your weaknesses easier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great damage potential from the 25mm cannons
- Four high damage torpedoes for engaging close range targets
Cons:
- Short maximum distance for the torpedoes
- Large dead zone for the cannons
- Fairly slow and unresponsive for an MTB
- Comparatively large, unarmoured target
History
The Type Ko MTB (甲型魚雷艇, T-51) is a Japanese large MTB inspired by the German S-boots.
This boat is separated into two group: No.10 class MTB (T-51a) and No.11 class MTB (T-51b) (Currently, the in-game model is a mix of the two classes' features).
After the completion of the No.1 class MTB (T-1), news about activity of the German Schnellboot (S-boot) from Europe reached the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). They started to copy the S-boot design, but they had only a simple sketch and one civilian motor boat owned by the Mitsui family built by Lürssen (a builder of S-boot). In that time, the Japanese did not have the experience to produce a wood-and-iron mixed large boat, so at first they built one prototype. ("Vessel No.600", later No.10 MTB)
The No.600 prototype was laid down in July 1942 by Yokohama Yacht Tsurumi factory and completed in November 1943. But because of the worsening of the war situation, they started mass-production the ship design before testing the prototype. Just afterwards, the Japanese receive official detailed drawings of 95-ft type S-boot. Basically, design of future T-51 and S-boat was similar, but there was much for the Japanese to learn.
In the designing of No.600, the Japanese simplified lots of part and material. Due to how well-crafted the S-boot design was, the simplification caused several problems. Though measures were taken to mitigate the problems, the vessel stability was not enough and so there were difficulties putting the ship into practical use.
No.600 was equipped with four Mark 71 Model 6 engines (water-cooled, 920 HP), which were a copy of the Italian MAS-451 MTB engines. There were two shafts, with two engines connected to one shaft by Vulkan coupling. However, this configuration caused an increase of weight and so the prototype exceeded the planned displacement of 84.2 tons, and instead reached 89.6 tons and so the maximum speed decreased. Because of this, the boat was redesigned into the No.11 class MTB, which eliminated the coupling and so each engine had their own shaft. With this, the single No.10 class design (No.600 prototype) was named the T-51a, with the redesigned No.11 class as the T-51b that would be the model for subsequent boat numbers.
Armaments was also redesigned between the two class. The T-51a had one 25 mm twin machine gun and four 45 cm torpedoes, while the T-51b had three 25 mm single machine guns and two torpedoes.
No.10 (T-51a), No.13 and No.16 were built at Yokohama Yacht Tsurumi factory, while the other boats were built by a new shipyard, Yokohama Yacht Choshi factory. A total of ten Type Ko MTBs were laid down, but only 8 boats were completed (No.10 - No.17). Construction of Type Ko was cancelled in August 1944. No.18 was planned to equip a small diesel engine, but it was not completed. The construction of Type Ko MTBs was delayed because the No.11 class MTBs need to resolve problem discovered during the testing of No.10 class MTB. Also the Mk.71 Mod.6 engines required advanced manufacturing technology and so production of engine was also delayed.
No.10 MTB was dispatched to Truk island just after completion, but a fire broke out and sank due to air raid. No.12 MTB was brought out from Choshi to Yokosuka to equip weapons, but just after that was completed, she sunk due to an electric motor spark that ignited the gasoline and subsequently exploded.
Other vessels was deployed to the Special Attack corps, but most of them did not experience the actual battle. Only one boat deployed at Habu port of Izu Oshima attacked an enemy submarine.
Also, No.16 MTB equip only two engine. She used space of other engines for hold and used for tender boat of other small MTBs and midget submarines at Kawadana Assault Corps.[1][2]
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the ship;
- other literature.
References
- ↑ Imamura Yoshinobu [今村好信], (2011) Story of Japanese Torpedo Boats [日本魚雷艇物語] (Kojin-sha, 2011) pp.55-60.
| Japan boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | Type T-1 · Type T-14 · Type T-14 (mod. 1) · Type T-38 · Type T-51a · Type T-51b |
| PT-802 · PT-808 · PT-15 | |
| Motor gun boats | Ha-Go (mod. 1) · Type 4 (mod. 2) · Type 4 (Mod 4) |
| Asagao (YTE-01) · PG 02 | |
| Armoured gun boats | Soukou-Tei · Soukou-Tei No.4 |
| Gunboats | Chidori |
