Chi-Ha (China)
| This page is about the medium tank Chi-Ha (China). For other uses, see Chi-Ha (Family). For the original vehicle, see Chi-Ha. |
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Contents
Description
The ␗Type 97 Chi-Ha is a rank I Chinese medium tank with a battle rating of 1.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision".
General info
The Type 97 Chi-Ha is an upgraded version of the earlier Type 89 I-Go. 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 kph on the I-Go to 38 kph on the Chi-Ha. The armament stays the same, with the same shells and gun characteristics. The 5.7 cm Tank Gun Type 97 is robust but will get the job done. It still has four crewmen inside, no armour, and a 7.7 mm Type 97 in the hull. Overall, it's, in general, a better I-Go.
Survivability and armour
Armour: Light, but effective against weaker guns (i.e. early French), weaker shells (low-caliber HE), and in long-range engagements.
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 25 mm (12-32°) Front plate 17 mm (63-81°) Front glacis 15 mm (37-59°) Lower glacis |
25 mm (40°) Top Left 25 mm (25-27°) Top Right 20 mm Bottom |
20 mm (4-58°) | 12 mm |
| Turret | 25 mm (9-41°) Turret front 25 mm Gun mantlet |
25 mm (10-11°) | 25 mm (12°) | 10 mm |
| Armour | Sides | Roof | ||
| Cupola | 17 mm | 6 mm |
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 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The gun is the same as on the I-Go. Not much to write home about, but we're hardly complaining, especially with the HEAT shell.
| 57 mm Type 97 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 120 | -15°/+20° | ±180° | Shoulder | 14.5 | 20.0 | 24.3 | 26.9 | 28.6 | 4.29 | 3.80 | 3.50 | 3.30 |
| Realistic | 9.0 | 10.6 | 12.9 | 14.3 | 15.2 | ||||||||
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 | ||
| Type 92 APHE | APHE | 21 | 21 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 13 |
| Type 3 HEAT | HEAT | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 |
| Shell details | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | |||||||
| Type 92 APHE | APHE | 349 | 2.58 | 1.2 | 9 | 103 | 47° | 60° | 65° |
| Type 3 HEAT | HEAT | 380 | 1.8 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 303.36 | 62° | 69° | 73° |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120 | 117 (+3) | 113 (+7) | 89 (+31) | 69 (+51) | 1 (+129) | No |
Right side only: 69 (+51)
Machine guns
The Chi-Ha has a 7.7 mm Type 97 machine gun mounted on the left side of the hull, and another on the turret roof. While they have enough ammunition, this machine gun is just simply not good enough. The rate of fire is below average, the penetration is bad, and there are only about 25 bullets in each magazine, making it impossible to provide a continuous machine-gun fire. The one things these machine guns can do is to incapacitate the fully exposed crews on some vehicles, as even a bit of armour might block out the weak bullets. The roof mounted gun can ward off some low-flying strafing planes but it is still inferior comparing to other machine guns like the American M1919 or M2HB.
| 7.7 mm Type 97 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Hull | 3,000 (20) | 499 | ±10° | ±15° |
| Pintle | 1,000 (20) | 499 | 0°/+60° | -80°/+10° |
Usage in battles
The Chi-Ha is one of the most interesting Rank I Chinese tanks to play as it has little to no armour, a shot-put-like muzzle velocity and looks like a bus in some sense as to how long it is.
However, there is a way to play this tank despite all the negatives to this tank and to play it to the best of its abilities, one can play it as a support tank in every way (apart from long distance as the rounds drop like a brick after 500 m). Stay close to teammates and always play sneaky as the Chi-Ha can be easily one-shotted by everything like all Japanese tanks in this Rank.
But if facing a heavy tank or medium tank of early Rank II are very hard to versus from head-on and the fact that the 57 mm APHE rounds lack penetration to destroy it from the front. So the best option is to go up behind it or attack from the side to destroy them. Another problem that shows itself strongly in close quarter fights is that the Chi-Ha has a hand-cranked turret and turning the tank is painful at best.
So it is best to plan ahead before attacking, think where the enemy may be and find a place to hide the bulky tank from the enemy and wait for the enemy to come to the firing range. The Type 3 HEAT shell changes this. With 55 mm of penetration, the tank is capable of penetrating tanks that it previously couldn't - which is most tanks at rank I and II. In addition to this, the Type 3 HEAT has the potential to hull break lightly armoured targets like LVTs or the Sturmpanzer. Use the protection analysis feature to figure out which tanks you can and can't get through, and adapt your playstyle accordingly when those vehicles are encountered. Now, this is somewhat important "Don't look for the enemy, let the enemy look for the Chi-Ha." Of course, the Chi-Ha could still go look for the enemy, but always be on alert and make sure to have a friend for firing support.
Engine power is not that powerful, which then means that the acceleration will be slow to start up, but it will slowly get faster over time. But reversing is like all British tanks when they reverse, It's going to be slow. But this is compensated for the turning speed of this tank as it is better to turn and run in some cases then reverse.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Improved sloped armour compared to the reserve vehicles
- Quite fast (up to 44 km/h), allowing it to get to certain spots in time
- Lovely climbing ability combined with the amazing -15 degrees gun depression, it is great at mountain combat
- The vertical stabiliser is a big advantage in a sudden encounter, as most tanks it faces don't have stabilisers, and therefore need to wait longer to fire
- Due to its curved 57 mm shell trajectory, it can shoot from behind cover without showing the tank to some degree
- Type 3 HEAT is powerful, it can frontally penetrate common targets like M3 Lee, and hullbreak tanks like LVT(A)(1)
- Great turning ability in low gear
Cons:
- 57 mm armament may be underpowered in an uptier, especially in frontal engagements
- Although fast, it still gets outran by M3 and M5 Stuarts and the Sd.Kfz.234 series
- Thin armour gets penetrated by lots of guns. Beware of any tank with the PzGr.40 shells (Pz.II, FlakPz 38)
- Abysmal penetration on stock APHE, will struggle to penetrate most low tier tanks like M3A1 and T-70
History
Some Japanese tanks, after being captured by Soviet troops during the Soviet–Japanese War in Manchuria and Korea, were given to the Chinese Communists to help their efforts in the Chinese Civil War. After their war, the Chinese kept the Japanese tanks in their inventory until 1949.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
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 vehicles;
- 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 tank;
- other literature.
| China medium tanks | |
|---|---|
| ZTZ59 | Type 59 · ZTZ59A · ZTZ59D1 |
| ZTZ69 | Type 69 · Type 69-IIa |
| ZTZ88/96 | ZTZ88A · ZTZ88B |
| ZTZ96 · ZTZ96A · ZTZ96A (P) | |
| ZTZ99 | ZTZ99-II · ZTZ99-III |
| ZTZ99A | ZTZ99A · WZ1001(E) LCT |
| Export series | MBT-2000 · VT4A1 |
| ROC | CM11 |
| Other | Т-34-85 Gai · Object 122MT "MC" |
| Bangladesh | T-69 II G |
| Japan | ␗Chi-Ha · ␗Chi-Ha Kai |
| Pakistan | Al-Khalid-I |
| USA | ␗M4A4 · ␗M4A4 (1st PTG) · ␗M4A1 (75) W · ␗M48A1 · ␗M60A3 TTS |
| USSR | ␗T-34 (1943) · ␗Т-34-85 (S-53) · T-34-85 No.215 · Т-62 №545 |
