Chi-Ha

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Rank VI | Premium | Golden Eagles
Chinese A-5C Pack
Chi-Ha
jp_type_97_chi_ha.png
Chi-Ha
AB RB SB
1.3 1.3 1.3
Class:
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Description

GarageImage Chi-Ha.jpg


The Type 97 Chi-Ha is a Rank I Japanese medium tank with a battle rating of 1.3. It was introduced in Update 1.65 "Way of the Samurai" along with the initial Japanese vehicles of the Japanese Ground Forces Tree.

General info

Survivability and armour

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

Mobility characteristic
Weight (tons) Add-on Armor
weight (tons)
Max speed (km/h)
14.8 N/A 44 (AB)
40 (RB/SB)
Engine power (horsepower)
Mode Stock Upgraded
Arcade 263 324
Realistic/Simulator 150 170
Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Mode Stock Upgraded
Arcade 17.77 21.89
Realistic/Simulator 10.13 11.49

Armaments

Main armament

Main article: Type 97 (57 mm)
57 mm Type 97
Capacity Vertical
guidance
Horizontal
guidance
Stabilizer
120 -15°/+20° ±180° Vertical
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode Stock Upgraded Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade 9.00 12.50 15.20 __.__ __.__
Realistic 9.00 10.60 12.90 __.__ __.__
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
4.30 3.80 __.__ __.__
Ammunition
Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Penetration in mm @ 90°
10m 100m 500m 1000m 1500m 2000m
Type 90 APHE APHE 32 30 23 15 7 5
Type 3 HEAT HEAT 55 55 55 55 55 55
Shell details
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Velocity
in m/s
Projectile
Mass in kg
Fuse delay

in m:

Fuse sensitivity

in mm:

Explosive Mass in g
(TNT equivalent):
Normalization At 30°
from horizontal:
Ricochet:
0% 50% 100%
Type 90 APHE APHE 349 2.6 1.2 15 103 -1° 43° 30° 25°
Type 3 HEAT HEAT 380 1.8 N/A 0.1 303.36 +0° 28° 21° 17°
Ammo racks
Ammo racks for the Chi-Ha.
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
4th
rack empty
5th
rack empty
Recommendations Visual
discrepancy
120 117 (+3) 113 (+7) 89 (+31) 69 (+51) (+129) No

Right side only: 69 (+51)

Machine guns

Main article: Type 97 tank (7.7 mm)
7.7 mm Type 97
Hull mount
Capacity (Belt capacity) Fire rate
(shots/minute)
Vertical
guidance
Horizontal
guidance
3,000 (20) 499 ±10° ±15°

Usage in the battles

The Chi-Ha is the most interesting tank to play in Rank I Japanese tanks 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. But 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 500m). 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 2 are very hard to verse from head on and the fact that the 57 mm 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. 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)
  • Lovely climbing ability
  • Due to its slow 57 mm shell velocity, it can shoot behind cover without showing the tank to some degree

Cons:

  • 57 mm armament may be underpowered in frontal engagements
  • Thin armour that can be penetrated by even 20 mm SPAA
  • Abysmal penetration. Will struggle to penetrate a lot of Rank 1 tanks.

History

Development

The Imperial Japanese Army's main tank was the Type 89, adopted in 1929, but it was deemed obsolete as of 1935 and the IJA wanted something up to par with their battle style. The Type 89's main fault was its low overall road speed, which was unable to keep up with motorized infantry. Thus, the development of a new medium tank commenced with the goal of improved overall speed, low weight, and low cost.[1]

Two tank designs were developed with these specifications, both were produced by Mitsubishi. The first was the Chi-Ha which was powered by a 170hp diesel engine. The second was Chi-Ni, which was lighter, cheaper, and powered by a 135 hp diesel engine. The IJA chose at the time of 1937, when war with China broke out to the Second Sino-Japanese War. This war increased the IJA's budget and thus they decided to pick the better of the two design. This led to the finalization of the Type 97 Chi-Ha tank. Production started in 1938 all the way to 1942 for a total of 1162 tanks produced.[1][2]

Design

The Type 97 Chi-Ha was a medium tank constructed with rivets in the armour plates. It had a crew of four with a two-men turret. The turret held the same low-velocity 57 mm gun from the Type 89. Armour was relatively thin, but quite standard at the time of 1930s, but this would become very vulnerable past 1941 when the Japanese war expands to the world.[1]

The Type 97 Chi-Ha, like the standard tanks of other countries, was used in a multitude of roles by adapting its chassis to another purpose such as the Ho-Ni assault gun series. The Type 97 Chi-Ha design was also improved upon multiple times with better armour and better guns, resulting in tanks like the Shinhoto Chi-Ha, Type 1 Chi-He, Type 2 Ho-I, and the Type 3 Chi-Nu.[1]

Combat usage

The Type 97 Chi-Ha would first see its main usage in the border conflict against the Soviet forces in the Battles of Khalkin-Gol. In the Japanese 1st Tank Group's total 85 tanks, there were four Type 97 mediums present in comparison to the 34 Type 89 I-Go, 35 Type 95 Ha-Go lights, and 13 tankettes.[2] Though the armoured units played a critical role in Japan's offensive against the Soviet Union, they were soon demolished by the Soviet armoured brigades, leading to their recall. The Japanese defeat at Khalkin-Gol did teach them a few lessons, first in that they were currently under-equipped for a fight against a large European force, which led to an enlargement of the Japanese armoured forces. Second was that the Japanese tanks were unsuitable for tank-to-tank fighting as the Soviet's main tank armament, the 45 mm cannon, was way more suitable than anything the Japanese had. This led to the development of a new anti-tank gun and tank gun for the Japanese Army, the Type 1 47 mm, though this would not see service until 1941.[1]

The next major usage of the Type 97 would be in Japan's conflict during World War II against the Allies. The Type 97 made up a good portion of the Japanese armoured forces when they invaded the Malay peninsula of British territory in Operation Centrifuge[2]. The Japanese tank's successes against Britain is attributed to the British belief that the terrain around Singapore made it very hard to use armoured forces, thus there was a lack of Allied armour available in the battle. In a span of three months, Japan managed to completely overcome the defenses of the Malay peninsula and the Allied forces there surrendered. The Burma campaign soon followed, but the fighting there would last most of the war's time.[1]

Japan then invaded the Americans in the Philippines. It was here that the Japanese armoured forces baptized the American tankers in their first tank-to-tank combat with M3 Stuarts against Type 95 Ha-Go. It was during this campaign that Colonel Seinosuke Sonoda of the 7th Tank Regiment advocated for the placement of the new Type 1 47 mm gun as the main armament of the Type 97 Chi-Ha. This would lead to the development and production of the next generation Type 97s, the Type 97-Kai (Improved) Shinhoto (New turret) Chi-Ha, which would eventually encompass the regular Type 97's production. Though now surpassed by the Type 97 Chi-Ha Kai, the regular Type 97 would still see usage alongside its improved variant in the Pacific campaign against the Allies.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Zaloga Steven. Japanese Tanks 1939-1945 Great Britain: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2007
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Zaloga Steven. M4 Sherman vs Type 97 Chi-Ha: The Pacific 1945 Great Britain: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2012

Read also

[Devblog] Type 97 Chi-Ha: Hope of the Army

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

  • topic on the official game forum;
  • other literature.


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 90B "Fuji"
Type 10 MBT  TKX (P)* · TKX* · Type 10
Other  Ka-Chi
USA  ▅M4A3 (76) W · ▅M47
  *Prototype