Chi-Ha Short Gun

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Rank VI USA | Premium | Golden Eagles
A-10A Thunderbolt (Early)
This page is about the premium Japanese medium tank Chi-Ha Short Gun. For other versions, see Chi-Ha (Family).
Chi-Ha Short Gun
jp_type_97_chi_ha_12cm.png
GarageImage Chi-Ha Short Gun.jpg
ArtImage Chi-Ha Short Gun.png
Chi-Ha Short Gun
AB RB SB
2.0 1.7 1.7
Purchase:1 000 Specs-Card-Eagle.png
Show in game

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

Armourfront / side / back
Hull25 / 25 / 20
Turret32 / 25 / 25
Crew5 people
Visibility75 %

Armour type:

  • Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, turret, cupola)
Chi-Ha Short Gun scanning the seaside
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

Speedforward / back
AB45 / 21 km/h
RB and SB40 / 19 km/h
Number of gears8 forward
2 back
Weight14.8 t
Engine power
AB324 hp
RB and SB170 hp
Power-to-weight ratio
AB21.9 hp/t
RB and SB11.5 hp/t
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

Repair cost
AB934 Sl icon.png
RB498 Sl icon.png
SB1 235 Sl icon.png
Crew training2 300 Sl icon.png
Experts15 000 Sl icon.png
Aces115 Ge icon.png
Research Aces320 000 Rp icon.png
Reward for battleAB / RB / SB
Talisman.png 2 × 40 / 50 / 70 % Sl icon.png
Talisman.png 2 × 112 / 112 / 112 % Rp icon.png
Modifications
Mobility Protection Firepower
Mods new tank traks.png
Tracks
Mods new tank suspension.png
Suspension
Mods new tank break.png
Brake System
Mods new tank filter.png
Filters
Mods new tank transmission.png
Transmission
Mods new tank engine.png
Engine
Mods tank tool kit.png
Improved Parts
Mods extinguisher.png
Improved FPE
Mods tank reinforcement jp.png
Crew Replenishment
Mods new tank horizontal aiming.png
Horizontal Drive
Mods tank cannon.png
Adjustment of Fire
Mods new tank vertical aiming.png
Elevation Mechanism
Mods art support.png
Artillery Support

Armaments

Main armament

120 mm Navy short gun
Ammunition23 rounds
Reloadbasic crew → aces
13.0 → 10.0 s
Vertical guidance-10° / 15°
Chi-Ha Short Gun firing

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 -10°/+15° ±180° - 5.7 7.9 9.6 10.6 11.3 13.00 11.50 10.60 10.00
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

Ammo racks of the Chi-Ha Short Gun
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
Visual
discrepancy
23 18 (+5) (+23) No

Note:

  • Racks disappear after you've fired all shells in the rack.


Machine guns

Ammunition3 000 rounds
Belt capacity20 rounds
Reloadbasic crew → aces
3.9 → 3.0 s
Fire rate499 shots/min
Ammunition1 000 rounds
Belt capacity20 rounds
Reloadbasic crew → aces
3.9 → 3.0 s
Fire rate499 shots/min
Main article: Type 97 (7.7 mm)
7.7 mm Type 97
Mount Capacity (Belt) Fire rate Vertical Horizontal
Hull 3,000 (20) 499 ±10° ±15°
Pintle 1,000 (20) 499 ±20° ±60°

Usage in battles

Chi-Ha Short Gun coming out behind a rock

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.

Media

Skins
Images
Videos

See also

Related development
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