Ho-Ni I

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Ho-Ni I
AB RB SB
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This page is about the tank destroyer Ho-Ni I. For the succeeding vehicle of similar name, see Ho-Ni III.

Description

GarageImage Ho-Ni I.jpg


The Type 1 Ho-Ni I is a Rank II Japanese tank destroyer with a battle rating of 2.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced along with the entire Japanese Ground Forces tree in Update 1.65 "Way of the Samurai".

Similar in appearance to the Ho-Ro before it, it changes out the 150mm artillery cannon for a more traditional high-velocity gun, being one of the most powerful ones at its rank.

However, with no turret and very bad armor protection, it demands caution and patience, in exchange for being able to smash through even the heaviest tanks it faces.

General info

Survivability and armour

The Ho-Ni I's excellent firepower and good mobility is balanced out by its very poor armor protection. The front of the hull is covered in unsloped 25mm plates, which is only sufficient to protect the tank from machinegun rounds.

In addition, the gun compartment of the tank is uncovered, leaving the gunner and commander extremely vulnerable to artillery, machine guns, and aircraft attack. As the tank only has three crew members, the two being knocked out will leave the vehicle unoperable. Be sure to immediately retreat away from any artillery, preferably with your front facing the area being attacked, in order to protect the crew.

It is also important to try not to arouse the attention of enemy aircraft, as the open design means that any fighter plane can easily destroy you in a single strafe. With no machine gun, it does not have any means of fighting back against them either, so stay in the shadows!

Armour type:

  • Rolled homogeneous armour
Armour Front Sides Rear Roof
Hull 25 mm (12-32°) Front plate
15 mm (63°), 17 mm (81°) Front glacis
15 mm (37-59°) Lower glacis
25 mm (40°) Top left
25 mm (24-27°) Top right
20 mm Bottom
17 mm (69°) Top
20 mm (4-72°) Bottom
12 mm
Superstructure 25 mm (14-15°) 25 mm (0-11°) N/A 10 mm

Notes:

  • Suspension wheels and tracks are both 15 mm thick
  • Belly armour is 8.5 mm thick.
  • Roof superstructure armour will not protect crew from strafe fire.

Mobility

The Ho-Ni I is based off the Chi-Ha chassis, which Japanese ground forces will be familiar with since it is featured on other Japanese early tanks: Chi-Ha,Chi-Ha Kai, Ho-Ro and Ho-Ni III.

Thus, it has a fairly good level of mobility, reaching a peak speed of 36 km/h on flat grass in Realistic, with a theoretical maximum of 40km/h. It also has a quite good traverse rate, both on the hull and the gun, performing a full 360 degree rotation from a stop in about 16 seconds.

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 243 324
Realistic/Simulator 150 170
Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Mode Stock Upgraded
Arcade 16.42 21.89
Realistic/Simulator 10.13 11.49

Armaments

Main armament

Main article: Type 90 (75 mm)

Packing a high-velocity 75mm Type 90 Cannon, the Ho-Ni I has a serious amount of firepower at BR 2.0.

Its Type 1 APHE shell has up to 100mm of armor penetration, which is the second best of tank destroyers at its rank, only beaten by the Soviet ZiS-30, and being very closely followed by the American M3 GMC.

However, a cannon this big does come with two drawbacks; being that it has a fairly long reload time of 7.8 seconds, and no turret, meaning it can only aim in an arc in front of you. Thus, it is important that you make sure your shot lands, and that you are well aware of your surroundings, so that you do not end up wasting precious time turning your entire hull towards an enemy.

The Ho-Ni I does also not feature any machine guns, which leaves it unable to fight back against enemy aircraft or uncovered vehicles.

75 mm Type 90
Capacity Vertical
guidance
Horizontal
guidance
Stabilizer
40 -10°/+20° ±10° N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode Stock Upgraded Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade 9.5 13.2 16.0 28.3 __.__
Realistic 9.5 11.2 13.6 15.0 __.__
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
7.8 6.9 6.4 __.__
Ammunition
Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Penetration in mm @ 0° Angle of Attack
10m 100m 500m 1000m 1500m 2000m
Type 1 APHE APHE 97 93 83 71 61 51
Type 94 HE HE 11 11 11 11 11 11
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 1 APHE APHE 668 6.6 1.3 15 67.84 -1° 47° 60° 65°
Type 94 HE HE 522 6.0 0.1 0.1 810 +0° 79° 80° 81°
Smoke characteristic
Ammunition Velocity
in m/s
Projectile
Mass in kg
Screen radius
in m
Screen time
in s
Screen hold time
in s:
Explosive Mass in g
(TNT equivalent):
Type 90 Smoke 570 5.7 13 5 20 100
Ammo racks
Ammo racks of the Ho-Ni I.
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
Visual
discrepancy
40 37 (+3) 24 (+16) (+39) no

Usage in battles

The Ho-Ni I should be played like most open crew compartment, fixed gun tank destroyers, fighting from a distance from the front-lines and delivering support fire. The thin armour means the Ho-Ni I will not survive a direct confrontation with any enemy tank and will require the vehicle to obtain the fighting advantage of being able to target the enemy first to ensure any chance of victory. The Ho-Ni I should also be wary of enemy aerial attacks as the open compartment and three-man crew means that an accurate strafing fire could potentially knock out the entire crew.

At its battle rating, the worst the Ho-Ni I could face are the German Pz.IV E and British Cromwell V and Matilda Mk II. The two medium tanks have sufficient armour to withstand the 75 mm gun while the Matilda II requires precise shot in order to destroy it frontally. All of these tanks have guns able to shred the Ho-Ni I apart if they could get a bead on the it.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • 75 mm cannon is great, reloads fast and causes massive damages upon penetration
  • Favorable matchmaking will leave the tank destroyer being matched with enemies the gun is able to handle
  • Mobility is decent due to being built on a Chi-Ha chassis
  • Gun is able to effectively penetrate all tanks the Ho-Ni regularly faces frontally
  • Similar play style as the German Marder with better gun depression
  • Good gun traverse speed
  • Powerfull HE shell
  • Has smoke shells

Cons:

  • Tall profile
  • Overall armour is thin
  • Poor cross country performance due to narrow tracks
  • Exposed crew space makes it vulnerable to air attacks
  • Reverse speed is abysmal
  • Only two types of shell
  • Only 3 crew member
  • Rather small traverse angle

History

The creation of their own independent armoured division had Japan also envision an enlargement of their artillery forces. They decided to build a series of assault guns based off the Type 97 Chi-Ha chassis. One of the first of these design was the Ho-Ni I which had the Type 97 chassis fitted with a 75 mm Type 90 field gun.[1]

Media

Skin and Camouflages for the Ho-Ni I in Warthunder Live.

References

  1. Zaloga Steven. Japanese Tanks 1939-1945 Great Britain: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2007

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


Japan tank destroyers
Ro-Go Derivatives  Ro-Go Exp.
Chi-Ha Derivatives  Ho-Ni I · Ho-Ni III · Ho-Ro · Chi-Ha LG
Ho-Ri  Ho-Ri Prototype · Ho-Ri Production
Other  Na-To
JGSDF 
SPRG  Type 60 (C)
SPH  Type 75 · Type 99
ATGM  Type 60 ATM
Rocket  Type 75 MLRS
USA  ▅M36