Chi ha

By the mid-1930s, the Type 89 medium tank, which formed the basis of the Japanese armored forces, was hopelessly outdated and required replacement. By order of the high command, by 1936 two prototypes of the future medium tank were developed - the Chi-Ni , weighing 9.8 tons, developed by specialists from the Osaka arsenal and the 15-ton Chi-Ha, developed by Mitsubishi. The General Staff preferred the smaller and cheaper Chi-ni, but tests of both prototypes conducted in 1937 showed that the characteristics of Chi-ni, including high-speed ones, were far from required, and most importantly, the new tank was not much superior light tank " Ha-Go " already in production. An analysis of the fighting in China indicated the need to adopt a more mobile , protected and more powerful armed tank, which was the reason for the choice of “Chi-ha” in the end.

The mass production of Chi-ha was started shortly after the end of active hostilities in China by Mitsubishi with the participation of Shiisakushi and Nihon Seikosho , as well as Hitachi and the Sagami arsenal. In total, from 1938 to 1943, 2123 tanks were produced, including 757 vehicles of the Shinhoto Chi-Ha modification. ^[1] In addition, a number of the latter were obtained by remaking them from the usual Chi-Ha.

Chi-Ha had a layout with a rear engine and front- mounted transmission units, a control unit combined with a combat unit. The crew of the tank consisted of four people: a driver , a gunner , a loader and a commander , who also served as a gunner .

Armored Corps and Tower

Chi-Ha had a slightly differentiated bulletproof armor protection, with limited use of rational tilt angles. The armored hull and the turret of the tank were assembled from rolled surface-hardened armor plates with a thickness of 8.5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 20, 25 and 27 mm. The assembly was carried out on a frame made of backing strips and corners, with the help of bolts and rivets with bulletproof heads, welding was almost not used.

The armored hull of the tank had a complex, asymmetric shape in the upper part, with fenced-in niches. The frontal part of the hull was stepped, the driver’s cabin and the arrow in its upper part were made of bent armor plates 27 mm thick, located at an angle of 15 °. The middle part consisted of armored plates 17 mm thick, located at an angle of 82 °, closer to the forehead of the machine turning into a sheet 20 mm thick, located at an angle of 65 °. The lower part of the frontal armor was a 27-mm armor plate, bent at an angle from 27 ° in its upper part to 60 ° in the lower. The sides of the hull in the lower part were vertical and were made on each side of three armored plates, an average thickness of 25 mm and a windshield with aft, 20 mm thick. The upper part of the sides consisted of 20-mm armor plates located at an angle from 25 ° to 40 °. The aft was also made of 20-mm armored plates, located at an angle of 67 ° upper and lower bent. The bottom of the hull was 8.5 mm thick, the roof was 12 mm in the area of ​​the turret box and 10 mm in the area of ​​the engine compartment ^[2] .

The Chi-Ha double tower had a conical shape with a small aft niche and was mounted on a ball support on the roof of the fighting compartment, with a noticeable displacement to the right half of the tank. The walls of the tower and the armor mask of the gun had a thickness of 25 mm and were located at an angle from 10 ° to 12 ° to the vertical, the roof of the tower had a thickness of 10 mm. On the roof of the tower was the commander's cupola ^[3] .

Two hatches were used for landing and disembarking the crew: for the commander and loader, a double-wing in the roof of the commander’s turret, for the driver and gunner, a single-wing in the roof of the fighting compartment, above the place of the shooter. In addition, there were numerous hatches in the hull that served to access the engine and transmission units, and part of the roof and sides of the engine compartment were completely made with armored blinds.

Armament

The main armament of the tank was a 57-mm semi-automatic tank gun Type 97 with a barrel length of 18.4 caliber / 1049 mm. The mass of the barrel and the breech of the gun was 62.5 kg, the mass of the entire gun assembly was 133 kg. The gun was placed in the frontal part of the turret on horizontal and vertical trunnions , allowing its aiming in the vertical plane within −9 ... + 21 ° and in the horizontal within ± 10 °. There were no aiming mechanisms, the gun was guided by its free swinging using the shoulder rest. The ammunition of the gun consisted of 120 unitary shots , which were placed in racks in the fighting compartment. The standard ammunition included 80 fragmentation and 40 armor-piercing shells .

The Chi-Ha's additional armament was made up of two 7.7-mm Type 97 machine guns , located standardly for Japanese tanks - one machine gun in the aft recess of the tower and one on the left in the frontal sheet of the hull. Machine guns were located in installations on vertical and horizontal trunnions , covered with a hemispherical armor plate , sometimes in the literature erroneously referred to as ball ^[5] . Also on the roof of the tower was a bracket for installing an additional anti-aircraft machine gun of the same type. The standard ammunition of machine guns was 3825 rounds in stores : 2475 with an ordinary bullet and 1350 with armor-piercing.

Monitoring and communication tools

A tank radio station was not originally provided. Later, radio stations began to be installed on command vehicles, from a platoon commander and above, due to a reduction in ammunition. Their characteristic external difference was the handrail antenna around the tower, which was soon replaced by a whip antenna to mask valuable cars. For linear tanks, the commander was forced to give orders in the same way - with the help of signal flags.

Engine and transmission

Chi-Ha was equipped with a two-stroke V-shaped 12- cylinder Mitsubishi Type 97 air-cooled diesel engine with a capacity of 170 liters. from.

The transmission consisted of a gearbox, a four-stage gearbox with a reduction gear , a cardan shaft , on-board friction clutches, and a single-stage onboard gearboxes.

Chassis

The Chi-Ha suspension was carried out according to the standard T. Hara system for Japanese tanks, with rollers suspended in pairs on swinging balancers, using a system of levers and rods connected to coil springs, which are sheathed in horizontal pipes on the sides of the hull. In fact, it was a suspension of the Ha-Go light tank with additional front and rear rollers with independent suspension, using levers connected to inclined coil springs, openly fixed on board.

The front rollers are front, gear linkage is forend. Small steel caterpillars with one crest, each of 96 tracks with a pitch of 120 mm and a width of 330 mm.

Shinhoto Chi-Ha

The Shinhoto Chi-Ha was developed in 1939 with the goal of enhancing the clearly insufficient anti-tank capabilities of Chi-Ha. This modification was distinguished by a new turret with a long-barrel 47 mm cannon installed in it. Despite the smaller caliber, due to the high initial velocity of the projectile, the new gun significantly exceeded the 57-mm gun in armor penetration . Tanks of this variant were produced until 1943, along with the Chi-Ha base version.

Chi Ha with a 120mm cannon

Designed by order of the Marine Corps , the Chi-Ha version, armed with a short-barreled 120-mm marine gun with a muzzle brake in the Shinhoto Chi-Ha tower. It was produced in small quantities in the second half of the war.

Chi-ki (Shi-ki)

Commander version of "Chi-Ha", intended for commanders of regiments and battalions . It was distinguished by the absence of a 57-mm gun in the tower occupied by the radio equipment , a 37-mm gun was put in place of the frontal machine gun and a horseshoe-shaped handrail antenna was installed on the roof. On some machines, a wooden gun model was attached to the tower.

According to some reports, from 20 to 40 such vehicles were produced, some were used in battles in Malaya, probably as part of the 3rd tank brigade. Also, command vehicles are visible in photographs from a tank school in Chiba.

Being for a long time the heaviest tank chassis available to the Japanese, Chi-Ha served as the basis for a large number of vehicles for a wide variety of purposes.

SPGs

Ho-Ro

Chi-Ha-based self-propelled howitzer , obtained by installing a Type 38 150-mm howitzer in a wheelhouse open at the top and rear of the turret. Only 12 or 13 pieces were produced in 1941 - 1943 .

Ho-ni

A series of self-propelled artillery mounts (self-propelled guns), produced in 1942-1945 on the basis of Chi-Ha. Structurally, they were similar to the Ho-Ro, only the Ho-Ni III received a new completely closed armored cabin. In the literature, these self-propelled guns are often referred to as anti-tank, but their main purpose was fire support ^[1] . The armaments of the Ho-Ni II and III were 75 mm Type 1 and Type 3 guns, respectively, and the Ho-Ni II was armed with a 105 mm Type 91 howitzer. Self-propelled guns "Ho-Ni", released in the amount of about 170 pieces, became the only relatively massive Japanese self-propelled guns of the Second World War.

Prototypes

Also in the second half of the war, the Japanese developed a number of self-propelled guns based on Chi-Ha, most of which remained on paper, or did not go beyond the construction of prototypes.

• Self-propelled guns Type 2 Ku-Se with a 75-mm Type 94 mountain gun mounted in the cabin of the Ho-Ro type;
• Self-propelled gun "Ho Chi" with a 155-mm gun in a similar cabin;
• Different versions of the ZSU with 37, 75 or 120 mm guns.

Chi-Ha Special Purpose Machines

Ho-K Armored Sawing Machine

Issued in the amount of 40 copies in 1941, a sawing machine based on Chi-Ha. Initially, Ho-K entered the engineering units deployed in Manchuria and was supposed to be used in Siberia in the upcoming attack on the USSR , but due to a change of plans they were transferred to New Guinea , where they were used in the construction of airfields in the jungle ^[1] .

Se-Ri Armored Repair and Evacuation Vehicle

In 1941 - 1943, two or three Se-Ri ARMs were assembled on the basis of Chi-Ha. The standard tower was replaced by a small turret with a 7.7 mm Type 97 machine gun , and a crane boom with a lifting capacity of 5 tons was installed in the aft part. In combination with a winch and engine installation "Mitsubishi" Type 100 with a capacity of 240 liters. from. this made it possible to carry out repair and evacuation of medium tanks in the field, but the car never went into mass production.

Ka-Ha

Issued in the amount of 4 pieces on the basis of the "Chi-Ha" machine, designed to destroy the enemy lines of wired communication . It differed from the standard tank by the absence of a gun and the installation of a generator of high (up to 10 kV) voltage.

In addition, the T-G armored bridge - laying machine and a mine-clearing vehicle with a chain-type trawl were created on the basis of Chi-Ha.

To our time, only 3 Chi-Ha tanks have been preserved in museums, in addition to them 11 more are known, mostly damaged in battle vehicles ^[6] .

• Indonesia is the national museum in Malang .
• People's Republic of China - The in Beijing
• Japan :
  • Yasukuni Temple .
  • Tank School of the Japanese Imperial Army (damaged in the battle of "Chi-Ha").
• Russia :
  • Military Technical Museum in the village of Ivanovskoye near Chernogolovka , Moscow Region (tank on the go).
  • Shumshu Island , Kuril Islands (damaged in the battle of "Chi-Ha").
  • 55th km of the Minsk highway, Moscow region - Park "Patriot" (modification "Shinhoto")
• In addition, another 9 “Chi-ha” damaged in battle or abandoned by crews and in poor condition are located on the islands of Saipan , Guadalcanal and the island of the Duke of York in New Guinea .

• Type 89
• Type 95 "Ha-Go"
• Type 1 Chi He
• M3 "Stuart"
• M4 "Sherman"
• Tank list

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• AM Tomczyk. Japońska Broń Pancerna. - Gdansk: AJ Press, 2005 .-- T. 4 .-- 129 p. - (TankPower No. 12). - ISBN 8-37237-167-9 .
• Leland Ness. Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles - The Complete Guide. - London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002 .-- 237 p. - (Jane's Information Group). - ISBN 0-00711-228-9 .
• Military Intelligence Division, War Departament. Japanese Tank and Antitank Warfare. - Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1945. - 215 p. - (Special Series No. 34).
• T. Larkum, A. Kelly. Preserved Japanese Tanks. - Northampton: Armor Archive Publications, 2000 .-- 34 p. - (Preserved Tanks By Nationality Series). - ISBN 0-9523293-.
• SJ Zaloga. Tank Battles of the Pacific War 1941-1945. - Tsuen Wan: Concord Publications, 1995 .-- 72 p. - (Armor at War Series No. 7004). - ISBN 9-62361-607-4 .

• Yu. Spasibuhov. Japanese tank "Shinhoto Chi-Ha" // Tankmaster. - Moscow, 1999. - No. 6 . - S. 14-24 .

• Chi Ha at www.wwiivehicles.com
• Chi Ha on the IJA Page