Encounters with the Russians in the late 1930’s lead Japan to realize that their Type 89 medium tank was nearly obsolete. A new design, the Chi-Na, was started, with a two-man turret. Initially, the weak 57mm gun was retained. However, the turret ring was large enough to allow a larger turret. A 47mmL48 weapon of similar performance to the German 50mmL42 was fitted in 1942, with a revised turret. This improved tank was known as the Shinhoto (“new turret”) Chi-Na; America soldiers referred to it as the Type 97 Special. It could barely hold its own with the early Shermans gun-wise and was completely outclassed in armor protection. Overall, some 3,000 Chi-Na’s were built.
The Chi-Na has a crew of five. The driver and bow gunner sit in the body. The commander, gunner and loader (who also mans the rear turret LMG) are in the turret. It uses 5.7 gallons per hour at routine usage. A full load of fuel and ammo costs $871.
Subassemblies: Medium Tank chassis with mild slope option
+3, full rotation Small AFV turret [Body:T] +2, tracks +3.
Powertrain: 127-kW diesel engine w/127-kW tracked drive
train and 62 gallons fuel in standard fuel tank [body]; 4,000-kWs batteries.
Occupancy: 1 CS Body, 2 CS Tur Cargo:
13.5 Body, 1 Turret.
| Armor | F | RL | B | T | U |
| Body | 5/120 | 4/105 | 4/80 | 4/40 | 4/30 |
| Tracks | 4/20 | 4/20 | 4/20 | 4/20 | 4/20 |
| Turret | 4/100 | 4/100 | 4/100 | 4/40 | 0/0 |
Weaponry
50mm Medium TG/47mm Type 1 [Tur:F] (104).
Ground LMG/Type 97 [Tur:B] (775).
Ground LMG/Type 97 [Body:F] (1,800).
Statistics
| Size: 17’¥8’¥8’ | Payload: 1 ton | Lwt: 15.6 tons |
| Volume: 103 | Maint.: 58 hours | Price: $11,900 |
HT: 11
HP: 750 [Body], 150 [Turret], 270 [Each Track]
| gSpeed: 29 | gAccel: 2 | gDecel: 20 | gMR: 0.25 | gSR: 5 | GP: Very Low (4/5) |
Design Notes
The design purchased 105 rounds of tank gun ammo, 2,500 rounds of LMG
ammo and 63 gallons of fuel tanks. The historical values were used. Historical
speed was 24 mph. The cost, weight and HPs of the chassis were divided
by two to represent the light build (this also affected track HPs and DR).
Some tanks carry a LMG on an anti-aircraft mounting atop the turret.
Variants
The Shi-Ki was a command vehicle with extra radio equipment and a 37mm
or 57mm gun in place of the hull MG.
Three SP guns based on the Type 97 chassis appeared in 1942. They were a 150mm howitzer, a 105mm howitzer and a 75mm anti-tank gun. All were mounted in a fixed superstructure open to the top and rear.
Older Chi-Ha’s were converted to various types of engineering vehicles.