Japanese heavy tank

[Demophilos]

Which was the heaviest Japanese tank of the war?
Type 4 Chi-Ro?

Did the Type 5 Chi-Ri saw any action during the war?
When was it first put into production and how many were built?

[Logan Hartke]

The Japanese Chi-To Type 4 was the second heaviest ever fully in Japan during WWII (30t).





The Chi-Re was the heaviest (37t) with a picture and confirmed built.



http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/japan/japan.html

Logan Hartke

[Demophilos]

Interesting.

Thanks.

[Mait]

Of course there are rumors about 120 ton super-heavy tank called O-I.
I can´t say are these true or not, but check out the http://member.nifty.ne.jp/takixxx/ and ask the owner of the site...

Best Regards,

Mait.

[Demophilos]

According to the site a prototype of O/I was actually built and according to witnesses it was sent immediately to Manchuria.I've searched and found out that it was to be armed with a 100mm cannon.

[Mait]

This was 105mm AT gun developed by Japanese in late ww2. It was planned to be used on modified Type 5 Chi-Ri chassis to be something like German Elefant.

Picture of this gun can be seen on the site I posted previously, under the AFV section (experimental vehicles/105mm sph Ho-Ri).

Best Regards,

Mait.

[Sephiroth]

Of course there are rumors about 120 ton super-heavy tank called O-I.
I can´t say are these true or not, but check out the http://member.nifty.ne.jp/takixxx/ and ask the owner of the site...

Best Regards,

Mait.

Hi, I think this site make some mistake about the O-I Tank. The pic is the other super tank named "100t". Contains one 100mm cannon and two 37mm AT gun. O-I has also three turrets, main turret in the middle. One small turret with 45mm gun is in front of the main turret, another small turret with Anti-air MG in rear. It looks like a bigger TYPE95 heavy tank. Her name "O-I" means "Big Type I" in Japanese.

Best regards.

[Kurt_Steiner]

As the average Japanese tank was unable to face the USA tanks, why Japan didn't try to produce something like the Chi-To Type 4? Perhaps did they started too late?

Best regards

[Lkefct]

In terms of a vehile which would have served them best, how about some sort of StuG or jagdpanzer. The best bang for the buck is probably the jagdpanzer 38. Reasonably tough armour, good gun (although it can probably be replaced by the nearest Japanese equivilent), and some mobility. Given that Japan, was not planning to fihgt a protract conflict in asia, probably doesn't need a large tank force. A tank destroyer/StuG force might be a better use of their researces.

[David C. Clarke]

As the average Japanese tank was unable to face the USA tanks, why Japan didn't try to produce something like the Chi-To Type 4? Perhaps did they started too late?

A few reasons for this. First, American mediums scaled in at 35 tons. A Japanese "medium" scaled in at about half the weight. Why, because China was the IJAs (Imperial Japanese Army's) preoccupation and heavy tanks were unsuited to its terrain. Moreover, tanks were thought of as strictly infantry support weapons by Army doctrine, so why build a tank that can't accoompany the infantry? (Of course, this doctrine was partially ignored in the Burma campaign by force of circumstance).
Secondly, strictly as a matter of national priority in the distribution of scarce resources, the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) had priority on armor plate: Japan needed a strong Navy to defend the homeland more than it neeeded, at the time, an tank-heavy Army.
In the event, by the time the threat to the home islands became clear, Japan looked at tank designs again, even going so far as to import the design of the Tiger I (they bought one, but it was never delivered!).

Best Regards,
~D

[Eden Zhang]

they bought one, but it was never delivered

Did they get their money back?

[Sun Tsu]

They borrowed it to Germany, IIRC...

[Kurt_Steiner]

Thanks for the info, David. In fact, in 1943, Japan bought also a Panther Ausf D along with PzKpfw VI Tiger, but both were never delivered due to the war situation.

Best regards

[tom!]

Hi.

Type 4 Chi-To: 6 built
Type 5 Chi-Ri: 1 built

None of them saw any battle action.
The Type 3 Chi-Nu saw no battle action too.


In 1944 the US-Navy (especially the submarines) caused heavy losses of japanese naval transport capacities and so the japanese heavy industy got not enough raw materials from the occupied terretories to produce higher numbers of tanks.

There were a lot of spg- and spatg-projects but only some were produced in limited numbers:

short 120 mm naval gun on chassis type 97


long 120 mm naval gun on chassis type 97


Ho-I


Ho-Ni I


Ho-Ni II


Ho-Ni III


Ho-Ro


Na-To


sources:
found them on various websites
linked from my website


Yours

tom!

[R-Bob The Great!]

Did the Na-to ever see combat?