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Type 3 "Chi-Nu"

Type 3 Medium Tank Chi-Nu was urgently developed to cope with the M4 Sherman. Originally, the next tank to Chi-He was the Type 4 Medium Tank Chi-To. However, the development of Chi-To was delayed and a stopgap tank was required. The Chi-Nu was conceived in 1943 as part of the IJA decision to radically alter established armor doctrine. As a part of this program, the need was envisioned for a powerful vehicle of moderate complexity which could operate efficiently against Allied armor formations but survive the radically difficult terrain of the Pacific theatre and the mountainous terrain of the Burma and China theatres with equal ease.

The first prototypes were produced relatively quickly, helped along by the gift from Hitler of a small number of Tiger and Panther tanks, and a program which featured cooperative training exercises with Germany's most elite tank regiments. (Oddly enough, at least one Japanese crew seems to have taken part in the Ardennes offensive in late 1944.)

The development of Chi-Nu started in May 1944 and it was finished in Oct. It took only a half year, as Japanese engineers rushed work. Chi-Nu was produced until the war ended. Chi-Nu was the last tank that was deployed in the Japanese tank forces.

Understanding the not too bright prospects for the "Type 1", the Japanese command instructed tank builders to make another medium tank capable of properly dealing with enemy armored vehicles. The project "Type 3" or "Chi-Nu" meant the replacement of weapons on the "Type 1".

Initially, the Japanese had intended to produce a tank using a more or less exact copy of the German 88 gun, but machining problems and the continually escalating need for easily produced components in wake of an increasing shortage of effective aircraft and warships resulted in the adoption of a slightly earlier model weapon based upon the French 75mle Schneider, which had already been used successfully in the Type 1 Ho-Ni. Initial tests proved quite promising, and a new turret was designed to use the 75, while the 88 project was set aside for future use.

The Type 90 field gun of 75 millimeter caliber was chosen as the main weapon. It was developed in the early thirties on the basis of the French Schneider gun. In turn, based on the "Type 90" designed a new gun, designed specifically for installation on the tank "Chi-Nu". This modification of the gun was called "Type 3".

The gun was still equipped with a hydraulic recoil brake and spring-loaded knuckle. In this case, the authors of the project had to go for a little trick. Since they were required to quickly modify the instrument, they did not begin to change its layout. The recoil devices remained in place, in front under the barrel. Because of this, a special armored tray had to be installed on the frontal part of the turret, which protected the rollback brake cylinders. The solid weight of the gun and the considerable size made it necessary to abandon the idea of additional fine guidance without turning the turret. On the "Type 3" gun could only swing vertically from -10 ° to + 15 ° from the horizontal axis. The new tank contained 55 shells of two types, high-explosive and armor-piercing. Having an initial speed of 680 m / s at a distance of a kilometer, they punched 65-70 millimeters of armor. Additional weapons "Chi-Nu" consisted of only one machine gun in front of the body.

The mounting points of machine guns are debated by sources; photographic evidence seems to point to a hull and coaxial machine gun, but some Japanese illustrations depict two side mounted machine guns in the over-sized turret as well as the standard LMG mounting in the rear of the turret. The illustration provided here, in fact, makes just such a suggestion Photos of examples still in existence do depict such ports, but others theorize that they are for small arms or observation, as opposed to light machine gun mountings.

Due to the need to replace only the guns, the design of the tank "Type 3" was almost unchanged from the "Type 1". All improvements related to improving the manufacturability of the assembly and ensuring the installation of a new larger turret. The latter was a welded hexagonal unit in terms of shape. The turret was welded from rolled sheets with a thickness of 50 mm (forehead) to 12 (roof). In addition, additional protection of the frontal projection was carried out by a 50-mm gun mask. Interesting "consequences" of the installation of a new large turret. Its front part covered most of the driver's hatch. For this reason, the entire crew of "Chi-Well" was supposed to get into a tank and leave it through two hatches in the roof of the turret and one in its left side. In addition, there was another fairly large hatch for servicing the gun and loading ammunition in the stern of the turret.

All changes led to an increase in the tank's combat mass. “Chi-Nu” in combat status weighed 18.8 tons. At the same time driving performance decreased slightly. The 240-hp diesel “Type 100” could provide a maximum speed of only about 40 kilometers per hour, which was less than the corresponding figure of the Chi-He tank.

When the gun "Type 90" in the state "Type 3" significant changes in the design did not happen.

Regarding the production of medium tanks "Type 3" there is no exact data. Production of the Type 3 began in early 1944, but was delayed considerably. According to one source, they began to be produced in mid-1943, but this must be the date of the start of the project rather than the start of serial production. Other literature indicates the fall of 1944 as the start time of construction.

The same strange situation is observed in the estimates of the number of assembled machines. While the factories were, at this point, capable of handling all welded construction in armored vehicles, other priorities continued to be critical and the Chi-Nu was only produced in limited quantities prior to the end of the war, with a total of about sixty-six units completed. According to various sources, they were made from 60 to 170 units. The reason for such large discrepancies is the lack of necessary documents that were lost in the final stages of the war.

In addition, there is no information about the combat use of tanks "Type 3". According to reports, all built tanks entered the 4th tank division, which until the end of the war did not take part in hostilities outside the Japanese islands. Sometimes the use of “Chi-Nu” in the battles for Okinawa and/or Iwo Jima is mentioned, but in the well-known American documents, there is no information about the appearance of a new technology with the enemy.

At best, it is absolutely beyond disproof that the Japanese had intended to use the Chi-Nu in defense against the impending Allied invasion, and a number of them were found in camouflaged positions at the time of the American occupation.

The chief problem seems to have been not that the Japanese were unwilling to deploy the Chi-Nu, or that it was unsatisfactory as a vehicle as some have alleged, but that Japan, which had lost nearly eighty-five percent of its merchant carrying capacity by late 1944, simply lacked the necessary tonnage to ship the Chi-Nu to island outposts.

If engaged in combat, the Chi-Nu would most likely have been quite a formidable opponent, particularly given the extraordinary measures taken to train Japanese tankers in German armor doctrine. At best, however, this would probably have been too little, too late. Of course, with Operation Olympic, anything would be possible.

Probably, all the “Type 3” remained at the bases, not having time to war. After the end of World War II, a number of Chi-Nu tanks were used by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.