Full Name | kyūgo-shiki kei-sensha Ha-Gō |
Class | Heavy Vehicle |
Movement | 5 |
Armor Value | 3 |
Vs Infantry (RNG / FPR) | 5/5 |
Vs Vehicle (RNG / FPR) | 5/4 |
Traits | |
Period | 1939-1945 |
Theaters of Service |
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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries designed this Japanese light tank to meet Army requirements for a relatively fast armored vehicle for use in mechanized units. Like many other light tanks of the inter-war era, the Type 95 Ha-Go was effective against infantry and useful in reconnaissance applications, but ill-suited to tank-on-tank engagements. When it first appeared in 1935, however, many observers considered it the best of its type due to its 37 mm main gun. The Type 95 was relatively thinly armored, at 12 mm; by 1942, Allied forces realized they could often penetrate the tank's thinner armor around its engine block with small arms fire. As the war continued, the type faced increasing better armed and armored Allied tanks, so Japanese commanders often used the vehicle as part of banzai attacks or dug-in as static defense. A crew of three operated the vehicle, with the tank commander alone in the cramped turret. Its simple bell crank scissors suspension system give its crew a rough ride across uneven ground. It had a maximum range of 129 miles and carried high-explosive and armor-piercing for its 37 mm (L/46.1) main gun. This gun, plus a rearward-facing 7.7 mm Type 97 light machine gun, were located in its fully-rotating, hand-cranked, turret; another forward-facing Type 97 machine gun was located in the hull. Mitsubishi and a consortium of other manufacturers produced about 2,300 units between 1936 and 1943, making it the most numerous Japanese armoured fighting vehicle of World War II. It served in the China-Burma-India theater, on The Phillipines, in many island-hopping battles, and even at the Battle of Shumshu during the Soviet invasion of the Kuril Islands in August 1945. In addition to Japan, users of the type (into the 1950s) also included Thailand, Republic of China, People's Republic of China, and even France, putting to use leftover Japanese military equipment withn an ad-hoc unit of French and Japanese armourduring the early stages of the First Indochina War.