Tank battle - US Armor & Vehicles | Gallery

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#1

Tank battle

During the Philippine's campaign the 716th Tank Battalion fought against elements of the Japanese 2nd Armored Division which resulted in some of the rare tank battles of the PTO. Here, “Classy Peg” of Co. C, passes out a Type 97 kai Shinhoto Chi-Ha medium tank knocked out during fighting near Linmangsen while the battalion was supporting the 43rd Infantry Division. Note the hit on the right sponson just below the hull roof on the Japanese tank.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://ww2incolor.com/gallery/us-armor-vehicles/46043/tank-battle
#2

The Type 97 was probably the best Japanese tank (especially some of the later models), but it never got away from the fact that it was, basically, a larger modification of the Type 95 "Ha-Go" light tank. There was one substantial improvement, in that the Type 97 had a two-man turret, thus relieving the commander of the burden of operating the gun. However, it retained the rivetted construction of the Type 95 and, with armour of maximum 25mm thickness, came into the category described by one British intelligence appraisal as "prone to disassemble itself" if suffering any modestly serious hit. Easy to see why high explosive shells might have been effective against Japanese tanks. Best regards, JR.

#3
#4

Fighting Japanese armor was a very different experience for a tanker in the Pacific than with his counterpart in the ETO. They often used high explosive rounds because AP shot would just pass through the thin armor of the Type 97 IIRC…