Historical Post
The Most common Tank on Tank engagements in the Pacific was when Japan’s most mass produced tank, the Type 95 Ha-Go would come across US marines most common tanks as well, the M3 Stuart
Year of Introduction:
Ha-Go: 1938 (The Initial version in 1936, the version in this post is the late version)
M3 Stuart: 1941
Weight:
Ha-Go: 7.4t
M3 Stuart: 15.2t
Engine:
Ha-Go: 120HP
M3 Stuart: 220HP
Max speed:
Ha-Go: 45km/h
M3 Stuart: 58km/h
Armour:
Ha-Go: 12mm thick
M3 Stuart: 38.1mm thick
Armament:
Ha-Go: Type 98 37mm Tank Gun
M3 Stuart: M6 37mm Tank Gun
Penetration:
Ha-Go: 56mm @ 0m / 41mm @ 500m
M3 Stuart: 80mm @ 0m / 69mm @ 500m
High Explosive Shells:
Ha-Go: Type 94 HE - 62g of TNT explosive equivalent
M3 Stuart: M63 HE - 38.55g of TNT explosive equivalent
Muzzle Velocity of Shells:
Ha-Go: Type 1 APHE (701m/s) / Type 94 HE (690m/s)
M3 Stuart: M51 APCBC (884m/s) / M63 HE (792m/s)
Conclusion:
Whilst its strange that the Ha-Go armour was only 12mm compared to its predecessors such as Otsu-Gata in the Mid 1920’s with 30mm armour and Type 89 I-Go with 17mm of armour in late 1920’s, It probably makes sense why they would want their new infantry support tank to weight only 7.4t if they wanted to have hundreds of them sent over the sea to fight in China.
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In the first place, opponents of M3 Stuart is Type 97 medium tank with 47mm new turret, not Type 95 light tank…
And even Type 97 MT is inferior to M3 Stuart. Thats reason why M3 Stuart is jokingly called the best Japanese tank which used in combat during WW2 
Huh. That would be a fairly powerful HE round, if implemented right.
As for answer overall, the Ha-Go in terms of armor and firepower is inferior to the US’s counterparts, however, it somewhat made up for it in it’s capability to be where enemy did not expect it to be - this relatively light vehicle could cross bridges and reach places where most tanks wouldn’t be able to reach.
This is not simulated in the game very well…
I suppose it’s HE round could be a way to ‘even the odds’ against the Stuarts.
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Another issue is that Ha-Go is implemented with the 37mm Type 94 tank gun which shoots Type 94 APHE shell at 575m/s.
We should get the later Ha-Go used in WWII which had 37mm Type 98 Tank gun which shot Type 1 APHE at 701m/s
What also doesn’t help is how all AP rounds in war thunder severely underperform which is copy and pasted into enlisted. This makes the Stuart’s armour very tough for current implemented Ha-Go to defeat. This really needs looking at and fixing.
Currently the Ha-Go penetrates
34mm @ 0m with the old Type 94 tank gun with gaijins underperforming AP performance in Enlisted
Ha-Go with the new Type 98 tank gun and correctly performing AP shell would penetrate 56mm @ 0m
Stuart has 38mm thick hull armour
Furthermore Ha-Go’s Face Hardenned armour isn’t implemented either.
For example 12.7mm AP at 893m/s penetrates 32mm @ 0m of RHA armour at 0 degrees flat.
Using Krupp calculator to simulate Face Hardenned armour which Ha-Go is made out of, 12.7mm AP would only penetrate 22mm at 893m/s at point blank range at 0 degrees.
Essentially, implementing Ha-Gos armour to its historical FHA would increase its protection by 45% vs .50 cals
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Actually the Chi-Ha Kai is superior to M3 Stuart
its 47mm AP is way better (if we are talking real life)
Not to mention how better the 47mm HE is vs US 37mm HE. Japanese 37mm HE already had 2x more HE filler than US 37mm HE
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Well, they made it for a counterpart of M3 Stuart so it have comparable performance.
But 47mm gun’s performance, especially armor penetration is not much better than American 37mm (it should be noted that IJA tanks never used capped / ballistic capped AP in service), and other specifications of Chi-Ha Kai is not superior to M3 Stuart.
Maneuverability of M3 Stuart was very good, and easier than Japanese tanks so Japanese army & navy like to use it.
For example, during Battle of Corregidor fortress 1941, both Chi-Ha Kai and M3 Stuart was used by Japanese Matsuoka company, but Chi-Ha Kai did not have enough mobility (it could not climb steep slope) and finally M3 Stuart towed Chi-Ha Kai.
Also, not only mobility but also armor of M3 is better than Chi-Ha.
Whilst they didn’t use ballistic cap which isn’t great, it doesn’t matter for enlisted since it’s all so close range. As for no piercing cap, it’s good. It means it has better sloped penetration because the penetrator on AP is bigger than on APC rounds and there was no need for it since US tanks weren’t made from Face Hardenned armour but from sloped cast and sloped RHA steel.
Type 1 47mm
Type 1 APHE (1.5kg at 810m/s)
Penetration:
82mm @ 0m at 0 degrees
38mm @ 0m at 60 degrees
65mm @ 500m at 0 degrees
29mm @ 500m at 60 degrees
M6 37mm
M51B1 APCBC (0.87kg at 884m/s)
Penetration:
80mm @ 0m at 0 degrees
31mm @ 0m at 60 degrees
69mm @ 500m at 0 degrees
27mm @ 500m at 60 degrees
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