- 3 months ago
- #warthunder
- #warthundertanks
- #china
- #kmt
- #prc
In this 9th episode of my series looking at World War 2 Tanks That Need Adding to War Thunder, we take a look at Chinese tanks of the World War 2 period!
So join me as we take a look at some unique modifications China made to existing tanks, a variety of Chinese produced SPGs and SPHs, some cool amphibious vehicles and an absolutely lethal flamethrower tank!
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🎮 Game: War Thunder ⬅️
Sources ⬇️
解放军1951年大演习(刘伯承导演|原始资料重编版)[The PLA's 1951 Grand Exercise (Directed by Liu Bocheng | Re-edited from Original Materials)]. (1951) 珂seeker影像库 (Keseeker). Available at: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1hS4y147JD/?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=30b734459555c198167f3d33c2a6673d
Japanese Explosive Ordnance (Army Ammunition Navy Ammunition). (1953) United States Government Printing Office. Available at: https://www.bulletpicker.com/pdf/TM-9-1985-5.pdf
Japanese Field Artillery. (1944) United States War Department, Military Intelligence Division. Available at: https://archive.org/details/JapaneseFieldArtillery/mode/2up
kknews. (10/09/2025) Available at: https://kknews.cc/military/ra3eyqo.html
M8 스톡 [M8 Stock]. (14/09/2025) Namu Wiki. Available at: https://en.namu.wiki/w/M8%20%EC%8A%A4%EC%BD%A7
PLA Military Exercise in the 1950s, Commanded by Marshal Ye Jianying. (14/09/2025) 珂seeker影像库 (Keseeker Image Library). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WONDLk8J0iE
The Tactical Painter Blog. (2018) The Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution. Available at: https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-military-museum-of-chinese-peoples.html
Tank Encyclopedia. (15/09/2025) Available at: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/
The.shadock.free.fr. (16/09/2025) Available at: http://the.shadock.free.fr/
Zaloga, S. J. (2008) Japanese Tanks 1939-1945. Osprey Publishing.
Tanks featured in this episode ⬇️
M8 Scott (M6)
M4A2 (37mm)
Gongchen Tank (Hero Tank)/Type 97 Shinhoto
Chi-Ha SPG
M10 with Type 91 105mm howitzer
LVT (A)(4) with M8 Scott turret and 37mm gun
LVT (A)(4) with 57mm ZiS-2
LVT (A)(4) with 76.2mm ZiS-3
T-34-85 (TPO-50)/Chinese OT-34-85
M36B2
T-34/76 Model 1943
Type 97 Te-Ke
M7 Priest
M4A3
M26 Pershing
Chinese Situation during and after World War 2: 00:00
Chinese Tanks: 02:48
Chinese SPG and SPH vehicles: 11:36
Chinese Amphibious vehicles: 17:50
Chinese flamethrower tank: 22:38
Existing Chinese tanks that need fixing in War Thunder: 25:09
Foreign tanks used by China in an unmodified form: 27:29
#warthunder #warthundertanks #china #kmt #prc
So join me as we take a look at some unique modifications China made to existing tanks, a variety of Chinese produced SPGs and SPHs, some cool amphibious vehicles and an absolutely lethal flamethrower tank!
Support me at ⬇️
☕Buy me a Coffee➡️ buymeacoffee.com/Toreno
Social Media ⬇️
🦋Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/toreno.bsky.social
🌍Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Toreno4
📸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toreno170
🐘Mastodon: Toreno17@mastodon.social
🧵Threads: https://www.threads.net/@toreno170
🎮 Game: War Thunder ⬅️
Sources ⬇️
解放军1951年大演习(刘伯承导演|原始资料重编版)[The PLA's 1951 Grand Exercise (Directed by Liu Bocheng | Re-edited from Original Materials)]. (1951) 珂seeker影像库 (Keseeker). Available at: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1hS4y147JD/?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=30b734459555c198167f3d33c2a6673d
Japanese Explosive Ordnance (Army Ammunition Navy Ammunition). (1953) United States Government Printing Office. Available at: https://www.bulletpicker.com/pdf/TM-9-1985-5.pdf
Japanese Field Artillery. (1944) United States War Department, Military Intelligence Division. Available at: https://archive.org/details/JapaneseFieldArtillery/mode/2up
kknews. (10/09/2025) Available at: https://kknews.cc/military/ra3eyqo.html
M8 스톡 [M8 Stock]. (14/09/2025) Namu Wiki. Available at: https://en.namu.wiki/w/M8%20%EC%8A%A4%EC%BD%A7
PLA Military Exercise in the 1950s, Commanded by Marshal Ye Jianying. (14/09/2025) 珂seeker影像库 (Keseeker Image Library). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WONDLk8J0iE
The Tactical Painter Blog. (2018) The Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution. Available at: https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-military-museum-of-chinese-peoples.html
Tank Encyclopedia. (15/09/2025) Available at: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/
The.shadock.free.fr. (16/09/2025) Available at: http://the.shadock.free.fr/
Zaloga, S. J. (2008) Japanese Tanks 1939-1945. Osprey Publishing.
Tanks featured in this episode ⬇️
M8 Scott (M6)
M4A2 (37mm)
Gongchen Tank (Hero Tank)/Type 97 Shinhoto
Chi-Ha SPG
M10 with Type 91 105mm howitzer
LVT (A)(4) with M8 Scott turret and 37mm gun
LVT (A)(4) with 57mm ZiS-2
LVT (A)(4) with 76.2mm ZiS-3
T-34-85 (TPO-50)/Chinese OT-34-85
M36B2
T-34/76 Model 1943
Type 97 Te-Ke
M7 Priest
M4A3
M26 Pershing
Chinese Situation during and after World War 2: 00:00
Chinese Tanks: 02:48
Chinese SPG and SPH vehicles: 11:36
Chinese Amphibious vehicles: 17:50
Chinese flamethrower tank: 22:38
Existing Chinese tanks that need fixing in War Thunder: 25:09
Foreign tanks used by China in an unmodified form: 27:29
#warthunder #warthundertanks #china #kmt #prc
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00Continuing my series on WW2 tanks that need adding to War Thunder, we now come to Chinese
00:05WW2 tanks. And despite China not building any tank designs from scratch during this period,
00:11we do have quite a few tanks that were modified by the Chinese to look at.
00:15So just to give a quick reminder on what was happening with China in this period,
00:19China from the 1920s to 1945 went through a lot of conflict and instability,
00:24first with a period of warlordism, followed by the start of the Chinese Civil War between
00:29the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party . And during this period there
00:36was also lots of skirmishes with Japan, which ultimately led to the Second Sino-Japanese War
00:41in 1937, which mostly put the Civil War on hold, but resulted in large parts of China being occupied
00:48and the deaths of up to 20 million Chinese citizens, more than any other nation in the
00:53WW2 era other than the Soviet Union. Japan would ultimately be unable to win this conflict,
00:59with Chinese forces managing to hold on and start pushing the Japanese back by 1945,
01:04while the Soviets commenced Operation August Storm, the invasion of Japanese Manchuria,
01:09in August 1945, resulting in the destruction of the Japanese Kuomintang Army, and pushing the
01:16Japanese out of Manchuria. And of course the Japanese would ultimately surrender in full to
01:20the Allies on the 2nd of September 1945, putting an end to the Second Sino-Japanese War. However,
01:27this was not the end of conflict in China, as not long after the Japanese surrender,
01:32the Civil War would start up again, which would eventually result in the CCP occupying mainland China,
01:38and becoming the People's Republic of China or PRC, while the KMT would retreat to Taiwan and other
01:44islands, including the Kingmen Islands which are only a few miles away from China. Beyond this, the PRC would
01:50also intervene in the Korean War from October 1950, pushing UN troops out of North Korea, and resulting
01:57in a stalemate roughly around the current Korean borders, that lasted until the signing of the
02:02Korean Armours Disagreement on the 27th of July 1953. During this rather busy time of conflict,
02:09Chinese forces would receive a variety of different tanks from many different nations, such as surrendered
02:15or captured Japanese tanks from during and after the war, tanks sent by the Soviet Union and United
02:21States during the war, as well as tanks left behind by some of the 50,000 American troops that had been
02:26used as part of Operation Beleaguer to repatriate Japanese citizens, and then finally more tanks were
02:33captured during the Korean War. Fortunately for us, most of these tanks are already in game and in the
02:39Chinese tech tree, but the Chinese did also modify many of the tanks that they used, which still gives
02:45us plenty of unique Chinese tanks to look at. The first of these modified tanks that I want to look
02:50at, I've seen referred to as the M8 M6, which is essentially an M8 HMC that was captured from the KMT
02:58by the People's Liberation Army or PLA, and then modified by removing the 75mm howitzer and replacing it
03:05with an M6 37mm gun from an M5 Stuart tank. Now there isn't much information on this tank, but I did
03:12find reference on the Namu wiki that referred to a Chinese documentary called River Attack, in which
03:18this tank briefly appears, which led me to a different newsreel on YouTube covering a different 1950s
03:24exercise on the Key Seeker YouTube channel, which led to their Bilibili channel where I thankfully found
03:30the actual newsreel covering a 1951 exercise by the PLA, when this modified tank features for all of
03:373 seconds, so like I say there's not a lot of information to go on for this tank. So in this
03:42footage we can see the change in main armament, as well as a turret mounted machine gun, probably a
03:48Browning .50 cal but also possibly some other machine gun, as well as the start of what looks like an
03:53armoured roof. Now the change to the 37mm gun would be quite interesting, as the 37mm gun would have a
04:00slightly faster reload rate of 3.7 seconds vs 4.3 for the 75mm howitzer, while its APCBC shell can
04:08penetrate 73mm at 500m, which isn't too much worse than the 89mm of the howitzer's heat shell,
04:15while of course firing at targets that are closer would make this difference even less.
04:20However it also has the disadvantage of firing solid AP shells without explosive filler,
04:25reducing its post penetration damage, and while it does have a semi armour piercing high explosive
04:31incendiary shell, this only penetrates 26mm at 500m, so is hardly worth using against heavily armoured
04:38enemies, while its lack of a HE or smoke shell is also a disadvantage, while the slow turret traverse
04:44rate of 4.2 degrees a second would make turning to engage flanking or mobile enemies more difficult.
04:50We do also have the machine gun mounted on the side of the turret, which Occam's Razor would suggest is
04:55an M2 Browning, after all it is an American tank so the Chinese probably just kept what was already
05:01present, though like I say it's also possible it is some other machine gun, personally it looks like
05:06a different machine gun but that might just be down to the poor quality of the footage, but if it is a
05:1050k this would give us some good close in defence against lightly armoured vehicles, and would make for
05:16an effective anti-air weapon in a pinch. The armour would for the most part be the same as the M8 Scott,
05:21but if the armoured roof is present it would be far better protected against enemy aircraft compared
05:26to the usual open topped M8, so this would make it a far tougher vehicle to take down from air attacks.
05:32Other than that its top speed should remain 40mph 64kmh and a 4 man crew will be present.
05:39In game I think this would make for an excellent and unique 1.0 tank, possibly at the start of the tank
05:45destroyer line before the regular M8 HMC, and it would give Chinese players a tank that is unique
05:50to the Chinese tech tree, having a different but not necessarily superior armament, and possibly better
05:56armour protection, and it would be nice for this Chinese tank to be present in War Thunder. In real
06:02life it doesn't seem like a lot of M8s were converted in this fashion, like I say I've only seen evidence
06:07for one of them, and it wouldn't be long before modern Soviet T-34-85s were in Chinese service in
06:13large numbers, largely eliminating the need for such vehicles, which seem to have been withdrawn
06:18from service and probably scrapped in the 1950s or 60s. Another modified tank that might be a bit
06:24contentious for adding is this captured M4A2 that also appears to have had its armament altered. Now
06:31you might be wondering where this tank came from because M4A2s were not supplied to the KMT, at least
06:36officially, and this seems to have in fact been a part of the United States Marine Corps' 1st Tank
06:41Battalion, who were stationed in China from October 1945 to May 1947 as part of Operation Beleaguer,
06:49to repatriate the many Japanese who still resided in China. While there the Chinese Civil War would
06:55of course restart, and while they weren't there to fight the Communists or other groups, while escorting
07:00convoys from Tianjin to US forces in Beijing, there would be numerous skirmishes and ambushes against
07:06American troops. So these tanks did see combat in China. Most of the first TB would be relocated
07:12to Guam in January 1947, and their camp and any remaining M4A2s were subsequently handed over to the
07:19KMT, as the first TB was now switching over to the M4A3-105. Now it's unknown if the KMT ever used
07:26these M4A2s in combat, but one tank, serial number 012403, was captured by communist Chinese forces,
07:35and was used in a parade in Zhuxiao on the 1st of October 1949, where we can see that the armament
07:42was modified, likely due to the main gun being damaged or removed at some point. Now based on the
07:48previous M8 Scott modifications, I think it's likely that it was simply replaced by a 37mm gun
07:54from the M3 or M5 Stuart tank, which would allow it to retain limited anti-armour capabilities,
08:00bearing in mind that the KMT weren't exactly filled in lots of tanks, so the 37mm gun would have been
08:05more than adequate to deal with most of their enemies. However, there isn't any definitive
08:10proof on what gun was used, and I have seen speculation on other weapons from Browning .50 Kals,
08:16Soviet machine guns, 20mm guns, French 25mm Hotchkiss guns, Japanese 37mm guns,
08:24and even speculation that it's a dummy barrel fitted just for the parade, or even a real barrel
08:29without the rest of the gun. Though I do somewhat doubt the dummy arguments, as I can't see the now
08:34PRC waste in valuable medium tanks that might still have a use. Plus, if you were going to put a dummy
08:40barrel on it, you would have thought that'd have put something that kind of resembled the original
08:44barrel, because at the moment it looks rather comical with the undersized gun on the rather large
08:49Sherman tank. And indeed, because this tank still exists to this day, it does appear that somebody
08:55did put a 76mm barrel on it after the Korean War, though that has since been removed and
09:01its current configuration is just without a barrel at all. Assuming this M4A2 was added with the 37mm gun,
09:09it would also be somewhat difficult to balance, as it has a gun that is more suited for use in the lower
09:14tiers, but with armour that would make it highly resistant to most enemy guns in the lower tiers.
09:19I would maybe suggest adding it at 2.7 to 3.0, making it act a little bit like an early Jumbo Sherman,
09:27being almost invulnerable to the front, but easy pickings from flanking attacks,
09:31while also being limited by its small calibre main gun. Honestly, I could see it not being added
09:36at all due to how little information is available, but it would be interesting to see this tank in game.
09:42Lastly for the American tanks, I have seen a modified M3A3 that uses the suspension from the Soviet Su-76,
09:50but from what I understand this was a post-war mockup that was never actually used by the PLA,
09:55so couldn't be added. Lastly for modified tanks we have the Gonshen or Hero tank, which was one of
10:02two Japanese Type 97 Chi Ha Kai's that were captured by the PLA towards the end of 1945,
10:09and went through a few name changes. First Tank 102, then Old Man Tank, under which guise it fought in
10:16the battle of Jingzhou in 1948, where the actions of its crew earned them commendations and their tank
10:22the new name of Gonshen Tank or Heroic Tank. To top things off, the Gonshen Tank would lead the
10:29victory parade on the 1st of October 1945, which marked the formation of the People's Republic of
10:34China, and it would go on to serve for another decade before being retired in 1959, and survived
10:40to this day in the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution. Unfortunately, this tank isn't
10:46modified as much as the previous tanks, with the main difference being the removal of some armour
10:51plates around the engine, which might make it a bit more vulnerable in this area, while its current
10:56configuration in the museum shows the fenders being extended to come over the tracks at the front,
11:01which might help provide some limited protection for the tracks from small arms fire.
11:06I have also seen mentioned that some Type 97s had their engines replaced by the 500hp model V2
11:13engine as used on the T-34, but there's nothing concrete on this and besides, it seems doubtful that
11:18the Gonshen Tank would have received this upgrade anyway. In-game, this would perform almost
11:23identically to the Type 97 Chi Ha Kai, so could be added as an Event or Premium Tank, and while not
11:29a groundbreaking vehicle, it would be nice for this rather famous Chinese Tank to get some recognition
11:34in War Thunder. Of course, it was not just tanks that China would use in the Civil War, but also
11:40self-propelled guns, and in some cases where these would lack in the Chinese were happy to modify existing
11:46vehicles to fit this role. One of the vehicles this was done to was the Type 97 Chi Ha, which was a
11:52Japanese medium tank that the Chinese now had access to in large quantities after their surrender at
11:57the end of the war. And as you can see, this tank has been extensively modified, with this work being
12:02done by the KMT, with the turret being removed and replaced by a casemate, severely restricting its
12:09firing arc compared to its original turret. The armament itself has also been changed, replacing the
12:15original 57mm gun with a 75mm Type 94 mounting gun, which has a higher muzzle velocity than the 57mm gun,
12:23and fires many of the same shells as the Type 99 75mm gun from the Hoai. Unfortunately, it fires these
12:30shells at a lower muzzle velocity, so instead of its Type 95 shell penetrating 43mm at point blank range,
12:38it will instead be around 35mm, at least according to Gaijin's armor penetration calculator. However,
12:45it could also fire a Type 1 APHE shell with 37mm penetration, which would perform a little bit
12:51better, and it could also fire a Type 2 heat shell, with 90mm penetration in game. Shrapnel,
12:58incendiary and smoke shells could also be fired. However, while these shells could be fired by the
13:03gun, China may not necessarily have had access to all of these shells, though I think that at least the
13:09APHE and HE shells should be available, which should perform decently enough at the lower tiers. There
13:16also appears to be a light machine gun mounted at the rear, which can provide a tiny bit of defense
13:21against aircraft or flanking enemies. Meanwhile, the whole armor max is out at 25mm, while the
13:27casemate will likely be fairly light, probably not suited for more than defended against small arms or maybe
13:32very light anti-tank weapons, which isn't helped by the casemate's large size. Lastly, mobility will
13:38likely be broadly the same, with a top speed of 25mph or 40kmh, I think this Chinese Qiha SPG would work
13:47pretty well at 1.3 to 1.7, probably between the M8 Scott and Su76M, though a lot of this depends on
13:55having access to the Type 2 HEAT shell. That said, I think the Qiha SPG would be a great addition to the
14:00Chinese tech tree, being a unique SPG, both in capabilities and looks, and giving us a good
14:07SPG for Chinese players to use in the early tiers, and it would be nice to see it in game.
14:13In real life, very few of these Qiha's were converted, and these weren't necessarily to
14:17a standard design, leading to variation between the vehicles, and these seem to have mostly been
14:23used by the KMT, with at least one being captured by CCP forces in 1949, though it doesn't seem to have
14:30been used by them and it was likely scrapped shortly after, a fate likely shared by the other vehicles.
14:36There would also be conversions based on existing tank destroyer designs, such as the M10 GMC,
14:42with some of these being fitted with 105mm Type 91 guns.
14:47Now the reason for this conversion is quite interesting, as it turns out that an arms embargo
14:52had been imposed on China by America in 1946, which only really affected the nationalists,
14:58as of course the communists could still obtain arms from the Soviets in Manchuria,
15:02as well as use captured Japanese equipment, though of course the Americans did support the nationalists
15:08later on. But for the meantime, this meant that while the nationalists could still obtain tanks,
15:13these were usually demilitarised, meaning the armament would be disabled or removed,
15:18which led to the KMT fitting a leftover Japanese 105mm Type 91 howitzer, which could fire a Type 91
15:26HE shell with around 20-25mm penetration, a Type III heat shell with 120mm penetration,
15:34and an AP HE shell with around 71mm penetration at just under 500m. This is a worse performance
15:41compared to the M10 in game, but is still pretty good for the lower tiers, and the heat shell if
15:46it's available should be able to deal with most enemies that this SPH might encounter, though longer
15:52ranged engagements will be more difficult due to the lower muzzle velocity of 546 meters a second
15:58versus 792 to 853 meters a second for the M10's 76mm gun. However, as mentioned before, it's possible
16:07China didn't have access to all of these shells, which would affect its in-game performance if any of
16:11them are missing. The M10 also has a very slow traverse speed in-game of just 2.7 degrees a second,
16:18so will struggle if being used in close quarters combat, and makes longer distance engagements
16:23preferable, though again more difficult due to the lower muzzle velocity. Lastly, a machine gun still
16:29seems to be fitted to the roof, though possibly now a 30 cal which will make it less useful against
16:35enemy ground troops or aircraft, while a 30 cal also seems to be fitted to the right side of the hull.
16:41Moving on to the armour, you can see that applique armour has been fitted to the roof and turret front,
16:46greatly increasing the protection for the crew from air attack, as the turret was previously
16:51open topped, while the frontal applique armour will also provide some additional protection
16:55from enemy ground forces, which is always welcome. As for the rest of the stats, the top speed should
17:01remain about 30mph or 48kmh, and 5 crew should be needed to operate the tank. I think the M10 SPH would
17:09be a great addition to the Chinese tech tree, at about 2.3 to 2.7, between the LVT A4 and M10 GMC,
17:17with this vehicle providing greater protection for its crew, and still being able to take down most
17:22enemies in the early tiers, especially if using the heat shell, but also suffering from the lower
17:27muzzle velocity and slower turning turret, but I think this would still be a cool and unique Chinese
17:32vehicle to have in War Thunder. In real life, 17 of these M10s were converted and used in the civil war,
17:40with the majority being taken to Taiwan after the Nationalists retreat from mainland China,
17:45where they served for a few more years before being replaced by more modern vehicles.
17:50Moving on from the SPG and SPH vehicles, China also used a variety of modified amphibious vehicles,
17:57such as the LVT A4 armed with a 57mm SIS II gun that we already have in game, but they also produced a
18:04more conventional design armed with the same modified turret from the M8 Scott, armed with a 37mm gun,
18:10that we looked at earlier. As mentioned earlier, the 37mm gun conversion would have all of the same
18:16advantages as on the first tank we looked at, having a faster firing rate and APCBC shell that only
18:21performs slightly worse than the 75mm howitzer's heat shell at ranges under 500m, but would be let
18:28down by its slow turret rotation, lack of a smoke shell or effective HE shell, and the fact that
18:33all of its shells are solid shot, producing post penetration damage, but I still think this would
18:38be a pretty effective weapon and a good sidegrade from the 75mm howitzer. The rest of the stats should
18:44be broadly the same as the regular LVT A4 and M8 Scott, with a maximum of 12mm of armour for the hull and
18:5038mm for the turret, a top speed of 25mph or 40kmh on land, and 6mph or 9.6kmh on water,
18:59while a 30 or 50k on the roof will provide some decent protection against enemy aircraft and
19:05soft skinned vehicles, and 5 crew will likely be carried. I could see this being added at 1.7 between
19:11the M8 HMC and SU-76M, giving us a unique Chinese amphibious tank in the early tiers, and I think this
19:18would be a rather cool tank to have in War Thunder. In real life these conversions were carried out by
19:23the PRC with LVTs captured from the KMT, probably with an eye on carrying on the war to Taiwan where
19:30the KMT had retreated, though of course this never came to be, but some of these converted LVTs still
19:36exist to this day in museums in China. So these LVTs armed with 37mm guns were technically a success,
19:43but it was also seen that the 37mm gun might not be powerful enough to deal with tougher targets,
19:48so other LVTs were armed with more powerful weapons like the 57mm CYS-2 that we already have in game,
19:55but also with the 76.2mm CYS-3 as found on the SU-76M. Now despite being a larger weapon,
20:02it actually performs worse than the 57mm CYS-2 in terms of penetration. With the best performing 76mm
20:09APHE-BC shell, the BR350B, having a penetration of 84mm at 500m, compared to 128mm for the 57mm
20:19BR271 shell, penetrating almost double the armour while also having a much higher muzzle velocity.
20:26However, the 76mm shells are larger, and the explosive shells carry a lot more explosive filler,
20:31meaning that when they do penetrate, they are going to cause far more damage to the target,
20:35and have a higher chance of one hit kills, while also carrying a larger variety of shells, including
20:41APCR, heat, shrapnel and smoke, making it a much more versatile weapon on the battlefield if the
20:47Chinese were given access to these shells. The other big difference is that unlike the CYS-2 variant,
20:53which has its main armament in an open-topped turret, the CYS-3 appears to be out in the open,
20:58providing less protection for the flanks, and leaving the fighting compartment completely exposed
21:03aside from the gun shield, making it very vulnerable to air attack. The LVT also seems to have four
21:09machine guns, with the usual 30c in the bow, another near the front, and two 30 or 50c at the
21:14rear of the vehicle, giving good all around defence against aircraft and soft skin vehicles.
21:20Other than that, its stats should again be broadly the same as the LVT A4, but with a larger crew of
21:268-9 being present from all the extra guns, making this a far tougher enemy to take down via crew losses.
21:32In game, I think this CYS-3 armed LVT could work at 2.0, maybe folded with the SU-76M, as we have a
21:40good vehicle with an effective main gun, and a variety of shells, as well as a large number of
21:46machine guns and large crew, making this a versatile Chinese vehicle, and it would be very nice to see
21:51it added to War Thunder. In real life, these were again converted from LVTs captured from the KMT,
21:57and while they would have been useful in the event of an invasion of Taiwan, this never occurred,
22:01and in the end, the various armed LVTs would end up being replaced in the 1960s by more capable
22:07vehicles like the Type 60, which was a Chinese built version of the Soviet PT-76, and the Type 63,
22:15which despite having been superseded by better designs, is still in Chinese service,
22:20showing how much more capable these designs were compared to the LVTs.
22:24Lastly, for amphibious vehicles, there are a few LVTs that don't appear to have been re-armed at all,
22:29and just retain their machine guns, which might make for a good 1.0 anti-air vehicle before the
22:35SDK of Z222. Of course, like many other nations, the PRC was also interested in flamethrower tanks for
22:43dealing with bunkers and other fortified positions, which leads us to this Chinese flamethrower tank,
22:49consisting of 12 TPO-50 flamethrowers mounted either side of a T-34-85. This design seems to have come
22:57about after a November 1955 field exercise on the Ziaodong Peninsula, where it was found that the
23:04T-34-85s in Chinese service were unable to deal with bunkers or other fortifications effectively.
23:11At this point, the Soviets actually offered to sell some of their OT-34-85s,
23:16these essentially being T-34-85s with a flamethrower mounted in the bow, but the Chinese rejected this,
23:22and decided to build their own design instead, leading to the T-34-85 TPO-50. With 12 flamethrowers,
23:30you might expect this to be absolutely insane in destructive potential, and technically it would
23:35if you fired all of them at once, but unfortunately there is only enough fuel for each flamethrower for
23:41just a few seconds of firing, so firing all of them would leave you with no flamethrower capabilities in
23:46a short amount of time, though firing them one at a time would be a good way of getting around this.
23:52These flamethrowers also have a range of 140-200 metres, making these extremely long-ranged,
23:58and a massive threat to any open-topped vehicle in the immediate vicinity.
24:02Other than the flamethrower, the T-34 used is different to other T-34-85s in game, being a model
24:081946, something I covered in my episode looking at Soviet WW2 tanks, with this having a 520hp
24:16engine versus 500 for the previous T-34s, as well as being fitted with the MDSH smoke concealment
24:23system, made up of two smoke barrels mounted at the rear of the tank, and also uses an electrical
24:28traverse system for the turret. Beyond that, the rest of the stats are the same as the regular T-34-85s
24:34already in game. As for the T-34-TPO50, I could see this being a cool event or premium tank,
24:41probably at 5.7, where it would retain the previous advantages and disadvantages of the T-34-85,
24:48but now with a very effective flamethrower, that would be a lot of fun to use at tier 4,
24:53and it would just be very nice for this unique Chinese flamethrower tank to be added to War Thunder.
24:58In real life, a single prototype was created, and does seem to have been put through testing,
25:03but ultimately the design was rejected, though the prototype does still exist to this day.
25:09So that just about brings us to the end of Chinese modified tanks,
25:12but as I mentioned earlier, China did use a lot of tanks from many different nations
25:17in an unmodified form. However, while many of these are already in the Chinese tech tree,
25:22these have often been added incorrectly. For example, while the Republic of China forces on Taiwan
25:28did use M-36 Jacksons, these were M-36B2s that were acquired from France. I mean,
25:35the in-game wiki does try to get around to this by using the example of an M-36 Jackson that was
25:39captured during the Korean War by the PRC, but this was a singular example, and the flag that's
25:44actually used in-game is that of the Republic of China, and it does talk about the M-36B2s,
25:49so it is clearly supposed to represent them. But the M-36B2 is quite interesting,
25:54with this using the M-4A2 chassis instead of the M-4A3, had a slower top speed and a less powerful
26:01engine, but also potentially having the armoured roof over the fighting compartment, and maybe having
26:06access to the M-348 Heat FS shell with its 305mm penetration. Compared to the M-82 APC-BC shells,
26:14173mm penetration at 500m. So having the M-36B2 would not only fix a historical inaccuracy,
26:22but would also give China a more effective vehicle. Then there is the T-34 model 1943,
26:28which has its own set of problems, namely that while many T-34-85s were sold to China,
26:34T-34-76s were not. Now many were sold to North Korea, and it is possible that some might have
26:41been repaired in China, but it was never used by China. Though since some exist in museums in China,
26:47it is technically possible some were gifted by North Korea, or acquired by other means,
26:52but if we're adding tanks that are only housed in museums then pretty much any nation could use
26:56any vehicle if Gaijin so wished. Aside from that problem, if this was intended to be a late production
27:02T-34-76, it should also likely have a commander's cupola, though honestly it would just be as easy
27:08to change the designation of the tank at this point since it's not really based on any
27:12factual vehicle in Chinese service. Fortunately, there has been some work to rectify these issues,
27:17as until recently the Chinese T-26 was of the wrong model, but was fixed a few updates ago to be
27:23more historically accurate, so it seems that this is a subject that Gaijin is keeping an eye on.
27:29Then lastly, there are a small number of tanks that were used by China but not modified,
27:34at least to an extensive degree, with these including many Japanese captured vehicles,
27:39like the Type 97T key tankettes, and more vehicles supplied by allied forces, such as the M7 Priest,
27:47which appears to have been supplied to Republic of China forces on Taiwan sometime in the mid-1950s.
27:53Also, if Gaijin really wanted to add to them, we could get various allied vehicles that were
27:57captured in the Korean War by the Chinese, such as the Canadian Wasp flamethrower tank, the M4A3 Sherman
28:04with a 76mm gun, and even an M26 Pershing, though personally I don't think these tanks should be
28:10added so as to limit the amount of copy paste tanks in the Chinese tech tree. So that's it for this
28:16episode looking at Chinese World War 2 tanks, and I'd be interested in your thoughts on these vehicles
28:21in the comments below. For the next episode, the plan is to look at Israeli World War 2 tanks that
28:27were used in the early part of that nation's history, then maybe a quick return to the Hungarians,
28:32who have had a sub tree added since I last looked at them, but still have many of their tanks missing,
28:38but then I will definitely start looking at German tank destroyers and assault guns,
28:42as well as other nations for which I have missed their tank destroyers, so hopefully you'll join me
28:46for that. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the video, hopefully you'll join me for the next one,
28:51I've been Toreno and I'll see you next time.
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