page_title: Type 89 I-Go medium tank
section_title: Combat history
hierarchical_section_title: Type 89 I-Go medium tank / Combat history
caption_attribution_description: Japanese light tanks moving toward Manila on the day the city was entered.
context_page_description: The Type 89 medium tank I-Go was a medium tank used by the Imperial Japanese Army from 1932 to 1942 in combat operations of the Second Sino-Japanese War, at Khalkhin Gol against the Soviet Union, and in the Second World War. The Type 89B model was the world's first mass-produced diesel engine tank. The tank was armed with a short-barrel 57 mm cannon for knocking out pillboxes and masonry fortifications, and proved effective in campaigns in Manchuria and China, as the Chinese National Revolutionary Army had only three tank battalions to oppose them, which consisted primarily of Vickers export models, German Panzer Is, and Italian CV33 tankettes. The Type 89 was a 1920s design medium tank, built to support the infantry, and thus lacked the armor or armament of 1940s generation Allied armor; it was regarded as obsolete by the time of the 1939 battles of Khalkhin Gol, against the Soviet Union. The code designation "I-Go" comes from the katakana letter [イ] for “first” and the kanji [号] for "number". The designation is also transliterated Chi-Ro and sometimes "Yi-Go".
context_section_description: The Type 89 served with Japanese infantry divisions and first saw combat use during the First Battle of Shanghai in 1932. The short-barreled 57 mm gun was effective at destroying machine gun nests and its 15 mm (0.59 in) armor, although thin, was enough to stop small arms fire. The relatively low speed of 25 km/h (16 mph) was not an issue in these types of operations.
  The following year, the Japanese Army formed its first independent armor force by creating three regiments armed with the Type 89, each consisting of two companies with ten tanks each. Three more regiments were formed in 1934. It was deployed for infantry support operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in various campaigns throughout China after 1937. After the out-break of war with China, the peacetime budgetary limitations were removed and the more capable and expensive Mitsubishi Chi-Ha model was accepted as the new Type 97 medium tank by the army to replace the Type 89. Type 89s were the main medium tank of the Japanese military through 1937.
caption: Japanese tanks moving toward Manila, January 1942.
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