Tank selection

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Tanaka
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Tank selection

Post by Tanaka »

Tankette

Type 97 TE-KE
Powered by a 65hp diesel engine. The Vehicle weighed over 4 1/2tons, was 60cm larger than the orignal type 94, had a larger turret mounting a 37mm gun, but still only had a 2 man crew. It had a top speed of 28mph and a road range of 150 miles
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Light tank

Type 95 HA-GO
One of the best Japanese tanks of the war, this was in production at Mitsubishi from 1935 for a total of 7 years, during which 1250 were built. It mounted a 37mm gun in its offset turret, plus a 7.7mm ball mounted machine gun in the turret rear. The suspension was Maj Tomio Hara's bell crank and helical compression spring designand the 7 1/2ton tank was powered by a 100hp dieselengine.The diemensions of the HA-GO were, Length 4.36m, width 2.05m, height 2.18m and armour thickness 6-12mm.
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Medium tanks

Type 89 OT-SU
The Japanese had bought a Vickers Mk C export model in 1927 and 2 years later developed their first medium tank. The original type 89 had been powered by a petrol engine, but after cold weather trials in Manchuria it was decieded to fit a diesel, the 115hp Mitsubishi being developed specially for the tank. It was widely used in China and Manchuria where it was sometimes fitted with an unditching tail. The OT-SU continued in service up to 1943, but was by then outdated.
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Type 97 CHI-HA
In 1936 Japan launched a programme to build a successor to the OT-SU and, after a year of trailling various models, the CHI-HA was chosen for mass production, its thicker armour meeting the requirment for a heavier tank. It was probaly the best Japanese tank of the war.However, altough it performed wel enough, it cannot be truely compared with Allied medium tanks such as the Sherman and Grant because it only weighed 15 tons and its armour was only 8-25mm thick. Suspension was by six roadwheels on each side, paired in three bogies. The rear mounted engine drove a long propellor shaft to the gearbox and final driveat the front. The 57mm main armament had vertical trunnions instead of the usual horizontal trunnions; this allowed the gun to be traversed 5 degrees left or right without moving the turret, thus permitting very precise aiming without having to move the whole turret through very small angles.
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Amphibius Tank

Type 3 KA-CHI
Based on the CHI-HE medium tank and weighing nearly 29 tons. For amphibius operations it wasfitted with 2 detachable sponsons, fore and aft, which were dropped once ashore. Water propulsion was via twin propellors and steering via twin rudders. It was armed with a 37mm main gun and 2 machine guns.
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Post by Mike »

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Tanaka
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Post by Tanaka »

Nice site Mike, thanks :D . Its such a shame but there are hundreds of wrecks like that scattered all over the Pacific just rusting away. Thanksfully there are people who don't want to see that happen, which is why im going away next weekend to see a Ha-Go which is about to be restored and will hopefully be coming to Beltring in a few years time :D :D :D
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Post by LAH650 »

Just reading some US data records about Type 97's....

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and read this:

PENETRATION TEST
A field test has been conducted by a U.S. antitank company to determine the penetration capabilities of U.S. infantry antitank weapons attacking the Type 97 medium tank (improved). U.S. weapons used in the test were the caliber .50 machine gun, the rifle grenade, the 2.36-inch rocket, and the 37-mm antitank gun.
The caliber .50 machine gun fired on the Japanese tank at three different ranges—35 yards, 50 yards, and 100 yards. In firing on the front of the tank at a range of 35 yards, penetrations were registered on the ball-mounted machine gun only; no penetrations were made on the vision aperture, turret, or curved or sloping surfaces. At 50 yards, 35 percent penetrations were made in the plate behind the suspension system (on the side of the tank), the hall mount of the rear machine gun, and the under surface of the rear of the tank. At 100 yards, no penetrations were made on any part of the tank.
The rifle grenade was fired at a range of approximately 50 yards. When the grenade was fired at a normal angle to 45 degrees from normal, penetration was made on all parts of the tank, with the exception of the gun shield. The diameter of the penetrations was approximately 1/2 inch.
The 2.36-inch rocket was fired against the tank at a range of approximately 50 yards. Penetrations were made in all parts of the tank when the rocket struck at angles from normal to 45 degrees from normal. The diameter of the penetrations was approximately 3/4 inch.
The 37-mm antitank gun was fired at ranges of 100 and 350 yards. Only armor-piercing shells were used. At 100 yards, the 37-mm registered penetrations on all parts of the tank when fired at angles from normal to 45 degrees from normal. At 350 yards, penetration of the tank armor could be made only when the antitank gun was fired at normal angle. The diameter of penetration was approximately 1 1/2 inches.
As a result of this test, the ranges listed below were recommended as the most favorable for employment against this tank:

Caliber .50 machine gun . . . . . . . . . . Ranges up to 50 yards
Rifle grenade . . . . . . . . . . Ranges up to 75 yards
2.36-inch rocket . . . . . . . . . . Ranges up to 100 yards
37-mm antitank gun . . . . . . . . . . Ranges up to 350 yards

with jungle ranges etc. not very effective armour....

and thats without 57 & 75mm guns....
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Post by von papen »

were there any jap heavy tanks? and why did they invest in lots of light tanks? were most pre war designs?
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Post by Tanaka »

the japanese did develop some heavy tanks, well heavy by their standards at around 30-35 tonnes but these were rare, the heaviest tank you were likely to encounter was around 15-16 tonnes.

Unlike most other major armies the Japanese never considerd the tank to be a very important part of modern warfare. Combat in China had led them to believe that all that was needed were lightly armoured fast tanks, as the chinese had no tanks of there own so the Japanese never needed to develop there own, so when things like Shermans roll up there taken completely off guard and are never able to recover
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Post by von papen »

did the japenese develope any anti tank weaponary?
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Post by Tanaka »

the japanese had a number of ways of taking out enemy tanks, from the anti tanks rifles, to more ''Japanese'' methods of taking out tanks.

The Type 97 20 mm Anti-tank rifle. It had an automatic action which gave it a high rate of fire. On the downside the recoil from the large round was very violent. The gun could be fitted with a protective shield pushing the total weight up to 68 kg (150 lb). The Ho-1 and Ho-3 automatic aircraft cannon were developed from the Type 97.

Armour penetration was 30 mm at 350 m and a 20 mm at 700 m.

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The other way to take out a tank was to make a suicidal effort. The Japanese used everything from Lung mines, which were trust into a tank, very much like a bayonet trust, to using aircraft bombs, either banged against a tank as it went past, or like they did in Burma, to dig a concelled spider hole in the road and wait for a tank to roll over head, when the soldier would strike the detonator with a hammer setting off the bomb.

while these suicide attacks weren't always very successful, they did have the effect of making the allies tie up alot of infantry to escort the tanks and protect them from these suicide soldiers, who would run out into the road and try and destroy the tank, and it was the infantries job to stop them before they got close enough.
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Post by von papen »

anti tank rifle sounds good, suicide men, kinda scary
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Post by Tanaka »

thats the thing, the rifles weren't common issue and they weren't particulary effective anyway, 30mm armour penetration ain't much use really, so they tried to use Japanese Spirit to overcome this problem, plus a 500-lb bomb will really screw your day up if your in a tank
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Post by jdeleur »

Here some more info on the tank hunters 8)
http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/jp_tankhunters/
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
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Post by Tanaka »

great site, haven't seen that before Jeff :D
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Post by jdeleur »

More info about Japanese tanks can be found at http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/japa ... -tank.html
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
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Post by von papen »

the lunge mine looks dodgy, i can just imagine a ww1 type battle, with 50 shermans and 1000 japanese with lunge mines doing a "bayonet charge"
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Post by Tanaka »

that was one of the plans for when the allies invaded the home islands
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