MG's

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LAH650
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MG's

Post by LAH650 »

WE all know about MG34's, 42's, Bren Gun's, BAR's and the .30Cal.

But what did the Imperial Japanese Army have:

A Bren look-alike but was it as good or better, and what was it called?

A HMG, Woodpecker? Hooper fed? To allow rifle ammo to be collected from the squad, or am I thinking of the wrong thing, again was this as good as say the Vickers?

Did they have an MP40/Sten equivalent?

We just think of it as an army with bolt action riles with sword bayonet and officers with a pistol and sword.

As for Tanks............. :roll:
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Tanaka
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Post by Tanaka »

The Japanese, like most other armies used several different machine guns during the war.

Model No.11 6.5mm LMG.

This was gas operated, air cooled machine gun with a hopper feed which held 6 5-round clips of ammunition as used in the type 38 rifle and could be fitted with a boyonet.

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Model No.96 6.5mm LMG. magazine 30 rounds, RPM=550

This was also gas operated and air cooled, magazine fed full automatic LMG. Its appearence is very similar to the Bren but also featured a bayonet mounting.

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Model No.99 7.7mm LMG. Magazine 30 rounds, RPM=850

This was ags operated and magazine fed, air cooled LMG.

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Model No.92 7.7mm HMG. Strip capacity 30 rounds, RPM=450

Modelled on the French Hotchkiss, this was the standard Japanese heavy MG used in the Pacific in WW2. Nicknamed 'Woodpecker' by Allied soldiers because of its characteristic sound.

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Sub machine gun

Type 100 8mm SMG, 30 round magazine, RPM=800


Only around 30 000 were built between 1942 and 1945 and featured the typical Japanese bayonet lug under the barrel. It was not very successful so the Japanese compensated by using some MP40 and some .30 calibre Solothurn SMG's obtained from the germans.

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LAH650
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Post by LAH650 »

Were any of them any good?

Had read the Model 11, jammed due to the open hoper, which allowed dirt etc to fall in.

No useable SMG a surprise, did they not use captured kit?

Notice they all have a bayonet, says something about the expectations of the planners. No ammo, no retreat, no surrender, fit your bayonet and die a glorious death for your Emperor...
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Post by Tanaka »

the type 11 was just plain bad, its hopper system didn't really work very well, probaly why no other MG used it, the rifle rounds caused endless jams and the fact that each round had to be lubricated to make the mechanism work attracted alot of debris into the gun, cuasing even more jams.
The type 96 was a definate improvement over the type 11, but was not without fault, such as the internal cartridge oiling system but it did have a good quick barrel change system.
The model 92 was good but its stripper fed mechanism did make sustaind rapid fire diffecult.

The Japanese used alot of captured equipment, and theres photographical evidence of them using things like Thompsons, Brens and even a BAR that the Japanese had captured off the Chinese, but they would use anything they could get there hands on.

Yeah im not sure fitting a bayonet onto a MG the size of a bren is really a useful option, given the size of the average japanese it must have been impossible to actually attack someone with a bayonet fitted to a MG, but then, alot of the Japanese tactics don't make much sense in real life.
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Post by jdeleur »

When the Japanese wanted to build their own "Hotchkis" the model 92 HMG they were faced with a serious problem and that was that the cartridge.
These were semi rimmed and caused that it couldn't be extracted succesfully. Their "sollution" was to oil the cartridges. You can find out yourself what problems this will bring :roll:
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
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Post by MP44 »

What sort of price would a type 92 be? De-act or relic.
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Post by Tanaka »

hard to say, they rarely come up and never 2 at the same time so the price is always hard to set.

but a de-act type 92 might be anywhere between £2000-£5000

basicly its worth what someone is willing to pay to get there hands on one
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Post by MP44 »

Tanaka wrote:hard to say, they rarely come up and never 2 at the same time so the price is always hard to set.

but a de-act type 92 might be anywhere between £2000-£5000

basicly its worth what someone is willing to pay to get there hands on one
I think I recall seeing or maybe hearing that someone had one at an event at Stonleigh a few years back. Don't think it was that much money but was a relic rather than a de-act. But these things must be rarer than hens teeth this side of the Pacific?
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Post by Tanaka »

well there was the small type 11 LMG up for sale awhile back from a collector and that was £2200. so you are looking at £2000-£5000 for a heavy machine gun and tripod.

there are a handful floating around in private collections but not many
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Post by von papen »

is there anywere which does replicas, full metal and wood, like the mp44s?
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Post by Tanaka »

not of Japanese weapons no, no market for them ofcourse. If you want a Japanese MG you get a real one

like this 8)
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Post by von papen »

the feed system looks like a french mg, arent the jap mgs, based on french ones they were supplied earlier in the 20s and 30s?
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Post by MP44 »

Tanaka wrote:not of Japanese weapons no, no market for them ofcourse. If you want a Japanese MG you get a real one

like this 8)
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Ummmmmmmm. Nice. 8)
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Post by von papen »

woundt there be longer belts of ammo, surely it would eat that small amount of ammo in seconds!
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Post by Tanaka »

you can't put a belt through it because its designed to take the metal strips of 30 rounds, plus it only had a practical rate of fire of 200 rounds a minute which is why its nicknamed a ''woodpecker''
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