כאן יש מידע ותמונות על טנקים של יפן בזמן מלחמת העולם השניה, אני חושב על לתרגם חלקים מהאתר ההוא, ולהוסיף עוד מידע אבל כנראה שזה יקרה רק בשישי-שבת אם לא מאוחר יותר.
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לעצלנים:
The Japanese were wrong to see action first against China, a farming country of which the army had not the least antitank weapon. They developed a sentiment of invincibility which proved fatal when they went to face the industrial nations of the West and Russia.
Type 94 'TK' tankettes in a street of Hoihow, on the Hainan Island in 1939.
The Japanese tanks reflect that blindness. The great majority of the models are too light, poorly protected and do not have enough armament. The warning of Kalkin Gol, a terrible defeat inflicted by the Russians on the Mongolian border in 1939, was not heard.
The Japanese made some attempts to create large armored units. Some (divisions but especially brigades) were set up in Manchuria. The Japanese High Command never used the tanks within large units. It must be said that the tanks only played a minor role in the Pacific area, where distances and logistical problems prevented the massive use of tanks. Only in Burma, a more intelligent use of tanks could have make a difference.
In the choice of war materials, Japan was conservative to the point of sclerosis. While better replacement were available, obsolete vehicles went on being mass-produced. The case occurred for light as well as medium tanks.
Yet, not all was bad in the Japanese tanks. All models proved very reliable mechanically and their autonomy was very good. To spare valuable oil, the Japanese were the first in 1932 to develop a usable diesel engine and to generalize its use in their tanks after 1934. Even Russia did not go so far and so quickly. The Japanese were also pioneers for amphibious tanks, although they played only a modest role in actual combats.
Some figures
Between 1931 and 1945, Japan produced 6450 tanks. Half of them (3300) were made by the Mitsubishi Company.
Tankette Type 97 Te-Ke during the victory parade in Manilla in 1942.
The sub-total of tanks produced between 1940 and 1945 is 4424, i.e. a yearly average comparable to Italy. For a country as large and as industrialized as Japan, that was modest. Before 1945, the fleet and the air force had priority. It changed when the homeland went under direct threat but it was too late.
The best year was 1942, with 1290 units produced. Afterwards, the downward spiral started and quickly accelerated. In 1945, only 130 tanks left the production lines. That was due to the American air offensive but above all to the submarine offensive that effectively cut off the supply of raw materials. It is the more dramatic in comparison with its enemies. In 1943, Japan still managed to produce 750 tanks, but in the same period the USA turned out 29 497 units ! The score was still worse in the next years.
Naming System
The Japanese system for naming tanks seems difficult to a Westerner, although it is quite logical. Like all weapons, the year of introduction is the first criteria. That year is computed on the historical calendar of Japan, starting 660 years BC. A tank Type 92 was thus introduced in 1932, the year 2592 of the Japanese calendar (only the two last digits counts). The problem is that several weapons or tanks can be introduced the same year. The Japanese used ideograms to differentiate further the various weapons. The ideogram "Chi" meant a medium tank, "Te" a tankette; "Ke" an assault gun, "Ho" a self propelled gun, "Ka" an amphibious tank. There was a second ideogram to distinguish the models. The Type 97 Chi-Ha is a medium tank introduced in 1937, the Type 2 Ke-To is a light tank introduced in 1942. There was sometimes a surname to supplement or replace the ideograms. The Type 97 Shinhoto Chi-Ha is a variation of the medium tank Chi-Ha with a new turret (meaning of the word Shinhoto). The Type 95 had the surname "Ha-Go" given by the builder of the tank.
The Tanks
After having used tanks built abroad (French and British), the Japanese tried to build by themselves first the most difficult sort of tank: a heavy one ! It failed. After some missed prototypes, the attempt was dropped altogether in the thirties.
Type 95 Ha-Go destroyed towards the end of the war
No other heavy tank will be undertaken until the end of the war.
From 1932 onwards, the Type 89 Chi-Ro was the first tank to be mass-produced. It remained the standard medium tank until the late thirties. It was amply outdated before that. Its follower, the Type 97 Chi-Ha took over and remained the standard type until the end of the war. Its shortcomings were clear since the Battle of Kalkin Go in 1939 though. The Type 97 Medium Tank "Special", the same hull with a new turret to install a better gun appeared only in 1942, at a time when it was already outdated. The Japanese then tried half a dozen of models, some were produced in limited numbers (such as the Chi-He or the Chi-Nu) but none were mass-produced by lack of a definite choice for a model. When the Russians attacked in Manchuria with more than 5 000 tanks, there were not one Japanese machine able to take on a T-34.
The Japanese built in the early thirties a cavalry tank, very light, the Type 92. Then, they lapsed in the craze for tankettes. Starting with the Type 94 'TK', they evolved in the Type 97 Te-Ke via the Type 94 KAI. In China, the ultra-light tanks, with a weak armament and armor but highly mobile, were highly successful. No antitank opposition was to be feared. In the late thirties, it became clear that that kind of vehicles would not be very useful against a more serious enemy. The development of tankettes was stopped but they went on being sent to the frontline until the end of the war.
In the meantime, a new light tank had appeared. The Type 95 Ha-Go, introduced in 1935, will monopolize the stage until 1942. It was by no mean a bad machine, but its popularity among the crews delayed by a couple of years the introduction of a follower. It is already outdated in 1940. The two models that replaced it after 1942 (the Type 98 Ke-Ni and the Type 2 Ke-To) were only slightly different. A radically new follower, the Type 5 Ke-Ho did not go further than testing.
In the field of amphibious tanks, the Japanese will prove more creative. The army built several prototypes before the war (they were the first to experiment with jet propulsion), but none were mass-produced and the whole enterprise is dropped in 1940. After 1941, that is the Navy's turn to have interest in amphibious tanks. The Ka-Mi and the Ka-Chi were adaptations of land tanks to which discardable bows and sterns were added to ensure flotation. They will not play a very significant role in actual combats.
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צ'אט
06-01-2005, 17:47
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