Japanese Armour Doctrine, 1918-1942

greetings all it's time for the next installment of my series of overviews as to how the various major combatant nations of world war ii came up with the armored forces with which they started their wars obviously it is now time for me to delve into the japanese story considering the japanese armored forces in the pacific war received neither a reputation for insightful tactical use nor for technological excellence it may come as a surprise to discover that they actually had a very modern and effective doctrine complete with armored divisions despite having the world's fifth largest tank force at the beginning of the war though they just never really got around to implementing their doctrine well this also means that this is going to be a fairly short video also affected partially by the fact that there's not much in a language that i understand japan of course learned about tanks pretty much at the same time as everybody else did when the british started using them being one of the allied powers they had observers on the western front like many others and they soon saw the tank's effectiveness after receiving the reports japanese sent a bloke named captain mizutani yoshiho to the uk to go buy a tank he ended up getting a mark iv female which arrived in yokohama in late october 1918 and forwarded then to the infantry school in chuba province the next year the japanese purchased the latest generation of tanks a half dozen whippets from the uk and a baker's dozen of fts and there was a new organization set up to investigate them the mark iv was acquired under the auspices of the military motor vehicle investigation committee but now testing of the new tanks was to be performed by the army tactical headquarters which was a general weapons r d organization but had a desire to see motorization alongside horse and ox power into testing the wind much has happened elsewhere in the world the whippet style of tank was soon enough considered to be a dead end but the ft with its turret showed promise in the meantime the minister of war a yamaneshi hanzo decided to implement a modernization of the army emphasizing quality over quantity starting late 1922 troop strength of the army would be cut by 65 000 with some of the money saved to be spent on buying tanks unfortunately nobody really had any tanks to sell the british and french were still playing around with the new tank designs which were not yet ready for mass production such as the media marked one and the japanese didn't see any merit in just buying the world war one designs which were laying fallow the head of the army technical bureau was a general taiichi suzuki and he was adamantly against the purchase of any of the foreign tanks for the japanese use instead the japanese would design the things themselves and a team of four engineers has given two years to come up with a design which could compete with anything being developed in europe a bit like italy the japanese were hampered a bit by the lack of a domestic industry the only vehicles produced in japan were mitsubishi model a sedans between 1917 1921 and a truck built from american parts kits by d.a.t g j-dosha still under the leadership of a tomi o'hara they set about producing a tank of their own the design goal was about 12 tons not exceeding 15 railway transportable and remember japanese railway gauge is a bit smaller than the global standard a turret with a 57 millimeter gun and two sub-turrets with a machine gun each front and rear 25 kilometers an hour road speed from a 120 horsepower engine and enough armor to stop a 37 millimeter at 500 meters the final product was experimental tank number one also known as type 87 chi e ended up at about 18 tons did 20 kilometers an hour but it was still better than anything else on offer at the time however it was a little bit unwieldy for the infantry support role envisioned the role for most tanks around the world at the time so they were told to go try again in the meantime a vickers c showed up now this was not one of vickers success stories they only built the one and a very similar vicar's d which ended up in ireland this provided a couple of lessons though which were incorporated into experimental tank number two type 89 chiro which sort of bore a similarity to a hybrid of the mark 1 and the c one observation was made when leaking fuel caught fire in the mark c and rather badly burned to vickers engineers the japanese decided that the combination of fire hazard combined with the greater fuel efficiency of diesels important given the relative lack of petrol resources in japan would lead to their tanks being diesel-powered now this would take a couple of years to reach fruition however and the experimental 2 would go into service as the type 89 ego with a daimler petrol engine however since it obviously would take time to work up production lines for the things 10 renault nc27s were required they were in effect elongated fts i covered an inside the hatch on a swedish one a couple of years ago they were fitted with a long type 11 37 millimeter infantry gun same as would be found on the very initial build type 89s the first japanese combat use of tanks came in manchuria in september 1931 the renaults of the first special tank company being effectively used in the capture of harbin but things went a bit less well in the shanghai incident considering very few nations in the area had tanks the japanese had set up an elaborate amount of anti-tank ditches and mines between those fairly resolute defense then the japanese learned that tanks are not best suited to cities and only three were left operational out of second independent tanks companies mix of some 15 type 89s and renaults by the end of the fight the renault in particular suffered with suspension and overheating problems being relegated soon afterwards to training units it is worth observing that the japanese navy also had tanks in shanghai the special naval landing force had originally vickers crossly armored cars later making it tank companies about a half dozen type 89s and a few other armored cars they could be out visually identified by the navy's anchor symbol instead of the army star and oftentimes the rising sun flag with rays the interesting bit though happened in february of 1933. by this point the japanese had set up the chinese puppet state of manchukuo an attempt to convince the head of the province of rege to join manchukuo failed so the military option under a lieutenant general yoshikazu nishi was undertaken to change his mind the chinese line was broken in a matter of days but there was a problem the chinese were withdrawing to create a new defensive line in front of the provincial capital chengde faster than the predominantly football japanese army could catch them nishi had a secret weapon though an unofficial ad-hoc formation under major general tadashi kawahara which had no name but was centered about the first tank company this battle group consisted of the 11 type 89 tanks two type 92 heavy armored cars and about 100 trucks hauling two infantry battalions an engineer company a mountain artillery company and a radio section this completely mechanized force punched through the chinese rear guard did 320 kilometers to chengdae in three days and captured the town before the chinese could react there is no indication as to where nishi came up with this organization but experiments and combined arms units had been conducted by the uk and us at this point maybe he had heard of them or maybe it was independent development but either way it worked out it provided the ammunition to create the first official combined arms unit the first independent mixed brigade in 1934 it consisted of a tank battalion and second battalion was often added for exercises a motor infantry regiment of three battalions motorized artillery battalion motorized engineer company a flamethrower tank platoon and a reconnaissance company the unit tallied some 78 type 89s and 41 type 94s the type 89s are now the b model with the diesel engine and now of course all the type 89s are coming with the low velocity 57 millimeter gun in all type 89 production would reach about 113 a's and 291 bees mention of the type 94 however now sends me back in time a couple of years to talk about another line of japanese development you may have noted that i mentioned that nishi's force included two type 92 heavy armored cars which looked suspiciously tank-like the problem was that tanks were the purview of the infantry branch but cavalry were interested in the use of the things as well so instead of being named tanks they were considered a tracked form of armored car type 92 was influenced by the cardinaloid tankette tested in japan in the late 1920s and after a small detour to an amphibious armored car a very light turreted full-tracked vehicle was developed for the cavalry this little 40 kilometer an hour three ton light tank with a crew of three and two machine guns the later on the whole machine gun turned into a 13 millimeter wasn't massively successful with only 167 being built before production moved to the type 94. technically categorized as a tank yet the type 94 really wasn't too far off of the british mark ii light tank with its four road wheels two main crew single machine gun in the turret and somewhat optimistic levels of armor it was also one of the first instances of the relatively unique bell crank suspension developed by tomi ohara 823 of these would be built anyway back to the mixed brigade the main problem the brigade had was with the tanks being too slow to keep up with everything else the type 89s fresh from the production line already needed a replacing before replacements could arrive however barring a platoon of the new type 95 light tank the ha go fighting flared up again in china and the brigade was put to work well sort of as the tanks had difficulty keeping up the infantry started complaining about the lack of tank support the complaints reached the ear of army commander hideki tojo tojo was something of a conservative had no time for independent galavanting round of tanks and ordered the units basically be detached and placed in the direct infantry support role which in fairness did actually match the manuals of the time the reality though was that the brigade was in effect disbanded and shortly afterwards was disbanded in theory being replaced by the tank pure infantry support oriented first tank group now a tank group basically consisted of three tank regiments battalions in effect a little bit more self-sustaining each with three companies of light tanks and a company of heavy tanks or mediums plus a bunch of supply trucks and some maintenance assets the infantry support role was also the reasoning behind the weapons of the tanks something needed to be able to deal with enemy machine guns which survived the artillery which had to stop by the time the japanese infantry got to within the last 200 meters or so the 57 millimeter low velocity gun about 350 meters a second gave a good enough boom to do the job curiously the low velocity also meant that the tank could fire from complete turret down positions behind ridges at suitable distances aimed in a semi-indirect manner by the commander the late 1930s the japanese began to run into chinese tanks but since these tended to be panzer ones and l3s they weren't much of a threat and the lack of a high velocity gun wasn't a problem a few towed pac-36s showed up which were a threat but then again the emphasis on a good high explosive capability was a good counter to this as well not that the japanese were entirely rigidly kept to the daodi infantry concept in 1938 a detachment under colonel yoshiharu iwanaka consisting of his first tank battalion plus some fully motorized infantry engineers and artillery was sent to go destroy a bridge that the chinese would be using in a retreat as they advance air recon observed a strong enemy defense the airplane flew down wrote a note and threw it at the window and iwanaka launched a diversionary attack to draw a portion of the chinese defense away the japanese army trained heavily in night fighting and that included also the tank crews so after the diversionary attack iwanaka did a night march back to the target bridge seized it before the enemy could respond and then blew the bridge and returned home in effect it was a classic cavalry raid except powered by internal combustion engines would the japanese command learn their lessons from this being a mission-oriented task organization the iwanaka detachment was disbanded back to the tank issue though again i mentioned briefly the type 95 light tank ha go eventually 2 300 of these would be built hitting the speed of production in 1935 or so making it the most commonly found tank in the japanese army on the plus side there was a reasonable tank for the time with good suspension engine and reliability and pretty nimble a factor in east asian terrain on the downside of the three-man crew only one of them was in a turret and the gun was of questionable utility even against things like stewart's especially against forces such as those without tanks the type 95 was plenty good enough even into the 1940s however the tank would also remain the most commonly found through to the late war period proving hopeless against american and australian armor come 1937 officially the type 97 medium tank chiha entered service but production delays meant that they were still a little bit rare when the japanese received their wake-up call at nomahan predominantly armed with type 89s and type 95s a platoon of type 97s were also present in the japanese order of battle the type 97 was the most common medium tank of the japanese war eventually 2100 or so would be built now to give an idea of the japanese definition of medium tank it came in at about 15 tons the american m5a1 stuart light tank also came in at about 15 tons the japanese knew it but were limited by production issues to keeping this supposedly stopped gap tank in production that said again as far as it went it wasn't a bad tank with its four main crew although being riveted didn't help it much nor was the fact that the fourth man was a bow gunner and not a turret crewman the japanese however were using these tanks with low velocity 57 millimeter and the medium velocity 37 millimeter guns against soviet tanks with 45 millimeter high velocity guns this did not go well for the japanese they lost about 75 percent of their overall strength in oman there was a sudden realization that they very well could end up fighting an enemy with more armor than the chinese and that anti-tank capability was required enter the type one 47-millimeter gun a high-velocity anti-tank gun this was more than a threat to stewards though it was advisable to shoot only at the flanks of sherman's in grants somewhere just under half of the production of chiha came with the 47 millimeter gun the catch production of this tank with the 47 started in 1942 meaning that they're a little bit thin on the ground a handful were present for the assault in bataan where they were a match for the m3s on the defending side together with this shift to a more general purpose capability another influence which showed up before the japanese expanded the war in late 1941 was the rather stunning german success of the panzer divisions in both poland and western europe not too proud to take another idea from the europeans the japanese realized that they needed to rethink their concept of armor operations in april 1941 armor branch was formed as an independent branch and cavalry was folded into it the chief of armor was the former chief of cavalry general shin yoshida who was very much a supporter of the role of tanks as a lead component of the army he set about creating new doctrine and organization to reflect this however this would have to wait until 1942 there was work to be done in the pacific for this the japanese tanks would be operating under the old doctrine which was primarily infantry support however unlike say the french or british concept of infantry support the japanese were given a little bit more flexibility the primary mission of the tank may have been direct infantry support but other roles were also considered suitable when performing in the conventional attack role the japanese stressed concentration of force a mobile mass attacking a weak point of the line a full regiment of 50 tanks would be assigned a frontage of 500-800 meters although a reserve would usually be kept for either exploitation against enemy rear areas or against just things that require a reserve if there was no feasibility of supporting the infantry in a direct offense tanks could be assigned more cavalry roles such as flank attacks with infantry support keeping them company long-range raids such as ionaka's were given some considerable attention in the doctrine as well but the best opportunity to use a tank's abilities was in a pursuit japanese pursuits should be quote unremitting and audacious even if only one tank survives to complete the mission so as you can see the japanese may have been officially in the old school line of thinking but the reality was that they were not quite as high bound as it implies after all if the infantry are tootling along in trucks to 30 kilometers an hour there's no reason why their supporting tanks can also tread along at 30 kilometers an hour as infantry support and this was demonstrated well in malaya with the seizure of jitra a combined arms task force of three companies the tanks two of motorized infantry plus some engineers medics and signals under lieutenant colonel shizuo sake were told that they were going to go make a breakthrough and that the key was speed of action the instructions were basically stopped for nothing if something broke down abandon it somebody gets in the way friend or enemy run them over and it worked it worked again at slim river a small force about battalion size routing an indian division during a night attack there was a catch though oftentimes charge is indeed the correct answer but as kuster found out after all his successes just because it worked several times before doesn't mean it will work every time the indians were poorly equipped for anti-tank defense which suited the japanese tanks fine over-confidently charging into an australian anti-tank ambush put a bit of a dampener on japanese audacity however but again the point is made just because the japanese felt the tank was for infantry support didn't mean that this meant slow operation at foot speed by the middle of 1942 with the conquests in the pacific completed there was the opportunity for a reset and a lot of the tanks were brought back to manchuria where two tank divisions were stood up mid-year with a third stood up in december a couple of years in the future shall we say on the world war ii channel timeline right now this was the result of the assessment of tank doctrine with the german success in mind the tank division was a very reasonable design if maybe a little bit tank heavy two tank brigades each with two tank regiments each regiment being a light tank company three medium tank companies a gun tank company basically assault guns and a maintenance company one mobile infantry regiment in type 1 hoki armored personnel carriers or type 1 hoha half tracks an anti-tank battalion a recon battalion a mobile artillery regiment of three battalions an anti-aircraft battalion an engineer battalion a maintenance battalion transportation department a signals unit and a casualty evacuation company a big one there were two catches the first was that the doctrine had not yet been updated this would happen in september the second whilst the two apcs and the assault guns had been invented they weren't yet in production so the three 1942 divisions were not exactly up to official strength it's worth noting that the reason that these three divisions were stood up in china was that the asian landmass was the place best suited for the operation of such a unit jungles and small islands not so much though eventually second tank division will fight in the philippines and you'll see this in about two and a half years the doctrine itself would be changed in september of 1942 and the kiko sakusa yamusho or notification of armor operations and please forgive my japanese by the way i have no skills in it the notification of armor operations would prove to be a massive change in the emphasis of how the japanese army would officially do business now the essence of the fight is to raid and destroy the enemy by the great mobility and offensive power of tanks each branch should coordinate in order to assist the tank in accomplishing its duty infantry would support the tank by attacking the enemy with or in advance of the tank cover the flanks and clear the enemy from positions anti-tank guns would directly support tanks and destroy enemy tanks at this point remember the anti-tank guns have the same type 1 millimeter as the tanks had artillery would support the tanks and destroy enemy artillery and positions gun tanks would destroy and suppress at close range enemy anti-tank guns and other weapons which could not be suppressed by artillery so this is all fantastic what happened this has now been implemented by the time that the allies start to take the offensive in the pacific well in addition to the problems of industrial manufacturing not being capable of meeting the needs of this new unit design the other problem is that we just don't hear about japanese tank divisions because they were found in china the armored units encountered in the pacific campaign after this point would have been at least until late 1944 merely independent attachments to infantry units either divisional recon units would type 94 type 97 tankettes or independent tank companies or regiments further japanese doctrine heavily stressed the attack which is pretty much what they've been doing up until now on the world war ii channel timeline as we proceed forward however we will note that the japanese do not necessarily follow the manual when on the defense in small islands right that was basically your overview of how the japanese ended up with their tank force to this date on the world war ii channel timeline which is june or so 1942 so i'm sure we will be revisiting some of the japanese vehicles a little bit later on in the course of events which means i think that there's only one major power to do now and that'll be the united states and we will attack that when torch happens right hope you found it interesting and informative take care

Channel: The Chieftain

Views: 285,575

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Id: KD1gi54aw64

Length: 26min 41sec (1601 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 11 2021