Type 5 75 mm Tank Gun

Type 5 75 mm Tank Gun Mark I

The Type 5 75 mm Tank Gun was used as the main armament of the Imperial Japanese Army Type 4 Chi-To prototype medium tank. It was one of the largest tank guns to be fitted on a World War II Japanese tank.^[1][2] Due to late war shortage-induced delays only two were ever mounted in a completed Type 4 Chi-To, neither of which saw combat.^[2]

Use

Type 4 Chi-To medium tank with the Type 5 75 mm tank gun

The Type 5 75 mm Tank Gun was intended as the main armament of the Type 4 Chi-To medium tank, a planned improvement over the Imperial Army's most powerful production tank, the Type 3 Chi-Nu.^[3] The first prototype Type 4 Chi-To was delivered in 1944. Though the most advanced and powerful Japanese tank to leave the drawing board, late war industrial and material shortages resulted in only two being completed.^[2]

The Type 4 Chi-To was manned by a crew of five ^[2][4] and fielded the long-barreled 75 mm L/56.4 (4.23 m) gun. A variant of the Japanese 1943 Type 4 75mm AA Gun,^[5][6] it was mounted in a large, hexagonal turret and capable of being elevated between -6.5 to +20 degrees. Its 850 metres per second (2,800 ft/s) muzzle velocity gave it an armor penetration of 75 millimeters at 1,000 meters.

Intended Type 4 Chi-To production was 25 tanks per month spread over two Mitsubishi Heavy Industries factories. Late war shortage-induced delays resulted in only 6 chassis being built by 1945 and just two of which were completed. Neither completed tanks saw any combat prior to the end of the war in the Pacific.^[2][7]

References

1. Tomczyk, Andrzej, Japanese Armor Vol. 4, AJ Press, 2005, pp. 18-22, 30. ISBN 83-7237-167-9.
2. Zaloga, Steven J. Japanese Tanks 1939–45, Osprey Publishing, 2007, p. 22. ISBN 978-1-8460-3091-8.
3. Tomczyk, Japanese Armor Vol. 4, pp. 3, 5.
4. Tomczyk, Andrzej, Japanese Armor Vol. 4, pp. 19, 20.
5. Taki's Imperial Japanese Army: "Tank Guns"
6. Tomczyk, Japanese Armor Vol. 4, pp. 19, 22, 30.
7. Tomczyk, Japanese Armor Vol. 4, pp. 19, 22.