fujisan-ni-noboru-hinode:die-eisern-faust:peashooter85:The Japanese Type 100 submachine gun,During W
fujisan-ni-noboru-hinode:die-eisern-faust:peashooter85:The Japanese Type 100 submachine gun,During World War II one severe deficiency of the Japanese Imperial Army was their lack of a proper submachine gun. Relatively few submachine guns were used, and many were imported from Germany and Italy. One Japanese smg design was the Type 100, which was first developed and introduced in 1942. The Type 100 was a simplified form of the World War I German MP-18, chambered to fire the Japanese 8mm Nambu cartridge. It was fully automatic only, fed from 30 round horizontally mounted detachable magazine and firing from an open bolt. Most importantly, it was simple weapon that was easy and cheap to manufacture, and easy to maintain. One valuable feature was the chrome lined bore, which protected the weapon from moisture, which was common with Pacific Theatre battlefields, especially Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and New Guinea.However, the Type 100 had several flaws. First, the 8mm Nambu cartridge was underpowered, had poor range, and ammunition quality often caused the weapon to be unreliable. The sights were often canted to the left, thus decreasing accuracy. Finally, the Japanese had a fine tradition of mounting useless accessories onto their weapons. Early Type 100 submachine guns including a bayonet mount and a bipod, completely useless items for submachine guns.During the war, the Japanese produced 3 versions of the Type 100. The Type 100/40, which was the original model that included the bayonet mount and bipod. Then there was Type 100/44, which was a simplified version which had a higher rate of fire. Finally there was the a folding version specially produced for paratroopers.Perhaps what hampered the Type 100 the most was its quantity of production. Japan never really invested much into the production of submachine guns. Thus only 24,000 - 27,000 were produced throughout the war. Most were issued to paratroopers, marines, and commandos. Once again, the IJN had a lot more MP-18’s than taken credit for. The picture above shows an MP-18, just look at where the bayonet lug is on a Type 100. Also it’s almost impossible to find a picture of the Type 100 being used at all.I’ll reiterate, used in battle. The only well documented unit using it is what? Giretsu! And what are they? Snowflake paratroopers Plus that picture is super sketch. The uniform and cap doesn’t match up. Also Standard dudes 100% never had Type 100’s. Doctrinally it doesn’t even make a shred of sense at all. Squads are organized for rifles/mg and rifles/mortar. Plus even if a company commander gets a shipment of them, they’re not going to know what to do with them. Don’t even bring up the ammo issues they already have with everything else. I have many pictures of Type 100’s with an individual soldiers but as for documented use? That’s a whole different subject. -- source link