New material on Japanese tank organization for home defense

[el cid again]

Osprey Japanese Tanks 1939-1945 (new in 2007) has this:

The final campaign: defense of the Home Islands

One reason for the relatively limited use of Japanese tanks in the final year of fighting
was the decision to reserve the newest and best equipment for the final defense of the
Home Islands. The 4th Tank Division wsa formed in the summer of 1944 at the Chiba
Tank School and attached to the 36th Corps (Army), which also controlled the 1st Tank
Division in Tochigi. Japanese tank strenth in the Home Islands in the summber of 1945
totaled 2970 tanks in two divisions, six brigades, seven independent regiments and
several smaller units.

Note that no version of WITP - including RHS - has anything like this many tank organizations.

[el cid again]

The new book discusses sources and problems with the few English sources. A lot of the widespread misperceptions arise because the "standard" materials were written in the 1970s from wartime data - and there is a good deal more to the story. Another problem is that not very many people realize that Japanese concepts were almost entirely adapted from foreign sources - these were not peculiar Japanese ideas - and indeed their adaptions were often improvements over the originals. The equipment went all the way to (at least the design) a "Japanese Tiger" (complete with 88 mm gun) - but practically ended with what might be called "a Japanese Panther" (or "a Japanese Sherman") - these machines being quite good looking, reasonably executed, and probably had good potential. In all eras - pre war - wartime - today - Japanese tanks usually have the best fit and finish of the entire world (although the 1938 standard was probably rediculous - the tanks were all polished on every surface). Another thing not well understood is that the problems in Japanese society (e.g. not many knew how to drive; not many knew how to fix engines or complex mechanical machinery) resulted in organizations with MORE support organic to them than ANY others in ANY age: Japanese tank organizations carried signifiant numbers of reserve machines, and had first, second and third echelon support organic to them. It is nice to have someone willing to look at the nicely detailed drawings in Japanese materials and give us a little book on the subject.

[el cid again]

FYI today Japan fields a surprising number of MBT - more than seems appropriate to mountainous Japan - and I wonder what they are intended for? Further - the later generation of these is arguably the best tank in the world. It is certainly the most expensive, and except for the Swedish S tank - the only tank in the world able to articulate - to adapt to the terrain by changing its height. It cannot be said to be any better or worse than the US Abhrams in several respects: it has the same weapon and fire control systems - making it tied in that area. But it has an autoloader - and it appears it may be able to fire significantly faster than any other tank. In any case, they are fun to drive - almost unbelievably fast and maneuverable - somethign I once got to study for GM (Chevrolet Engineering) - which if it does not actually make any tanks - always studies them - just in case the need arises (GM always has a tank design of its own - and prototypes - just in case someone wants to buy a bunch - this designed in the context of studies of ALL other tanks).

Also FYI - the modern generation of 12 cm tank rifles is NOT the biggest in history or present production. There was an old - and unimplemented - Russian idea from 1958 for a 14 cm rifle. This was sold to China in the 1990s and now is in production for TWO different tanks - one is an upgun of the current series of Chiense tanks - a many generational derivitive of the T-54 - and the other a direct copy of the 1958 Russian concept. I once got the Chinese chief engineer to post some details of these tanks on Strategypage. While I am not a big fan of 14 cm guns on tanks - I don't want to get hit by one of those shells either.

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: el cid again

Osprey Japanese Tanks 1939-1945 (new in 2007) has this:

The final campaign: defense of the Home Islands

One reason for the relatively limited use of Japanese tanks in the final year of fighting
was the decision to reserve the newest and best equipment for the final defense of the
Home Islands. The 4th Tank Division wsa formed in the summer of 1944 at the Chiba
Tank School and attached to the 36th Corps (Army), which also controlled the 1st Tank
Division in Tochigi. Japanese tank strenth in the Home Islands in the summber of 1945
totaled 2970 tanks in two divisions, six brigades, seven independent regiments and
several smaller units.

Note that no version of WITP - including RHS - has anything like this many tank organizations.

You'll see all this stuff in the AE[;)].