The was an
anti-aircraft gun used by the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The Type 88 number was designated for the year the gun was accepted, 2588 in the Japanese
imperial year calendar, or 1928 in the
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
.
[War Department TM-E-30-480 ''Handbook on Japanese Military Forces'' September 1944 p. 400] It replaced the earlier
Type 11 75 mm AA gun in front line combat service, and at the time was equal in performances to any of its contemporaries in western armies
[Mayer, ''The Rise and Fall of Imperial Japan'', p. 64] and was considered capable of handling any targets the Japanese army was likely to encounter on the Asian mainland. Although it was soon overtaken by improvements in aircraft technology and was largely obsolete by 1941, it continued to be used on many fronts until the end of the war.
History and development
The Type 88 75 mm AA gun was based on an exhaustive evaluation by the Army Technical Bureau of several existing overseas designs, amalgamating some of the best features from each design (especially from the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
-vintage British
Vickers QF 3 inch 20 cwt AA gun) into a new, Japanese design.
[Bishop, ''The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II'', p. 150] The Type 88's number was designated for the year the gun was accepted, 2588 in the Japanese
imperial year calendar, or 1928 in the
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
.
[War Department Special Series No. 25 ''Japanese Field Artillery'' October 1944] The Type 88 was superior to Type 11 in accuracy and range of fire.
The Type 88 75 mm AA gun entered service between 1927 and 1928, and was deployed to virtually every anti-aircraft
field artillery unit as protection against medium level aircraft attacks. Although it was difficult and expensive weapon for Japan to produce with its limited industrial infrastructure and production technology, it was produced in larger numbers than any other medium anti-aircraft weapon in the Japanese inventory. Over 2000 units completed by the time of the
surrender of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...
.
In the early phases of World War II,
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
initially assumed that the Japanese Type 88 was a copy of the formidable
German Flak 36/37 88 mm gun due to its name. However, there is no connection between the two weapons. The confusion arose from the Japanese Army's nomenclature system. “Type 88” corresponds to the year 2588 in the Japanese
imperial year, and not to the
caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
of the weapon.
Design
The Type 88 75 mm AA gun had a single piece
gun barrel
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressu ...
with sliding
breech
Breech may refer to:
* Breech (firearms), the opening at the rear of a gun barrel where the cartridge is inserted in a breech-loading weapon
* breech, the lower part of a pulley block
* breech, the penetration of a boiler where exhaust gases leav ...
, mounted on a central pedestal. The firing platform was supported by five legs, each of which (along with the central pedestal) had adjustable screwed foot for leveling. For transport each of the legs could be folded, and the barrel was also partially retractable.
Combat record
![AttuJapaneseArtillery1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/AttuJapaneseArtillery1.jpg)
Tactically employed in battle as a four-gun field battery,
Japanese combat forces used the weapon during the
invasion of Manchuria,
Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
. They found the Type 88 gun's high velocity rounds were extremely effective
anti-tank weapon when fired horizontally. The weapon was the standard Japanese mobile antiaircraft artillery weapon and used against Allied forces more than any other artillery weapon.
During both the
Battle of Iwo Jima and the
Battle of Okinawa
The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...
it was used effectively with
armor-piercing rounds against
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
M4 Sherman
}
The M4 Sherman, officially Medium Tank, M4, was the most widely used medium tank by the United States and Western Allies in World War II. The M4 Sherman proved to be reliable, relatively cheap to produce, and available in great numbers. It ...
tanks and as a coastal-defense gun. Against armor, it had the advantage of a 360 degree traverse, but it was not easily moved and so it was less effective when fired from ambush against tanks.
Towards the end of the war many of the Type 88s were withdrawn from front line combat service and sent back to the
home islands, to help reinforce Japan's homeland defenses against
Allied air raids and to prepare for the threat of
Allied invasion.
[Chant, ''Artillery of World War II'', p. 63] It was assigned to
civil defense
Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, miti ...
units in major Japanese cities, but its maximum effective vertical range of meant it was ineffective against the
USAAF
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...
bombers, which could fly as high as .
Some guns were also assigned to coastal defense batteries.
A variant was experimentally fitted to a
Ki-109 bomber in an attempt to shoot down the B-29 Superfortress bombers at high altitude.
Weapons of comparable role, performance and era
* British
QF 3 inch 20 cwt
The QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun became the standard anti-aircraft gun used in the home defence of the United Kingdom against German airships and bombers and on the Western Front in World War I. It was also common on British warships ...
* United States
3-inch M1918 gun
Ammunition
* Anti-aircraft
** Type 90 HE AA pointed: complete round: 8.94 kg, projectile: 6.52 kg with Type 89 AA fuse
*
High explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...
** Type 90 HE pointed: complete round: 8.55 kg, projectile: 6.35 with Type 88 impact or Type 88 delay
*
Armor-piercing
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour.
From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many wars ...
** Type 95 APHE: complete round: 6.2 kg
*
Shrapnel
Shrapnel may refer to:
Military
* Shrapnel shell, explosive artillery munitions, generally for anti-personnel use
* Shrapnel (fragment), a hard loose material
Popular culture
* ''Shrapnel'' (Radical Comics)
* ''Shrapnel'', a game by Adam C ...
*
Smoke
Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-produc ...
*
Incendiary
*
Illumination
See also
*
Type 96 AA gun prime mover
The Type 96 AA Gun Prime Mover is a Japanese 6-wheeled prime mover used during the Second World War. In entered service in 1937.
During the 1920s, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) used several types of trucks to transport Anti-aircraft guns. In ...
Notes
References
* Bishop, Chris (eds) ''The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II''. Barnes & Nobel. 1998. .
* Chant, Chris. ''Artillery of World War II'', Zenith Press, 2001, .
* McLean, Donald B. ''Japanese Artillery; Weapons and Tactics''. Wickenburg, Ariz.: Normount Technical Publications 1973. .
* Mayer, S.L. ''The Rise and Fall of Imperial Japan''. The Military Press, 1984.
* War Department Special Series No 25 ''Japanese Field Artillery'' October 1944
* U.S. Department of War, ''TM 30-480, Handbook on Japanese Military Forces'', Louisiana State University Press, 1994. .
* War Department TM-E-30-480 ''Handbook on Japanese Military Forces'' September 1944
External links
Taki's Imperial Japanese Army
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
Artillery of Japan
World War II anti-aircraft guns
8
8
75 mm artillery
Military equipment introduced in the 1920s