The Type 3 75 mm tank gun was used as the main armament of 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 ...

Type 3 Chi-Nu medium tank was a medium tank of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. Like the Type 1 Chi-He, this tank was an improved version of the Type 97 Chi-Ha. It incorporated a Type 3 75 mm tank gun, one of the largest Japanese tank guns during the war. T ...

. It was one of the largest guns ever to be fitted on a

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 ...

Japanese tank.

Design and use

The Type 3 had a caliber of , barrel length of (L/38). As fitted to the

, elevation was from -10 to +25 degrees.Taki's Imperial Japanese Army: "Tank Guns" Type 3 75mm Tank Gun
/ref> Firing a shell at a

muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately to i ...

of it gave an armor penetration of at and at . It shot a 6.6 kilogram projectile. This gun was based on the Japanese Type 90 field gun which in turn was loosely based on the French

Schneider et Cie Schneider may refer to: Hospital * Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel People *Schneider (surname) Companies and organizations * G. Schneider & Sohn, a Bavarian brewery company * Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG, the former owner of the D ...

''Canon de 85 mle 1927''. The Type 3 gun was license-built by the Osaka Arsenal. The Type 3 Chi-Nu, in which the gun was mounted, was the most powerful tank in regular series production for the Imperial Japanese Army during

. The Type 3 Chi-Nu was developed to cope with the M4 Sherman. By 1943, the low priority given to tank production meant that the Type 3 did not actually enter production until 1944. By that time, the material and industrial shortages faced by Japan caused production of the tank to be delayed. These tanks were allocated to the

Japanese home islands The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chi ...

to defend against the projected Allied Invasion. As 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 ...

occurred before that invasion, the Type 3 was never used in combat. 三式砲戦車

Between 1944 and 1945, a total of 144 to 166 Type 3 Chi-Nu tanks were produced.Taki's Imperial Japanese Army: Type 3 "Chi-Nu"
Retrieved 2 May 2016 One surviving Type 3 medium tank with its Type 3 75 mm tank gun is on display at the

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

Military Ordnance Training School at

Tsuchiura, Ibaraki is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 138,033 in 60,069 households and a population density of 1123 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 29.7%. The total area of ...

, Japan. The Type 3 tank gun was also the main armament for the

Type 3 Ho-Ni III The was a tank destroyer and self-propelled artillery of Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. The Type 3 Ho-Ni III superseded the Type 1 Ho-Ni I and its variant the Type 1 Ho-Ni II in production, and gave better protection to the crew by havi ...

. The Ho-Ni III "gun tank" served as both

self-propelled artillery Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled mo ...

and

tank destroyer A tank destroyer, tank hunter, tank killer, or self-propelled anti-tank gun is a type of armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a direct fire artillery gun or missile launcher, designed specifically to engage and destroy enemy tanks, often wi ...

. It had a fully enclosed heptagonal armored casemate to address the issue of crew protection in close combat.

Notes

References

Taki's Imperial Japanese Army Page - Akira Takizawa
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Type 3 75 mm Tank Gun World War II artillery of Japan World War II tank guns Tank guns of Japan Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1944