The was a tracked

armored personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Ac ...

(APC) developed 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 Emper ...

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Development and history

The Type 1 Ho-Ki was produced as a result of a request from the army for a heavy armored artillery tractor, which could also serve as a personnel transport in order to increase the motorization and cross-country capabilities of the land forces. Several prototypes were built. The first one built on a Type 92 tankette chassis was known as the Type TC. The second prototype built was known as the Type TE. Development of both tracked and half-track APCs intensified in 1941, with two production versions confusingly designated “Type 1" (see the Type 1 Ho-Ha

half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. The purpose of this combination is to produce a vehicle with the cro ...

).Japanese Armored Vehicles of the Second World War
archived from th

/ref> The fully tracked Type 1 Ho-Ki was built by

Hino Motors Hino Motors, Ltd., commonly known as Hino, is a Japanese manufacturer of commercial vehicles and diesel engines (including those for trucks, buses and other vehicles) headquartered in Hino, Tokyo. The company was established in 1942 as a corpo ...

, but only in small quantities. Although the Japanese Army had employed

mechanized infantry Mechanized infantry are infantry units equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs) or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat (see also mechanized force). As defined by the United States Army, mechanized infantry is di ...

formations in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

from the mid-1930s, the general view of field commanders was that armored transports were too slow compared with normal trucks, and thereby unable to keep up with the speed necessary for contemporary infantry tactics. In addition, with the priorities of Japanese military production focusing on

combat aircraft A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equi ...

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...

s and other offensive weaponry, most of the experimental APC and AFV designs never made it past the prototype stage. By the time the Type 1 Ho-Ki entered mass production in 1944, raw materials were in very short supply, and much of Japan's industrial infrastructure had been destroyed by American bombing. The total number produced is unknown.Foss, The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles

Design

The Type 1 Ho-Ki had an unusual silhouette, in that the driver's cab did not extend across the front of the hull, but stopped about mid-way across the center line. Only one driver was required, who manipulated the left and right movement of the tracks via a pair of small steering wheels. The crew consisted of a driver and commander, with transport capacity of fourteen or fifteen seated men, and the maximum armor thickness was 6 mm for the front hull. The Type 1 Ho-Ki had been designed to be versatile. It was designed to be used to carry supplies, to tow artillery, as well as to carry

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

. They were produced in three basic variants, a supply carrier, artillery prime mover and armored personnel carrier. The Type 1 Ho-Ki had from the left (driver's) side three doors mounted side by side for exit. In addition, the armored personnel carrier variant had a rear hinged double door for troop exit. The hull was welded construction and it was "open-topped", akin to the Type 1 Ho-Ha. The engine compartment was located at the right front of the body, next to the driver's compartment. The engine was a 6-cylinder, in-line, valve-in-head, air-cooled diesel. The transmission was located in the rear. The gearbox had eight forward gears and two reverse gears. This allowed for more flexibility in speed and torque, in accordance to where and how it was being used. The Type 1 Ho-Ki was not normally armed, but provision was made for mounting

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...

s to the rear of the driver on the sides of the troop compartment. The

Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun was a Japanese heavy machine gun, related to the Hotchkiss machine gun series. It entered service in 1932 and was the standard Japanese heavy machine gun used during World War II. Known for its reliability, it was used after the war by various fo ...

carried by Japanese infantry squads could be mounted accordingly. Although it was an APC, it was often mistakenly called a half-track.

Combat record

Initial deployment of the Type 1 Ho-Ki was to

for operations in 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 T ...

. The Type 1 Ho-Ki was later deployed to Burma and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

in 1944. Units of the 2nd Tank Division were reassigned to the

Japanese Fourteenth Area Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. It was originally the 14th Army, formed on November 6, 1941 for the upcoming invasion of the Philippines. It was reorganized in the Philippines on July 28, 1944, wh ...

and sent to the Philippines, where it was deployed on the main island of

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

. The 2nd Tank Division had a shortage of half-tracks, therefore, at least four Type 1 Ho-Ki's were used for troop transport on Luzon during the Battle of the Philippines.

Notes

References

* * * * *

External links

Taki's Imperial Japanese Army Page - Akira Takizawa
{{WWIIJapaneseAFVs Armoured personnel carriers of Japan Tracked armoured personnel carriers 1 Ho-Ki Toyota Group Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944