Type 1 "Ho-Ha" Armored personnel carrier tractor
The Type 1 Ho-Ha was a Japanese Half Track Personnel Carrier produced in few numbers in 1944.The Ho-Ha was based on the German Sdkfz 251 Hanomag APC and could carry 12 men.
In the late 1930s, the Japanese command finally came to the conclusion that it would not be enough to move the troops through the vast territories of the Chinese theater of operations. Many vehicles were destroyed by the enemy’s rifle fire, forcing the General Staff to issue a specification for the development of an armored personnel carrier. Since the main tank-building firms were loaded with other orders, the work on the new machines was not very fast.
Always interested in speed, the Japanese developed a number of soft skin vehicles for moving infantry from place to place. Indeed, as early as 1934, the Japanese had been experimenting with mechanized formations in China. Nevertheless, the Japanese development of armored transport was rather belated. The general view seems to have been that armored transports were slower than their soft-skin cousins and were, as a result, less than valuable in the support of Japan's infantry blitzkrieg doctrine. As such, the Japanese never took the armored truck concept beyond a prototype phase, and half-tracks were given relatively short shrift. Most support tracks were used primarily as artillery tractors, but they were not (for the most part) armored.
In 1941, Japanese army ordered the development of an armored artillery prime mover being able to be used if need be as transport of troop. During the development separate elements from serial production tanks were used. Two different models were designed: a half-tracked vehicle, Type 1 Ho-Ha and a tracked vehicle, Type 1 Ho-Ki.
The Type 1 Ho-Ha, developed in prototype form in 1941 but not actually accepted for production until 1941. Like the Ho-Ki, it was a diesel vehicle, but it differed significantly in that it was based upon the German Sdkfz 251 halftrack, and bore at least a passing resemblance to that vehicle in profile. The welded hull, with sloped plates, was equipped with a towing hitch to haul light and medium artillery pieces, had a completely open-top, including the driver compartment. However, the entire length could be covered by a waterproof tarpaulin. It was lightly armored, 6 to 8 mm (0.24-0.31 in), enough to sustain small arms fire.
Like the German vehicle from which it had drawn inspiration, the Type 1 Ho-Ha featured a pair of road wheels mounted to the fore supported by a pair of short tracks. It could do about 25mph and had excellent mobility. As with the Ho-Ki, a towing hitch was provided. The Ho-Ha was armored to a maximum thickness of about 8mm. The hull of the Ho-Ha was longer than that of the 251, and it could carry about fifteen men (as in the case of the Ho-Ki). This number seems to have been arrived at as a means of transporting both a rifle squad and the crew for a weapon in tow.
The weaponry of the Ho-Ha was a bit unusual. It carried three light machine guns as standard, but these were mounted in somewhat inconvenient places. One each was mounted along each side, just to the rear of the driver's compartment, and had a rather constricted firing arc, which made firing directly forward or directly rearward impossible. A third machine gun, mounted to the rear, was intended as an anti-aircraft weapon (as in the case of the 251). It had a slightly wider arc of fire, but was (once again), in capable of being fired directly forward. This was, obviously, a bit of a tactical dilemma for the Japanese.
Ho-Ha was produced in only limited numbers, with most seeing action (once again) in China or the Philippines. Many Ho-Has were lost when the Transport carrying them was sunk by an American submarine. Those that remained in Japan became Garbage Trucks after the war.
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