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Type 1 Ho-Ni I 75-mm

Ho-Ni is the SP-gun mounting a 75 mm gun on the hull of Chi-Ha. The mounted gun is Type 90 field gun. It was used in Burma and the Philippines late in the Pacific War. The power of such weapons was enough to destroy all American tanks at distances from 500 meters. At the same time, the attacking Japanese SAU itself was at risk of retaliatory shelling.

The strategic olans for gun fabrications Japanese command were delayed, until at a certain time there was no room for self-propelled guns. For a number of reasons, infantry support was assigned to light and medium tanks, as well as field artillery. However, since 1941, the Japanese military several times initiated the creation of self-propelled artillery mounts. These projects did not receive a big future, but they are still worth considering.

In 1941 the General Staff of the Japanese imperial army decreed the creation of real armored divisions. From the outset, this decision raised the issue of the mobility of divisional artillery, which could not continue to be driven but had to be motorized to keep up with combat and transport vehicles: each division therefore had to have its own staff a regiment of self-propelled artillery composed of 3 battalions, the first with 18 cannons campaign Type 90 divided into three companies, the other two equipped with howitzers Type 91. The platform to handle both types of artillery was found in the Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank, on whose hull was designed to fix an open casemate that replaced the revolving turret.

A prototype was completed in June 1941 and was accepted by the army under the name "Type 1 Ho-Ni I". The first was the installation "Type 1" ("Ho-Ni I"), designed to combat military vehicles and fortifications of the enemy. On the chassis of the medium tank Chi-Ha, in place of the turret, an armored wheelhouse was installed with a front plate 50 millimeters thick. This design of the cabin was used on all subsequent Japanese SAUs of the time. Only the guns and their installation systems changed. In the cabin of the 14-ton combat vehicle, a 75-mm caliber Type-90 field gun was installed. Rough guidance of the gun horizontally carried out by turning the whole machine. Thin - by a turning mechanism, within a sector 40 ° wide. Angles of decrease / elevation - from -6 ° to + 25 °.

The entire series of Type 1 Ho-Ni I remained delayed in Japan for several years until some specimens were transferred by ship to the Philippines, precisely on the large island of Luzón : here they had their baptism of fire in the first months of 1945 against the US expeditionary force, but the impact of the weapon system was affected by the very low number of vehicles deployed.

Since 1942, Japan built 26 units of "Type 1". Despite the small number, these artillery mounts were actively used in most operations. Several units survived until the end of the war, when they became the trophy of the Americans. One copy of Ho-Nee I is available at the Aberdeen Museum.