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Type 2 "Ka-Mi"

In the history of Japanese tank building there were several interesting projects that, for a number of reasons, did not receive a particularly massive production. As an example, one can cite the “Chi-Nu”. Another "small series" project appeared in connection with the peculiarities of the war in the Pacific. In preparation for the attack on the south, the Japanese command faced the issue of landing amphibious assault forces on the islands and the continental coast. Support for infantry tanks was carried out exclusively with the help of tank landing boats and ships. In particular, and therefore, most Japanese armored vehicles had a combat mass of less than 20 tons. For obvious reasons, the commanders wanted to get rid of the need to attract additional forces.

In 1941, the Ka-Mi floating tank, created by the Mitsubishi company on the basis of the main Japanese light tank Type 95 Ha-Go, was adopted by the Japanese army. Intended to support the infantry during the amphibious operations, the development initiative went to the fleet, which required a special landing machine to support extensive plans for conquests in the Pacific, they were crowned by success. In 1941, the firm "Mitsubishi" presented a prototype tank "Ka-Mi", the design of which was unique.

Work towards the creation of a amphibious tank began in the late twenties, but then everything was limited to theory and a few experiments. Japanese designers approached the creation of amphibious tanks since the late 1920s, but these works were not successful. Only in 1940, full-scale design work was launched. Tank "Type 2" or "Ka-Mi" was supposed to be the main means of fire support for troops landing on the coast. The technical assignment implied the following application of a floating tank: the amphibious ship delivers armored vehicles a certain distance from land, after which it gets to the coast under its own power. It seems to be nothing special. However, the designers of the company "Mitsubishi" demanded to ensure both a good seaworthiness of the tank, and sufficient fighting qualities. This was allowed in any suitable way.

The light tank Type 95 (HaGo) was taken as the basis for the Ka-Mi. The chassis of the old tank was modified for use in water. Housings with springs of system T. Hary hid inside the case. The hull itself has undergone great changes. Unlike the Type 95, the Type 2 was almost completely assembled by welding. Rivets were used only in those parts of the structure where no tight connection of parts was required. The body was welded from rolled sheets up to 14 millimeters thick.

A characteristic feature of the new tank was the shape of the hull. Unlike its land counterparts, the sea "Ka-Mi" did not have a large number of mating surfaces. In fact, the body was a simple box with a few bevels. The location of the engine and transmission was traditional for Japanese tanks of the second half of the thirties. A 120-horsepower diesel engine was placed in the stern, the transmission - in the bow. In addition, two propellers were installed at the stern of the tank.

The original "Ha-Go" had undergone many changes, the purpose of which was to ensure proper seaworthiness. In particular, the shape of the upper part of the hull was due to the peculiarities of the chosen method of providing buoyancy. Since the tank itself could not swim independently, they suggested installing special pontoons on it. In the front part there was a construction of 6.2 cubic meters, in the rear - of 2.9. In this case, the front pontoon had the shape of the nose of a floating craft, while the rear one was equipped with a boat-type lamella steering wheel and its control system. To ensure the survivability of the front pontoon was divided into six sealed sections, rear - five. In addition to the pontoons, before going through the water, a turret-snorkel was mounted on the tank over the engine compartment. Since 1943, steel has included a light metal structure in its swimming kit, designed for installation on the turret of the tank. With its help, the commander of a combat vehicle could observe the situation not only through viewing instruments.

Upon reaching the shore, tankers had to drop pontoons and turrets. The reset procedure was carried out with the help of a screw mechanism brought inside the machine. In the first series, the Ka-Mi tanks were equipped with only two pontoons. Later, as a result of combat use, the front was divided into two independent parts. Due to this, the tank, dropping air tanks, could continue to move forward. At the same time, the front pontoons were moved apart by a tank. Previously, they had to go around. The reset procedure was carried out with the help of a screw mechanism brought inside the machine.

Unlike all foreign models of amphibious tanks, the buoyancy of which was provided by the internal volume of the watertight hull, in a Japanese tank a solution that was designed to ensure its buoyancy and dictated primarily by the features of the theater of operations was very unusual. After all, the Japanese tank, unlike the European “amphibians”, often had to act with strong excitement and to overcome afloat long distances. Therefore, to give the tank the necessary seafaring qualities, special pontoons filled with kapok were fastened to the front and rear of the armored hull on the clips, which were made of Ka-Mi in a streamlined shiplike form.

The front pontoon with a volume of 6.2 cubic meters consisted of two symmetrical halves, divided, in turn, into three compartments each. The volume of the rear pontoon was smaller and amounted to 2.9 cubic meters. A rather flat bottom was required for the tank to reach the coast, but this was not a problem: the coasts of the Pacific islands are mostly low. On the shore, the pontoons were dropped after disembarking with the help of a screw mechanism driven from inside the hull without leaving the car out of the car, the bow pontoon was broken up into parts and not blocking the tank’s path. As a result, the Ka-Mi tank, although it could not independently float without pontoons, but with them possessed high seaworthiness for its class and by its capabilities it was significantly superior to the floating tanks of traditional design.

A sufficiently large Ka-Mi hull made it possible to accommodate a crew of five people — the driver, the gunner, the mechanic, the commander and loader. Ka-Mi was assembled from armor plates by welding, riveting was used only on the roof of the hull and the tower. The welded sealed hull of the base tank was slightly increased; it acquired a box-like shape with developed fencing niches and a straightened frontal sheet. On the water, the slots and shoulder straps of the tower were sealed with rubber gaskets. The exhaust pipe of the engine was placed on the roof of the engine compartment, and a streamlined air intake duct, protected from splashes with a lid, was added over the engine compartment louver, giving the Japanese floating tank a very distinctive look. The absence of a partition between the engine compartment and the fighting compartment greatly facilitated the mechanics access to the engine. The turret was welded, conical shape, without commander's cupola.

A new turret was mounted on the relatively wide upper sheet of the hull. It had a conical shape and contained the workplaces of two crew members: the commander and the gunner. However, the turret, despite the increase in volume, was still a close fit for two people, which made it difficult for the commander to observe the battlefield and reduced the combat effectiveness of the tank. For landing and disembarking the crew intended tower hatch with a double cover and four hatches in the roof of the hull.

Charger, mechanic and driver, in turn, were placed inside the case. At the same time to save weight and ease of maintenance of the engine there was no partition between the engine and combat compartments. In terms of repair, it was quite convenient. But in a combat situation, the roar of the engine strongly interfered with the crew. For this reason, it was necessary to equip the "Ka-Mi" tank intercom. Without this, the tankers coul not hear each other.

The propulsion of the tank on the water served as two propellers mounted in the niches under the bottom in the rear part and driven by the engine. The transmission consisted of a gearbox; a mechanical gearbox with a reduction gear (8 - forward, 2 - back) and power take-off for propellers; cardan shaft connected by bevel gears with shafts of side clutches, and single-stage bead gears. The undercarriage also underwent significant changes, although it retained the locked suspension of T. Haar - two trucks from each side, but the levers and springs of the tank "Ka-Mi" were removed inside the armor case, lowered to the ground to increase the surface area. Fine-hardened steel tracks with an open hinge and one ridge consisted of 103 tracks.

The basis of the weapons of the floating "Ka-Mi" were 37-millimeter cannon. In the first series, they were Type 94, put on a Ha-Go, but then they were replaced by a Type 1, which was distinguished by a longer barrel. Ammunition guns was 132 rounds. Guidance in the horizontal plane was carried out as a turn of the turret, and the displacement of the gun itself within five degrees from the axis. The aiming of the gun on the target in the vertical plane was carried out by the gunner without any mechanisms using the shoulder rest. Vertical guidance - from -20 ° to + 25 °. Additional armament "Type 2" were two 7.7 mm machine guns. One of them was paired with a gun, and the second was in front of the hull. Before the start of several amphibious operations, some of the "Ka-Mi" were equipped with additional equipment for the use of torpedoes. Two of these munitions were attached to the sides of the tank on special brackets and dropped using the electrical system.

All Ka-Mi tanks were equipped with a HF radio station, as well as an internal telephone intercom. The Ka-Mi tanks were installed the same as the base Ha-Go 6-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine Mitsubishi NVD 6120 air-cooled 120 liters.

The combat weight of the tank "Type 2" was equal to nine and a half tons. The suspended pontoons added another three thousand kilograms. With such a weight, the tank had a maximum speed on land, equal to 37 kilometers per hour, and on the water accelerated to ten. The stock of diesel fuel was enough for a march of 170 kilometers or for swimming a hundred kilometers. The amphibious tank could be used for over-the-horizon landing and, in fact, the only restriction on the landing of the Ka-Mi was the situation at sea, the excitement, etc.

Ka-Mi series production began at the end of 1941. The pace of construction was relatively small, due to which it was not possible to quickly re-equip the relevant units of the Marine Corps. Nevertheless, the tanks "Type 2" and in the amount of several dozen pieces managed to get good reviews. Which, however, were overshadowed by not too powerful weapons. Over time, the number of tanks in the army increased, but the pace of construction still remained unacceptable. As it turned out, one of the consequences of the original design of the tank was the greater labor intensity of production. Therefore, the first amphibious operation with the massive use of "Ka-Mi" took place only in June of the 44th, it was the landing on the island of Saipan (Mariana Islands). Despite the suddenness of the attack and the darkness of the night, the Americans quickly coped with the advancing enemy. The combat use of the Type 2 continued until the very end of the war. In the last months, these tanks due to the lack of amphibious operations were used as conventional land armored vehicles and stationary firing points.

The Ka-Mi tanks entered service with parts of the Japanese Marine Corps to replace the small type 94 tanks and light Ha-Go type 95 tanks. landing at a considerable distance from the coast, which made it possible to use these tanks not only to capture the bridgehead as part of the forward echelon of the landing force, but also to expand it.

For the first time, several Ka-Mi pre-series amphibious tanks took part in the Battle of Guadalcanal at the end of 1942. In 1943, on the basis of the combat experience gained, the Ka-Mi tank underwent modernization, as a result of which the rudders connected by steel cables with a steering wheel in the turret were installed behind the propellers, so that the commander was driving the machine afloat, and a new protective cover with observation ports. In 1944, the Japanese actively used amphibious tanks on the Marshall Islands when defending an air base on the Roy Atoll in early 1944. The first mass use of Ka-Mi tanks took place in the same - in 1944 on the Mariana Islands, when disembarking in a landing operation on June 15 - 16 on Saipan Island. Odanako, without air and artillery support, landed Japanese troops, which included several dozen amphibious Ka-Mi tanks was quickly destroyed by anti-tank artillery and hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers. A small number of "Ka-Mi" tanks were not very successfully used by the Japanese 101st Special Marine Amphibious Squad in the defense of the Philippines at the end of 1944. At the end of the war, separate Ka-Mi tanks, like other Japanese armored vehicles, were used as stationary firing points on the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The Ka-Mi floating tanks of type “2” were produced in small batches from 1942 until the end of the war, the total output was only 184 vehicles, which is explained by the complexity of the design of the floating tank compared to other Japanese tanks, which required a lot of manual labor during assembly.

Of the 184 amphibious tanks built, only eight survived. One of them is located in the tank museum of the city of Kubinka, the rest are in the countries of Oceania.