Type-5 15cm Anti-Aircraft Artillery - In Action
The results of the low-level B-29 raid on 10 March 1945 were devastating. Almost 16 square miles of Tokyo were gutted, 18 percent of the industrial area, 63 percent of the commercial area, and the heart of the residential area. Furthermore, close to 113,000 people were killed.
After discussion, the guns were installed in the Jiuyama Mountain in southwestern Tokyo, and was disassembled and transported there in May. At the same time, the No. 2 gun at the Hiroshima Plant of the Japanese Steel Works was completed. After the test was completed on the Hamamatsu coast, it was also transported to the Kugayama, Suginami ward in the outskirts of Tokyo. The two guns and the observation and command facilities formed the first squadron of the 112th Wing 1st Brigade. After a rapid installation, it was completed at the end of June. It is said that the steel bars of the foundations were recovered from the ruins of the destroyed city. After the installation, the officers and men below the squadron braved the heat, and they were trained day and night. They only had some 50 shells, and only through basic training to familiarize themselves with the new equipment.
It expected to build three units, eventually completing two guns, and one was destroyed by the factory being attacked by air strikes. The two completed guns were deployed in the anti-aircraft gun position. The Japanese army had produced only 50 shells for the 150mm artillery because of lack of resources. Plans were that 40 of them were to be used as a howitzer to attack the US military. At that time, the Japanese army made a detailed measurement. The artillery position, which was only 25km away from Yokohama, can seriously threaten the US military landing force.
According to Ms. Takahashi of Japan Radio Co., Ltd., who was the radio targeting squadron of Kugayama High Gun Station at the time, this gun was all operated at the command post established underground, and the ballistic aim of the high gun corrected for the wind direction of the air, etc. The weather data is corrected, and the direction, speed, etc. of the enemy aircraft transmitted from the Wurzburg radar are corrected with the weather data, and then launched at an optimal timing. A 100-meter-long path was placed between the two guns to protect the Wurzburg radar from the intense blasts of shooting.
According to one story, the giant radar guns shot down two B-29s on August 2, 1945, but the US military, which knew the existence of the new radio guns, bypassed around Kugayama. According to some accounts, the guns were fired at 1:30 pm on August 1 in 1945 (Showa 20) at a flight of B-29 flying in the sky, and it shot down 2 aircraft with 1 shot. The fragments of the projectile were effective up to a radius of thirty meters, and the black smoke when shattered over 10,000 meters can be observed from the command of the first division of the high guns of Korakuen, and its impact is the radius of within 600 meters. From then on, the US military prohibited the bomber from flying over the mountains. This is based on the reminiscence a soldier of the firing gun of the 112nd regiment, Tomoyoshi Oshima.
By another account, at about 10:30 am on August 2, 1945, five B-29 formations flew over the city of Hachioji in the west of Tokyo, and passed the Jiuyama defensive position at a height of 10,000 meters to prepare for the airstrike in Tokyo. With the sound of the alarm, the personnel of the artillery position suddenly became busy. At this time, the observation and command devices never passed the live-fire test. At that time, the army technology responsible for the system, Sasaki, was also involved in the commissioning. They got the order only. Each can launch a shell, which was the first actual combat of the largest artillery in World War II. Nine meters long, like a chimney, the gun body slowly rises up. Through observation and calculation, it fires at an elevation angle of about 50 degrees. Sugimoto stares at the sky, five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds, "Bao!" Some places on the right side of the long plane exploded the smoke. The B-29 fleet began to turn left and flew in the direction of Tokyo Bay. It is said that in the future, the formation of the B-29 will no longer dare to fly over the mountains.
However, there is nothing that corresponds to this battle in the US military records. And the result of shooting two bombers with one shot is extremely difficult to believe. This story is only a myth. It is written in the Japanese official war history that "it did not fully demonstrate its power and then came the end of the war."
A few days later, Japan announced its surrender.
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