Type-5 15cm Anti-Aircraft Artillery - Design
According to the ballistic calculation, designers calculated that if the caliber is 15 cm, the weight of the shell is about 50 kg, and the initial speed is about 930 meters per second, it can reach the height of 20,000 meters. Since the flying height of the B-29 reached more than 10,000 meters, the initial speed of the Japanese 12-cm gun was 853 meters per second, although its maximum shot height was 14,000 meters.
But in general, the effective shot height of the anti-aircraft gun is 80% of the maximum shot height, so to effectively defend the B-29, such an anti-aircraft gun must have a maximum shot height of 20,000 meters or more. Upon reflection, this fact is self evident, though it does require a moment of thought. The maximum shot height of a gun is the maximum height a shell would reach if fired straight up, but the defense cannot assume that attacking bombers would cooperate by flying directly over the anti-aircraft gun. At greater distances from the gun's location, more of the initial shell velocity is consumed in traveling the horizontal range to the target, leaving less energy for reaching the targets vertical altitude. Defense planners confront a trade space of smaller numbers of larger more expensive longer range guns, versus larger numbers of smaller less expensive shorter range guns.
Of course, most firearms fire at a large elevation angle, and the equipment for loading a large and heavy shell was a very complicated machine. However, even though it was an automatic loading device, loading had to be done manually until the ammunition was loaded on the lifter. Carrying a 90-kg ammunition cartridge required multiple loaders, and it was still near the limit. However, once the ammunition cartridge was loaded onto the lift from the ammunition base, the loading plate, automatic starter, and loading machine start to move by lever operation. This made it possible to fire at a rate of 10 shots per minute.
The Type-5 15-centimeter anti-aircraft gun could be loaded with 2,000 rounds of artillery shells. The artillery is roughly the same style as the 12-cm gun, but its scale is unmatched, and the difficulties it brings are enormous. In terms of its ammunition, the total weight of the artillery shell is 80 kilograms. It is not an easy task to ensure that it can be loaded at any angle. The final concrete solution is to carry one projectile by two gunners at the time of launch, place the four rounds on the loading preparation platform on the side of the gun, and then roll those shells from the loading preparation table onto the adjacent loading plates. After rolling the loading plate, the loading plate will automatically maintain the same angle of the shooting angle, then the projectile will slide down to the filling port by gravity, and finally the filling will be done mechanically. In this way, rapid loading can be easily performed regardless of the angle of incidence.
Not only were shells automatically loaded into the chamber, but the fuze setting was loaded during loading. Proximity fuzes was a challenge that was considered too complex by the Japanese. In addition, the shells needed to be set up and set up a timer for a time-limited tube before firing, making the loading device more complex. However, although it was a complex device, it did not hinder development.
The problem was with the gun of the gun itself. At that time, Japan's metallurgical technology was still developing. Therefore, there was little experience with the high demand that the huge pressure generated at the time of firing and the burnout caused by the explosive gas burning in the gun barrel. It was difficult to produce a strong barrel. Moreover, the Type-5 was one of the longest guns in the Japanese armament, and the size of the larger gun was about the size of the Navy's larger guns.
After a great effort, the weight of the finished barrel was about 10 tons, and the total weight of the swiveling body (the whole part of the turret) was a huge 45 tons. For this reason, while aiming mechanically using power and water pressure, manual aiming was also made possible.
Radar research and development was underway simultaneously in Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and Japan by the early 1930s. The Germans led in terms of technical innovation but the British were more successful in the operational development of radar by the outbreak of war in 1939. Once the war began, Anglo-American cooperation on radar development accelerated and the Germans fell behind, never to catch up. The Japanese military demonstrated little interest in radar before the outbreak of war in Europe and thus lagged very far behind. The Japanese Army and the Japanese Navy conducted their own independent radar research programs. The research efforts were not coordinated within each service, much less between the two services.
The 15-centimeter anti-aircraft gun used the Wurzburg radar developed by Deutsche Telefunken, which could be linked to the guns. The Würzburg radar, which was intended to be a gun-laying radar, entered German service in early 1941. The Würzburg radar system used the 50 cm wavelength and was the best gun-laying radar for anti-aircraft artillery until 10 cm equipment was introduced in 1942-43. The Würzburg gave readings of elevation as well as range and bearing at intermediate distances. The Germans showed Japanese emissaries all of the radar sets in production in 1943 but did not share any technology then under development. Germany provided complete specifications for the Würzburg-type radar and Japan arranged to duplicate it but only three sets were built and only one was put into operation on an experimental basis by the end of the war. The Japanese air defense system, which still relied on searchlights and listeners, introduced the design of the German Wurzburg and began the radar artillery firing control experiment in May 1945.
In order to place the artillery, a cement-type cylindrical gun bed is placed 2.5 meters underground. Most of the gun frame is housed in this cylinder. If the gun body is in a horizontal state, the gun body is about 1 meter away from the ground. . The exposed parts of the ground are equipped with 6mm bulletproof steel plates. The direction and height of the distance measuring device is completely in accordance with the 12cm anti-aircraft guns, and special power generating devices are available.
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