Type 92 Ju-Sokosha Heavy Combat Car

The Type 92 Heavy Combat Car owes its existence to a loophole in Japanese military law. During the Great War, armored cars in the IJA had been assigned to the command and control of the cavalry, while tanks had been assigned to the control of the infantry. In the late Meiji and Taishou periods after the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese cavalry was still immersed in the old model of horse-back assault. In the Great War, the large-scale killing capability of machine guns, tanks and aircraft slammed into the saddle of the cavalry. Initially, the Japanese military’s interest in the mechanized transformation of the cavalry was lacking. But only during the Japanese military’s intervention in the Siberian expedition after the October Revolution were wheeled armored vehicles used.

The cavalry department felt a sense of danger in this moment, and they promoted the mechanization of the cavalry for survival. In 1920, the Japanese Army’s cavalry school and infantry school began to equip the teaching team with the French-made Renault FT-17 tank. Later, the British Austin armored car and the Carden Boyd ultralight tank were introduced to Japan. From the 1921 special cavalry exercise of the Japanese army, the teaching team sent a team-sized armored team to accompany the troops. The British in the Great War used Austin four-wheeled armored vehicles to purchase, a new type of Carden Lloyd Tankette, further amphibious tanks were also studied. As a result, it was determined that a track-type vehicle was optimal.

After the Washington Treaty of 1925, the Japanese army created the chariot team in the infantry. At the same time, some of the ambitious officers of the cavalry school continued to explore the use of armored vehicles and tanks in actual combat. Six years after entering the Showa era, the Japanese Army's Technical Headquarters developed a series of research and development plans to develop tanks, tractors, heavy tanks (used as a breakthrough, and therefore different classifications), special tanks, armored vehicles, and special tractors. Among them, the armored car will develop into a 92-type heavy armored vehicle in the future. It is actually an ultralight tank.

When Japan began to seriously investigate the possibility of acquiring a large tank fleet in the late 1920s, a feud developed among the generals of the infantry and cavalry branches regarding whom would control the new armor formations. In 1929, the Army Engineering Headquarters embarked on a domestic plan for armored armored vehicles. The Imperial Cavalry, usually the loser when it came to allocating new equipment, decided that it would circumventthe debate all-together by producing a new tank classified as a "heavy combat car" by means of a retractable set of road wheels with removable tracks which would, technically, fit it into the category of "armored car" rather than as a tank. The result was a fast tank developed to support the cavalry formations, the Type 92 Heavy Combat Car, or "Ju-Sokosha". By 1932, when the Ju-Sokosha was first ready for field service, it had undergone a number of modifications effectively removing the retractable road wheels entirely, but the classification stuck, and the cavalry had its own light tank.

The Ishikawa Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Plant (currently Isuzu Motors ) was producing military vehicles for the Army. The factory was responsible for subcontracting the Wesley Automobile and introducing relevant technology and training skilled workers. After the contract with Wesley was terminated in 1927, The Ishikawa Island Plant turned into a Japanese-made automobile factory with its accumulated technical experience.

The order for the prototype was made in February 1931 with Ishikawajima Automobile Manufacturing, and the prototype was completed in March 1932. The company name is "Sumida TB type 92 type light tank", and it was also called "Ro". The prototype was tested at a cavalry school, and after some repairs, it was officially adopted as a "type 92 heavy armored car". The secret name at the time of development was "TB". The "heavy armored car" was named because it was launched for the formation of the cavalry armored car unit, and it was the case that it was ordered not to challenge infantry jurisdiction over the tank when it was enacted.

Like a chariot cavalry, the car was developed first and foremost for speed. The engine was originally a truck engine, and was also installed in the American 6-t M1917 tank. The Franklin air-cooled in-line 6-cylinder gasoline engine (67 hp) was first imported, after which Ishikawajima Motor Co., Ltd. "Sumida C6 It was licensed and manufactured.

The suspension device of the prototype has two leaf spring suspensions on each side, and each of the two load wheels is installed. In the test of the Japanese Army Technical Division, the suspension device is considered unreliable, so it was changed to three pairs of leaf springs, each of which has six Small diameter load wheel. The first examples of the Type 92, complete with new Hara suspensions, saw field service in 1933. They were equipped with one hull mounted LMG and one turret mounted MMG, with a crew of three. Armor protection was light, but it was in fact superior to the Type 89 Chi-Ro, simultaneously being developed, in possessing an all-welded construction. It was, in fact, one of the first such vehicles to have an all-welded construction, and gained international acclaim for this reason.

Production types are classified according to the structure of the undercarriage. Early production models can be divided into the following three types:

1. The first type: the car body is the same as the sample car, and the suspension device is the same as the mass production type (six load wheels).
2. The second type: the body and the suspension are the same as the first one, but the same type of 9.5 mm machine gun as the turret is installed on the body. The top of the turret is equipped with a searchlight, and the base of the machine gun on the body is sharp.
3. The third type: there is no searchlight on the turret, but there are handrails on the left and right sides. The 13mm machine gun base is round and sleek. This 13mm heavy machine gun uses a special sight. The shooter can operate it in the sitting position for air-to-air shooting. . This model became mainstream in later production, and the searchlight at the top of the turret was also installed.

The 13-mm machine gun armor-piercing bullets allowed the tank to hit most light armored vehicles, but by the mid-1930s there was a need to equip the tank with a more powerful weapon. The 37-mm gun, installed instead of the 13-mm machine gun, turned out to be too big and powerful for the tank, but the 20-mm automatic gun was successfully placed in the body of the machine and since 1937 most of the Type 92 tanks were rearmed with them.

The car had some drawbacks. Only one serious problem developed, an unreliable drive train, which was soon stripped out and replaced with a more efficient model which gave no further trouble. The small caliber machine guns had insufficient firepower to target bulletproof equipment. Furthermore armor thickness of the main part 6mm is a poor, and the Gew98 and Kar98k rifle ( Chiang Kai-shek's rifle ) and MG08 heavy machine gun with 7.92mm steel core bullets can penetrate the engine compartment and cause its destruction. The welded structure was also insufficient in strength, and there were reports of self-destruction caused by welding separations. The strength of the suspension was insufficient, and it was said that there was a problem in the handling because of the long vehicle body.

In 1931, Japan made the September 18 Incident, and the three eastern provinces fell. In 1932, the Chinse launched an anti-Japanese war. The Japanese army dispatched the 14th Division of the Army and the first brigade of the cavalry. The test force was seven Type-92 armored vehicles and several other trucks. As a result, the 92nd style was well evaluated in the cavalry. In 1932, the 4th Brigade of the Japanese Army Cavalry was also dispatched to the northeastern region of China. In 1933, the Japanese Army Cavalry Brigade officially formed the "Brigade Armored Vehicle Team", which had 9 Type-92 armored vehicles and a number of trucks.

Mass production of this car was started in 1933 of the following year, and 167 vehicles were produced in seven years before stopping production in 1939. While not well suited to service against other armored vehicles owing to a lack of armor penetration, the Type 92 was quite helpful to the cavalry.

It served with remarkable resilience in China, and was in fact so popular that it was eventually adapted for use as an amphibious model, resulting in the development of the slightly modified Type 92 A-I-GO, which never went beyond the prototype phase. Its body volume is increased to increase buoyancy, and the outer floating cabin can be mounted in the water using a propeller. The prototype was not put into production, but its accumulated technical data was applied to the manufacture of the Japanese waterway dual-purpose tank.

The 92-type heavy armored vehicle replaced by the first-line troops was used as a training vehicle. By 1937, the armored teams of the Japanese cavalry armored fleet and the cavalry teaching team were upgraded to tank formations, and the nine-five-type light tanks and the 1997-type medium tanks were replaced, but the 92-type heavy armored vehicles still occupied a larger part of the troops. The reason why there were still a large number of 92-type service to the end of the war is because the anti-tank attacks encountered by the Japanese in mainland China were still not strong, and the production capacity of Japan’s own tanks is not enough to replace all the ninety-two types with the ninety-four. From 1937, the type 92 armored cars were replaced in the cavalry reconnaissance companies by type 95 light tanks. Until the early 1940s, the remaining vehicles were used in the reconnaissance trains of the armored regiments and then gradually replaced by the type 97 tank chain, since the armor no longer met combat requirements. After the defeat of Japan, a small number of 92-type heavy armored vehicles were once accepted by the Kuomintang army.