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Type 95 Ju Sensha heavy tank

A heavy tank "Type 95" is a deep modernization of a heavy tank "Type 91". Created by engineers Osaka Military Arsenal in 1932. Taking into account the experience of construction and testing of the medium tank "I-Go" and heavy "Type 91", the designers took a number of measures to improve the manufacturability and strengthen the armament of the tank.

The first thing was the reworked chassis. It was decided to abandon the use of a “palisade” of 20 small rollers. Instead, they used support rollers of larger diameter. As a result, on one side, the chassis of the Type 95 tank consisted of 8 supporting and one independent skating rink with front guide and rear drive wheels.

The layout of the tanks "Type 95" and "Type 91" was the same. The main change was the installation of an additional turret in front of the hull. Instead of the old machine-gun turret, a new cannon with a 37-mm “Type 94” cannon was installed. To place the ammunition for this gun, we had to slightly change the shape of the hull and make the tank a little higher, the reservation remained the same. The main armament left 70-mm gun. After all these improvements, the tank mass has increased to almost 27 tons.

To compensate for the increased mass, the tank was equipped with a 290 horsepower engine. However, on the tests, which took place in 1934, the maximum speed of the tank reached only 22 km/h. But, despite these problems, they decided to adopt the tank, as it was more powerful than any other tank on the Pacific front.

The 95 type heavy tank was formalized in 1935 (Showa 10) and was tested by the Army. As a result, although both performance and function were considered suitable for practical use, production was limited to four. According to some sources, Japan managed to build only 10 of these machines. The policy was to develop a large number of high-speed lightweight tanks (later Type 37 Medium Tanks Chiha or Trial Medium Tanks Chini). This is because the Army recognized that mobility was the most important factor in combat on the continent. At that time, the line was loaded with a medium speed tank with a maximum speed of 25 km/hr and a weight of 12 tons. At this speed, there was insufficient mobility to follow a truck unit carrying infantry. As a result, a situation was created where the heavy armored car and the light armored car were burdened by the role of breaking through the enemy front. Based on these judgments, the practicality of the 95-type heavy tank with a top speed of 22 km/h and a weight of 26 tons was considered to be very low.

Some sources report that only four orders were placed, while others estimate production at 10 units. These tanks eventually did not participate in any battle on the Chinese mainland. In the end, the 95-type heavy tank never participated in the actual battle. The only time "Type 95" was used in China against the rebel forces. In the late 1930s, attempts were made to modernize the "Type 95" by installing a new turret with a 57-mm gun, but this project did not even reach the blueprints.