Before I forget, Osmar White stated quite succinctly that jungle toughness was not so much a matter of muscle toughness ( how physically fit and well-trained you were ), but instead primarily a condition of mind paired with a bloodstream full of antibodies. I don’t believe that he mentions this gun. As far as comparison between the two, they seem to be similar in many parameters although Finnish gun is little lighter and fires 20mm shot at slightly lover velocity. Better armorers would machine one.I suspect that most of the Japanese troops who used this gun never lived long enough to say what they did in so far as actual field usage goes.I really appreciate learning about these monsters, and the big end of what one man can aim and fire, and have to admit that I don’t have much background knowledge of the cannon sized anti tank rifles.As Christopher Bailey states, they’re probably a bit to big and heavy for most museums and most collectors.As examples of the gun designers and machinists art, they’re treasures – even though (or especially because) they were such a failure in their intended purpose.A cheap tin or fibreglass tube and a tin covered shaped charge projectile was so much more effective as a man portable anti tank weapon even if it did mean you couldn’t repair and re use the tanks you captured.I’ve read (Small Arms Review?) Still formidable gun though.Thank you for a really informative link! The barrel, which could be removed for long distance transport, was locked to the receiver using an interrupted thread mechanism.Once the gun had been carried to its destination, the crew would adjust the three legs and lower the weapon into its firing position. Still, Japanese arms are highly underrated in many circles. It may sound bit couterproductive vis-a-vis with what you are saying, but I cannot find other interpretation for that.I also think the open-bolt idea for was recoil reduction.

Muzzle velocity was phenomenal – up to 1,400m/s. At some of the mines in the highlands, dawn is beautifully clear, with sparkling glaciers and snow covered peaks above a sea of cloud.Some time in the afternoon, that cloud rises up to the mine level and the rain starts, and continues on well into the night.

Wouldn’t have thought there’d be too much chance of a cook off in this style of weapon.And all that mass moving forward when you pull the trigger couldn’t do your aim much good.I would think they tried to use any and all means how to reduce recoil force. As the technology of sights on tanks pogressed, so they are more vulnerable to well placed shots. Figures I saw for one of the typhoons which hit Taiwan after its last big earthquake, were of over ten feet of rainfall in 72 hours in the mountains.This is definitely welcome addition to scope of armaments presented at FW! Introduced … This was accomplished using a rear peep sight and a blade front sight.

This is somewhat surprising given the fact that wartime American testing demonstrated that the projectile could pierce about 30mm of armor at 250 meters range.When one also considers the complexity of the gun and the difficulty of manufacture, it isn’t surprising that production of the gun was terminated in 1941 after some 1100 had been completed. Typ 97 Mehrzweckflugboot (Kawanishi H6K), ein japanisches FlugzeugTyp 97 Jäger (Nakajima Ki-27), ein Jagdflugzeug der Kaiserlich … An average of almost 2 inches falls every day of the year – fifty feet of rainfall a year. Why’s that?

The Japanese army purchased many of these guns, and then produced their own While in the Smithsonian gun room, I noticed a semi auto Japanese rifle of a type I have not seen reference to before. To cock the weapon, the charging handle located on the left side would have to be pulled fully to the rear, with a loud “click” letting the shooter know that the sear had engaged the bolt carrier. Elevation could be adjusted in the similar manner, or by raising and lowering the rear monopod leg via its knurled grip. The photographs of the Type 97 in its field-stripped condition seem to clearly bear this out.As for the advantage of a bazooka type weapon of this gun – the effective range of a bazooka was up to 150 yards, this probably could take out a half track or similar lightly armored vehicle at 4 times the range, making its use less of a suicide mission.The illustration of the GI tool kit (pg “1273”) was printed facing towards the outward edge of the page, so the photo shows the text and contents upsidedown. I don’t think any of the highlands between Australia and continental Asia can be described as “dry”, but the mountains of New Guinea take that to an extreme. The first such gun, the Mauser 1918 Mauser T-Gewehr, was itself simply a scaled up Model 98 rifle. First up is the short one, a 21-page leaflet on Japanese ammunition markings. I’m glad this isn’t one of them.Just wondering why the Type 97 is never compared to the Finnish Lahti L-39 anti tank rifle. Chambered for the powerful 20x124mm cartridge, the Type 97 is a magazine fed, gas-operated weapon that fires from an open bolt. The controlling metaphor for the Japanese approach to the conflict was the hydrogen filled observation balloon which the Japanese employed… with predictable results.More I read parts of history of Sino-Japanese and later US-Japanese conflict, I have more and more appreciation of capability of Japanese Imperial soldiers. Of course from time to time, the pacific is capable of dumping more than 2″ a day on its islands.

Along with famed fellow war correspondent Chester Wilmot and combat photographer Damien Parer, White lived and suffered with the Australian troops, sharing their every hardship and sometimes assuming a leadership role when the acute shortage of trained officers and NCO’s dictated that he do so.

Open bolt’s just plain weird, though. First seeing combat against the Red Army at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol in 1939, the Type 97 proved to be a disappointment to the Japanese military, with its 20mm round performing poorly against Soviet BT series tanks. He was therefore in an eminent position to understand the true situation in the front lines and comment on it, and his first-hand accounts reflect this.A college tutor I studied under had lived in PNG for a number of years.