The fourth independent tank brigade has not participated in the war since it was transferred to the Chinese battlefield. In addition to Nei Okamura wanting to keep it at the most critical moment and use it as a trump card, another very important reason is that in Jinan
The Japanese military automobile repair shop was undergoing renovation.
Of course, this transformation is not a complete overhaul. The Chinese dispatched troops do not have this technical capability. The various maintenance factories of the Japanese army in the Chinese battlefield, and even Shanghai do not have this strength. Let alone an automobile maintenance factory belonging to the North China Front Army? So this transformation
It was a targeted transformation carried out by the North China Front Army in order to deal with the threat of tanks from the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
No modifications have been made in other aspects. The only modification is to find a way to insert artillery with larger caliber and stronger armor-piercing capability into this kind of tank. In order not to suffer from the so-called firepower, the North China Front Army used the battle
During the brief lull before the start, a comparison of various types of artillery was conducted.
After careful selection, the Type 90 field gun, the only one in the Japanese army with real anti-tank capabilities, was personally decided by Okamura Neiji and designated for this new tank to be used as the main gun. The power of this field gun has already been
I had a clear experience on the Type 1 artillery tank.
The Type 88 anti-tank gun, which has the most powerful level-firing anti-tank power, cannot be installed in the turret of this tank no matter how much it is improved. The Type 95 and Type 38 field guns, which have the largest number of equipment in the entire China Expeditionary Force, have excessive armor-piercing power.
Since the Type 91 howitzer was small and too big, it was not the most suitable choice. This field gun used by the Japanese Type 1 artillery tank became the first choice of the Japanese army.
However, it is not an easy task to install a field artillery into a small tank turret. The Type 1 artillery tank is open-top, and this powerful field gun can be stuffed into it without considering the size and recoil.
Question. But although the turret of the Type III tank was intentionally designed to be wide for improvement, it was not prepared for this field gun after all.
The Japanese technicians, who were forced to panic, racked their brains and couldn't figure out how to stuff the Type 90 field gun into the tank turret. In their panic, they simply thought of a trick. Put the Type 90 field gun into the tank turret.
After sawing the thirty-eight times the caliber of the gun barrel to thirty-two times, and then finding ways to reduce the stroke in terms of recoil, I finally managed to get it done.
After modifying the Type 90 field gun, the North China Front Army finally regarded this tank as an improved version of the original Type 1 tank. In fact, it was not that the original North China Front Army had a wrong understanding, but that the original Type 3 tank was also
It is indeed an improved development model.
Compared with the Type 1 improved model previously deployed on the Tongzhou battlefield, this Type 3 tank is only equipped with a 294-kilowatt diesel engine. At the same time, the size of the turret has been increased by one circle to prepare for future improvements.
Another change is to increase the thickness of the side and rear armor from 8 mm to 11 mm in the Type 1 improved model.
The biggest change is the addition of an in-vehicle microphone, so that tank crews do not need to rely on gestures, shoulder pats, kicks, etc. to communicate with each other during combat. They can directly use the throat microphone to communicate easily.
Communicating with each other greatly facilitates command. As for the appearance, except for the slightly larger turret, the appearance of the two is basically similar.
After such changes by the North China Front Army, the appearance of the two is quite different. After all, the field gun used by the modified tank cannot be stuffed into the turret due to the limitations of the turret. The cylinder retraction mechanism of the gun,
They are all exposed outside the turret. Outside the front shield of the turret, the huge field gun evacuation machine is very conspicuous.
And because it is a field gun used by infantry, it is a temporarily modified tank gun. Although the recoil distance reaches 800 mm, the time required for the artillery to retract is quite long. There is no automatic ejection device and only a manual gun breech, which makes the artillery
The rate of fire is also quite slow, at least half as slow as the American M-4 tank used by the Anti-Japanese Alliance, among many other problems.
But for the North China Front, they finally have a firepower that can compete with the Anti-Alliance medium tanks. At least it has caught up with the caliber, not to mention the power is still good. After test firing, the Japanese Type 1 self-propelled gun was used
The armor-piercing explosive shells equipped can completely penetrate the frontal armor of several tanks equipped with anti-alliance equipment.
However, the Type 90 field artillery of the China Expeditionary Force was limited, and the development of the war situation did not allow the North China Front to refit all the tanks. After a lot of effort, the Type 3 tanks of two squadrons were refitted.
In the previous assaults of these two squadrons, Colonel Takazawa Hideki, commander of the 4th Independent Tank Brigade, was regarded as the treasure at the bottom of the box and was not used.
In the process of forcibly intersecting and outflanking the 100th Division's right wing, Chen Hanzhang's tank cluster happened to collide head-on with this improvised Japanese tank. Faced with the oncoming new Japanese tanks, the anti-alliance tank troops
Naturally, a tank battalion will not be vague. When it comes up, it will attack the entire line and prepare to open fire from 500 meters away according to the experience of the Battle of Tongzhou.
But no one expected that the Japanese tank, which was pieced together, would become the hardest nut to crack for the anti-alliance tank troops fighting against it in a tank battle. The Type 90 field gun with its shortened barrel, although its range was
It's much closer, and its power has been somewhat reduced, but the basic power is still there.
To provide fire support for ground troops, the range is shortened, which may be a fatal shortcoming. But for tank warfare, where the firing range is basically within a thousand meters, or even only a few hundred meters, the range is shortened, and
Not enough to be fatal.
At the same time, the 100th Division learned from its previous experience and lessons against the Anti-Alliance tank forces. Next to and behind these two tank squadrons, it was also equipped with a squadron of Type 88 anti-tank guns and two squadrons of 50mm anti-tank guns.
, and a squadron of artillery tanks used as anti-tank guns. Behind these firepower, there are four infantry squadrons equipped with more than 40 Panzerfaust anti-tank rocket launchers.
Just after the encounter, the participating troops of the Anti-Japanese Alliance immediately felt that the tanks invested by the Japanese army in front of them were not right. Although the armor protection capabilities were not much improved compared to the same type of tanks that the infantry encountered before. But in terms of firepower,
But there is quite a difference.
And as the two armies approached, the front-line commanders of the Anti-Japanese Alliance also discovered that the Japanese tanks in front of them were slightly different in appearance from the Japanese tanks they had encountered before. However, this distance made it impossible for the front-line commanders to make any adjustments.
.We can only follow the original plan and fire first to gain the initiative.
The Japanese tanks, who were clearly determined to strike first in front of them, did not hesitate at all when faced with the tank group rushing towards them. They fired at almost the same time as the tanks of the Anti-Alliance. The Japanese troops were deployed deep in the counterattack.
The tank gun positions also all opened fire at this time to cooperate with the tank operations with long-range fire.
As soon as the tanks of the two sides faced each other, the first round of artillery fire came down. At a distance of 800 meters, although the Anti-Japanese Alliance destroyed seven tanks of the Japanese army, the tanks of its own participating troops also suffered a big loss.
, five tanks participating in the battle were destroyed by the Japanese army in one fell swoop. Moreover, these five tanks were not damaged, but were all penetrated by the turret or the main front armor, causing the tanks to be completely destroyed.
When they fired at a distance of 800 meters, the Japanese destroyed five tanks at once. This was almost unimaginable when fighting Japanese tanks in the past. The Japanese tank in front of me could actually shoot at a distance of about 800 meters.
Within a few seconds, it penetrated the frontal armor of its own M-4 medium tank.
The power of its tank main gun is even higher than the 75mm tank gun equipped with the M IV tank. It is far more powerful than the 50mm tank gun used by the Japanese army before, which quite surprised the front-line commanders of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. This
The power is almost equal to that of the Type 1 artillery tanker, which poses the greatest threat to allied tank groups among all tanks and armored vehicles of the Japanese army.
Even the anti-Japanese tank troops in the Tongzhou battlefield were destroyed by the Type 1 modified tanks invested by the Japanese army. However, the battle losses at that time were mainly due to the fact that the participating troops were too careless and were approached by the enemy about 500 meters away.
In the close combat. This time is definitely different. This is the first time that a Japanese tank can penetrate its own main armor at a distance of 800 meters.
In this battle, the Japanese army paid great attention to giving full play to their superiority in firepower, and changed their original strategy of increasing their horsepower to engage in close combat. However, due to the shortcomings of the tanks themselves and the corresponding tactics adopted by the Anti-Japanese Alliance, the tanks were defeated by the Anti-Japanese Alliance tanks.
With precise long-range shots, one by one was destroyed on the impact route.
Instead, they turned to make full use of the advantages of their current tank guns modified from field guns, which are powerful, long-range, and very accurate. They maintained a distance of more than 600 meters with the anti-alliance tank troops and continuously adopted maneuvers.
Confrontational tactics. Switch to the tactics used before the Anti-Union, trying to eliminate the Anti-Union tank group on the way to the charge.
This change in the tactics of the Japanese army and the performance of the tanks were beyond the expectations of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. This made the Japanese army only invest two squadrons in a tank battle, and it became a head-on battle between the Anti-Alliance tank troops and the Japanese tanks.
, the battle with the largest losses in a single battle.
Fortunately, the front-line commanders of the Anti-Japanese Alliance were experienced. After discovering that the firepower of the Japanese tanks had increased significantly, they immediately ordered the originally dense charge formation to disperse immediately. At the same time, they maximized the M4 tank's excellent sighting performance and fast turret rotation speed.
, because it is equipped with a gun vertical stabilizer, which has the advantage of accurate shooting while traveling.
Adopt a platoon-organized approach to attack in multiple directions to increase the distance between tanks. All tanks must not form a vertical attack sequence. When attacking, they must spread out to the two wings of the Japanese tank cluster and use as much space as possible.
Accurate shooting and striving to hit the target when fired.
After carefully observing this new type of Japanese tank, the front-line commander asked the troops to hit the enemy tank's obvious retreat machine exposed outside the turret with the first shot. Although this change in tactics has reduced the impact to a certain extent.
It reduced the impact of the tank cluster, but also quickly reduced the battle losses.
After the front-line commanders quickly adjusted their tactics, they effectively exploited the weakness of the Japanese tank's modified fire, and the results were quite effective. The Japanese turret rotated slowly, and the rate of fire of the tank gun was far inferior to that of the American medium tanks of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. The situation
Although it is not as one-sided as before, although it can still barely compete, the situation is becoming increasingly unfavorable.
As for the Japanese army, this new tank performed well in the first round of artillery battle. For the first time, it destroyed a medium-sized tank of the Anti-Japanese Alliance at a distance of 800 meters. It can be said to be the first combat record of the Japanese tank battle. It changed.
It turned out that at a distance of 500 meters, he could only be beaten passively.
However, too hasty changes also caused this tank to be riddled with problems after entering the actual war. The balance of power it could achieve did not last long. Fortunately, the Type 88 was deployed in its depth and commanded by the anti-aircraft gun firing director.
The anti-aircraft artillery was powerful and had a long range, which provided considerable support. This prevented the two Japanese tank squadrons from being defeated in the first place.