Type 1 Ho-Ha

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Lua error in Module:Infobox at line 235: malformed pattern (missing ']').

The Type 1 Ho-Ha (一式半装軌装甲兵車 ホハ Ici-shiki han-sōki sōkō-heisha hoha?) was a half-track armoured personnel carrier (APC) used in limited numbers by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II.

Development and history

The Type 1 Ho-Ha was developed in 1941 as a result of a request from the Army for a vehicle that could be used to transport a squad of infantry to the battlefield protected from enemy small arms fire. Despite experiences of the Second Sino-Japanese War, armored personnel carriers were viewed as too slow compared to wheeled trucks and there was not much effort for their development in the army.[1]

Production began in 1944,[2] Type 1 Ho-Ha being an addition to the existing Type 1 Ho-Ki, an unrelated,[1] yet similarly named design. The half-tracked Type 1 Ho-Ha was built by Hino Motors in unknown[3] quantities.

Design

The Type 1 Ho-Ha was based[1] on the German Sd.Kfz. 251/1 (known popularly as Hanomag), the main armoured personnel carrier of the German Army, but did not use the overlapped and interleaved road wheels of the German design's suspension.

The Type 1 Ho-Ha had a pair of road wheels in front, supported by a pair of short caterpillar tracks to the rear.[1] As with the previous Type 1 Ho-Ki, a towing hitch was provided at the rear to haul artillery.[1] The maximum armor thickness was about 8 mm[1] but the top was open.[citation needed]

The Type 1 Ho-Ha carried three Type 97 light machine guns as standard armament, one on each side, just to the rear of the driver's compartment and a third mounted to the rear as an anti-aircraft weapon.[1] All of these weapons had constricted firing arcs, which made firing directly forward or directly rearward impossible.[1]

Combat record

The Type 1 Ho-Ha was initially deployed to China for operations in the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, but were never in any great numbers. It was later deployed with the Japanese reinforcements in the Battle of the Philippines in 1944.

Footnotes

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />

References

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Japanese Armored Vehicles of the Second World War
  2. 2.0 2.1 Type 1 Ho-Ha at "Taki's Home Page - Imperial Japanese Army" website
  3. Foss, 2002, p. unknown