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Type 11 (Light Machine Gun)

1922 INTERWAR WORLD WAR 2

History of the Type 11 (Light Machine Gun)

The Type 11 is a light machine gun system used by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), developed and put into service during World War II. The weapon system entered service in 1922 and was produced from then until 1941, with approximately 29,000 copies produced. The Type 11 served with the IJA until the end of the war in 1945, after which all of Japan's weapons production capacity was wiped out by the conquering nations - forcing the Type 11 to go down in history.

In addition to the actual World War II (1939-1945), the Type 11 was heavily used in the Chinese Civil War (1927-1936), the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and the Soviet-Japanese Border War (1938-1939) ). ). The design of the gun is attributed to the gunsmith and professional soldier Lieutenant General Kijiro Minami (1889-1924), which earned the Allied soldier the nickname "Nanbu".

The chamber of the Model 11 fires 6.5x50mm Arisaka cartridges via a gas operating system. The Arisaka cartridge is a half-rimmed design adopted by the IJA in 1897 to accompany the new standard Type 30 Arisaka bolt-action infantry rifle (and its associated carbine shape). The Type 30 remained Japan's standard infantry rifle until 1905 when it was replaced by the bolt-action Type 38, also chambered for the 6.5x50mm Arisaka cartridge.

After the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japanese authorities had confidence in the firepower of machine guns when supplementing offensive infantry operations. This was further demonstrated by the devastating effects of machine guns on tens of thousands of European infantry in the coming World War I (1914-1918).

Therefore, the authorities tried to produce the first indigenous machine gun design for the Japanese Empire. To date, the Japanese have relied heavily on heavy and light machine guns designed by French Hotchkiss.

The new LMG weapon was developed based on the experience of owning these weapon systems and gave the system the name "Type 11" (in honor of Emperor Taisho's 11-year reign). The gun first appeared in 1922, using off-the-shelf 6.5x50mm Arisaka rifle cartridges.

The

Model 11 shows most of Hotchkiss' influence, including the ribbed barrel and inner working parts. A foldable bipod is located near the muzzle for sustained fire from a prone position.

The ergonomic shoulder rest acts as a pistol grip, which presents an unusually exaggerated shape compared to its contemporaries. An optional shoulder strap extends from the bottom of the stock to the front for carrying the weapon on the march. However, Nambu opted for a different feeding mechanism that distinguishes the type from its true French ancestry. The feed mechanism uses the "Hooper" magazine system (mounted on the left side of the receiver), allowing the machine gun to be fired from a 5-round 6.5x50mm rifle "clip" without any modifications in the field. Up to six of these clips can be fed into the hopper system, with each round taken out of the feeding mechanism individually before firing, the next clip is automatically fed, and the empty one is ejected from the machine.

This allows the gunner to use readily available rifle ammunition from the rest of his squad, rather than relying on specially designed and packaged ammo boxes or belts. Ammo comes in a hard case containing 12 rifle magazines (60 rounds).

Fully loaded with six magazines (5 rounds each), the Model 11 can hold up to 30 rounds of 6.5mm ammo. However, these full-size rifle cartridges proved too powerful for the inherently sensitive hopper feed system, forcing the design of a new specialty cartridge - the less powerful 6.5x50mm Arisaka "Genso" (or "Reduced" ) - was introduced and assigned to the Type 11 (and subsequently the Type 96 machine gun and Type 97 sniper rifle) for aircrew use.

The hopper system has also proven easy to collect these unwanted debris from harsh battlefield environments, as it must remain lubricated to keep the system operating at optimum levels.

On the battlefield, the Type 11 earned an unpopular reputation among its rifle teams. It can only be used in fully automatic fire mode, which is an acceptable design action for a machine gun in theory, but in practice using a hopper feeding system means the weapon is rather unbalanced when firing due to the overall weight of the rifle caliber. Cartridges, all stacked on one side.

It was these issues and the weapon's combat use against the Chinese army in the 1930s that led to the design and development of the new Type 96 machine gun, which entered service in 1936. The Type 96 replaced (at least on paper) the Type 11 in service with the IJA, although the Type 11 was still in sufficient numbers to see combat at the end of hostilities in 1945 - this was more due to a shortage of strong industrial sectors in War-torn Japan is at war stage.