9/23/2023 0 Comments Japanese modern tank prototypesTanks in the open are extremely vulnerable to air attack, and a slow, large target was even more so. Heavy armor alone was not enough to make up for low speed and presenting a large target. Also, tanks were generally transported long distances by rail, and the extreme difficulty of doing so with 100-plus ton tanks was a serious disadvantage. But river fords shallow enough for passage were not always available, a severe restriction on the tank's tactical flexibility. The size and weight of the tanks made traversing rough terrain difficult if not impossible, and they were often far too heavy for most bridges, restricting them to fording the rivers using snorkels. Only its tracks remain in an Japanese museum.ĭespite their awesome appearance, superheavy tank designs were almost uniformly a failure. Under murky circumstances it was shipped to Manchuria and it is unknown whether it ever saw combat. A single functional model was built by 1945, weighing in at a gigantic 120 tons and armed with a 105mm gun and two rocket launchers. The O-I superheavy tank was conceived due to the profound inferiority of Japanese Army armor facing off against Soviet armor in a series of severe border clashes at Khalkin Gol on the Manchurian border. The Japanese developed several prototypes for massive tanks to be used in the Pacific Theater. But they displayed a school of thought similar to that of battleships, where sheer armor and weaponry took precedence over anything else. Almost none were ever deployed in battle. Some of the larger examples were well over 100 tons, huge by today's standards. During World War II, there was a concerted effort to develop heavier and heavier tanks, often stretching past the limits of practicality and even credulity.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |