| Type 1 Ho-Ha | |
|---|---|
 Type 1 Ho-Ha | |
| Type | half-track armoured personnel carrier |
| Place of origin |
 Empire of Japan |
| Service history | |
| Wars | World War II |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1941[1] |
| Manufacturer | Hino Motors |
| Produced | 1944–? |
| Specifications (Type 1 Ho-Ha[2]) | |
| Mass | 6.5 tonnes |
| Length | 6.1 m (20 ft 0 in) |
| Width | 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) |
| Height | 2.51 m (8 ft 3 in) |
| Crew | 3 + 12 passengers |
|
| |
| Armor | max 8 mm |
Main armament | 3 × 7.7 mm Type 97 light machine guns |
| Engine |
Diesel engine 134 PS at 2,000 rpm |
| Maximum speed | 50 km/h (31 mph) |
The Type 1 Ho-Ha (一式半装軌装甲兵車 ホハ Ici-shiki han-sōki sōkō-heisha hoha) was an armored 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] upon 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 to haul artillery was provided at the rear.[1] 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[]
Initial deployment of the Type 1 Ho-Ha was China for operations in the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, but were never in any great numbers. The Type 1 Ho-Ha was later deployed with Japanese reinforcements in the Battle of the Philippines in 1944.
Footnotes[]
References[]
- Foss, Christopher F (2002). The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles: The Comprehensive Guide to over 900 Armored Fighting Vehicles from 1915 to the Present Day. Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 1-57145-806-9.
External links[]
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The original article can be found at Type 1 Ho-Ha and the edit history here.