Machine Gun Equipment
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Machine Guns need various kinds
of equipment for guns and ammunition.
Such as, A, Cleaning Kit, B, Ammunition Carrying Bags and
Loading Tools
C, Optical Sights , so on with heavy weighted ammunition.
Japanese Machine Guns, ammunition
and various equipment were designed and prepared for carrying
using less vehicles but by house backs or mainly manpower.
So most of them were made very compact and easy to carry.
Cleaning Kits were called "Zoku-hin"
or "Teiregu". For heavy machine guns, tall wood
boxes were used for ammunition, parts and cleaning kits. They
were mostly same dimensions and carried on horse backs or
humped by men's backs.
For Light Machine Guns, a cleaning kits was carried in the
small bag on the belt of a gunner. Two box magazines were
in one container and carried hanging on shoulder of a gunner.
Extra ammunition was carried in a simple cloth bag. The unit
of the ammunition was a 5round clip which was common with
infantrymen's rifle. When lording the ammunition to magazines
a loader which was carried by an assistant gunner was used
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The example of a Light Machine Gunner in 1939 at China Front |
In that period, Japanese Army's main Light Machine Gun for a squad was Nambu Model 11, 6.5mm which adopted the hopper feeding system with the common ammunition unit as M-38 rifles so it did not need box magazines nor a loader. The side arm of a gunner was Model 26 handgun and M-30 bayonet. The gunner carried an extra
Barrel of the gun on his back pack. |
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The example of a Light Machine Gunner in 1944 at Pacific Islands |
The weapon was M-96, 6.5mm or M-99, 7.7mm Light Machine Gun.
The material of the equipment which was used in this period was less leather but rubberized canvas for high heat and humidity of jungles. The side arm was a later model of M-14 handgun and the weapon was fitted by M-30 bayonet. The cleaning kit became smaller than that of M-11's. |
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Japanese
Machine Guns Ammunition
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| Japanese
adopted the ammunition of their guns separately depend
on the guns and Army and Navy's conditions. There are
three kinds of major 7.7mm ammunition. |
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left to right Army's M-94 37mm, Navy's M-96 25mm, Army's
M-98 20mm, Navy's 13.2mm, above Army's M-89 Flexible Gun
7.7mm and Navy's M-97 Fixed Gun 7.7mm |
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Japanese
Tripod for Heavy Machine Guns for M-92 and others
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The main tripod was developed
provably between the period of Russia Japan War and WW
I, around 1907.
This tripod has no official model name but it might be
M-38 or M-3.
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Cleaning
Kit
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| Cleaning
Kit and Accessory of M99 Light Machine Gun |
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| Cleaning
Kit and Parts Container of M-11 Light Machine Gun |
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Optical
Sights for Machine Guns
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| M-94
Optical Sight for M-92 Machine Gun |
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4x10"
Tokyo Arsenal
21cm long, 10cm wide, 10cm high |
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| M-93
Optical sight for M-92 Machine Gun |
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6x8.2"
Nikko
40cm long |
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| Optical
Sights for Light Machine Guns |
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Right;
M-99, 2.5x13" Tokyo Arsenal 18cm long
Left; M-96,.5x13" Nikko 18cm long |
| Optical
Sight for M-97 Tank Machine Gun |
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1.5x30"
Tomioka Kogaku
58cm long |
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