Search for Japanese SUPER TANK underway

[Gargantua]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9989372/Japan-search-for-super-tank-that-never-saw-action.html

Interesting!

[Omega1759]

It does not rank as impressive by 1945 standards (see the Centurion for a vintage 1945 tank).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_tank

[Witt]

Thank you Garg. A good read.
Two tanks to repel the US invasion: that is preparation for you.
I hope they have a few more to repel North Korea.

[CWO Marc]

@Omega1759:

It does not rank as impressive by 1945 standards

Agreed.  Even just in terms of the 75mm main gun, it’s not very formidable for the late war period.  By 1945, the standard for a hard-hitting gun on operational heavy tanks (not experimental ones like the Maus, or rare ones like the IS-2, or tank destroyers like the Jagdtiger) was roughly 90mm.  Examples are the 88mm gun of the German Tiger (which entered service in 1942), the 85mm gun of the Russian T-34/85 (which appeared in 1944), and the 90mm gun of the American Pershing (which squeaked into service in just enough time to see a few months of action in Europe in 1945).  The Chi-To’s 75 mm gun puts it into the same league as the Sherman and the Panther, but even in that respect it’s only in the middle of the pack in terms of the gun’s barell length (which affects muzzle velocity).  The ChiTo’s 75mm gun was 56.4 calibers long, which is better than the Sherman’s 40-caliber-length 75mm gun, but not as good as the Panther’s 70-caliber-length 75mm gun.  (In fairness, the Chi-To would have been fighting Shermans, not Panthers, and its barrel erosion rate would have been lower than the Panther’s, which would have been a good thing given the state of Japan’s industrial production in 1945.)

[Tall Paul]

Gar,

––Thanks for sharing!

“Tall Paul”