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–? |
No. built | 150-300 (estimated) [2] |
Specifications (Type 1 Ho-Ha [3]) | |
Mass | 6.5 tonnes (7.2 tons) [3] |
Length | 6.1 m (20 ft 0 in) [4] |
Width | 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) [4] |
Height | 2.51 m (8 ft 3 in) [3] |
Crew | 2 + 13 passengers [5] |
Armor | max 8 mm [4] |
Main armament | 3 × 7.7 mm Type 97 light machine guns [3] |
Engine |
Diesel engine 134 PS (99 kW) at 2,000 rpm [4] |
Operational range | 300 km (190 mi) [4] |
Maximum speed | 50 km/h (31 mph) [4] |
The Type 1 Ho-Ha (一式半装軌装甲兵車 ホハ, Ichi-shiki han-sōki sōkō-heisha hoha) was a half-track armoured personnel carrier (APC) used in limited numbers by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II.
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 with the Type 1 Ho-Ha being an addition to the Type 1 Ho-Ki, an unrelated, yet similarly named armored tracked personnel carrier. [1] [3] The half-tracked Type 1 Ho-Ha was built by Hino Motors in unknown quantities. [3] [6]
The Type 1 Ho-Ha was based on 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. [1] [6] Further, it had a "vertical rear plate with a door", akin to the American M3 Half-track; however, the door itself was a copy of the German "two-leaf" design. [6]
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] It was equipped with a tow coupling in the front and a towing hitch at the rear to haul artillery or a supply trailer. The maximum armor thickness was 8 mm with sloping armor plates. As with the Type 1 Ho-Ki, the hull was welded construction and it was "open-topped". [7]
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]
The Type 1 Ho-Ha was initially deployed to China for operations in the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, but never in any great numbers. It was later deployed with the Japanese reinforcements in the Battle of the Philippines in 1944. Post-war, some Type 1 Ho-Ha half-tracks were modified by cutting off the rear armored section and replacing it with a flat bed. They were then used for reconstruction work in areas of Japan. [8]
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–? |
No. built | 150-300 (estimated) [2] |
Specifications (Type 1 Ho-Ha [3]) | |
Mass | 6.5 tonnes (7.2 tons) [3] |
Length | 6.1 m (20 ft 0 in) [4] |
Width | 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) [4] |
Height | 2.51 m (8 ft 3 in) [3] |
Crew | 2 + 13 passengers [5] |
Armor | max 8 mm [4] |
Main armament | 3 × 7.7 mm Type 97 light machine guns [3] |
Engine |
Diesel engine 134 PS (99 kW) at 2,000 rpm [4] |
Operational range | 300 km (190 mi) [4] |
Maximum speed | 50 km/h (31 mph) [4] |
The Type 1 Ho-Ha (一式半装軌装甲兵車 ホハ, Ichi-shiki han-sōki sōkō-heisha hoha) was a half-track armoured personnel carrier (APC) used in limited numbers by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II.
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 with the Type 1 Ho-Ha being an addition to the Type 1 Ho-Ki, an unrelated, yet similarly named armored tracked personnel carrier. [1] [3] The half-tracked Type 1 Ho-Ha was built by Hino Motors in unknown quantities. [3] [6]
The Type 1 Ho-Ha was based on 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. [1] [6] Further, it had a "vertical rear plate with a door", akin to the American M3 Half-track; however, the door itself was a copy of the German "two-leaf" design. [6]
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] It was equipped with a tow coupling in the front and a towing hitch at the rear to haul artillery or a supply trailer. The maximum armor thickness was 8 mm with sloping armor plates. As with the Type 1 Ho-Ki, the hull was welded construction and it was "open-topped". [7]
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]
The Type 1 Ho-Ha was initially deployed to China for operations in the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, but never in any great numbers. It was later deployed with the Japanese reinforcements in the Battle of the Philippines in 1944. Post-war, some Type 1 Ho-Ha half-tracks were modified by cutting off the rear armored section and replacing it with a flat bed. They were then used for reconstruction work in areas of Japan. [8]