/k/ - Weapons

>>535428

>1941

Had it been built later in the war one could have thought of it as a desperate measure rolling pillbox a la a Maus (to counter invasion of home islands). The lack of infrastructure in China and other areas of interest and that they had to ship them so a 100 ton tank (well it looks lighter than that tbh Soviet T-28 weighed around 30 tons) is strange.

Also, 1941 is right after the Battles of Khalkhin Gol where poor showing of the Nippon armor led to reforms like sending a general to Germany to learn tank tactics, production of more medium tanks and eventual separation of the armored branch so this could be part of that effort. One should keep in mind that a part of Japanese leadership wanted to invade Siberia for resources rather than go down South.

Did some looking around and found about O-1 "super-heavy" tank but most sources say a prototype was built in 1943 also it looks a bit different.

http://japan.greyfalcon.us/O.htm

https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/295801-o-i-japans-super-heavy-tank/

>After 1939, the Imperial Japanese Army quickly came to realize that previous forms of mechanized warfare were proved inefficient after their defeat at Khalkhin Gol.

>Development of the super-heavy project was spearheaded by Colonel Hideo Iwakuro, the eventual head of the Ministry of War of Japan (陸軍省 Rikugun-shō). Iwakuro opposed Japan’s advances towards the Soviet Union in 1939, and with the Japanese defeat, he decided to initiate a project to construct a heavily armored tank capable of withstanding large-caliber field cannons. Iwakuro assigned Colonel Murata of the 4th Technical Research Group to design and construct the super heavy tank in 1939. Colonel Murata noted Iwakuro’s words as described;

<“I want a huge tank built which can be used as a mobile pillbox in the wide open plains of Manchuria. Top secret.”

<“Make the dimensions twice that of today’s tanks.”

Unrelated, but look at this Japanese /k/raziness:

http://japan.greyfalcon.us/Armor.htm