This crew operated, tripod mounted, anti-personnel Heavy Machine Gun (122 lbs unloaded) was the standard machine gun of the Japs back in World War II, everywhere there were Japs there were Type 92 machine guns. It fired 7.7mm Shiki bullets, a reduced charge version of the Meiji 30 infantry cartridge, at a velocity of 2,400 feet per second. The cyclic rate of fire was about 450 rpm but that never was constant as it changed depending on the amount of ammunition left on the 30 round stripper clips from where it fed from. This somewhat odd behavior resulted in a sound that was not typical of machine gun fire, the changing cyclic rate of fire gave it a distinct "woodpecker like" sound and so was also nicknamed such by american troops. Another peculiarity of this machine gun is how the sights are positioned, in contrast to traditional guns where the sights are perfectly aligned on the dorsal section, the sights on the Type 92 were a bit to the right. It used a peep sight for the rear and an ordinary half shrouded post in the front. The small reservoir atop the action is used to store oil that is supposedly used to lube the ammo as it is fed and fired. I imagine this must have gunked up the action really bad but WWII equipment were pretty much designed to work reliably in extremely adverse conditions.

The Type 92 saw a lot of action in the Pacific Theater, hundreds (possibly thousands) of it were left by the Japanese in Korea and the Philippines. It also was used in the battle of Guadalcanal, to see the Type 92 in action watch the movie The Thin Red Line which was set in Guadalcanal. One of them that got left in .ph is now in my possession, unfortunately it is no longer in firing condition and save for breaking and entering into a war museum, I probably won't find any stripper clips or 7.7mm ammo at the local Bloodbath and Beyond.

As war planes were not yet of very advanced manufacture at that time, this relatively small bore machine gun was also sometimes used as an anti aircraft gun.

The japanese precision manufacturing techniques of today intrigue me no end on what other kinds of wonderful, quite possibly still peculiar, firearms they might have developed and produced had they not been disallowed by a treaty at the end of the war from making non defensive weapons.


Credits for some info http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/japheavy.htm

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