JAPANESE MOBILE TROOP ARMOR AND BODY ARMOR
(1937-1945)
By Rob Arndt
This impractical contraption was developed for the early Japanese campaign in China as a form of one-man “panzer” where the wheeled mobile armor could be used as both a frontal shield for the machine gunner or the sides could be rolled back to cover most of the machine gunner’s body, depending on his size. These devices were rare and used only sporadically in that conflict. While this gave some added protection in that campaign, the entire concept was judged too impractical for general use and mass production for the Pacific campaigns and were gradually phased out for use. Data:
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With the war in the Pacific raging and The Japanese were severely limited in both tanks and AFVs in the Pacific and as a consequence took heavy casualties from US forces. In 1944, in the spirit of the Samurai warriors, body armor was issued in belief that the fighting spirit of the Samurai might take hold and overcome the material power of the Types I, II, and III armor combinations were encountered by US Marines in tough ground fighting and were shipped back to the
After a great deal of difficulty and personal disappointment, he was able to secure a copy of Japanese armor (fig. 326). Based on the Japanese design and his own personal observation as to the areas to be protected and the most commonly encountered wounds and causative agents, he developed a model for This led to four different By the summer of 1945 more than 2,200 armored vests and aprons were sent to the Pacific for field testing, but the war ended before any could be utilized. Total production of all four types of
All due to capture of Japanese body armor in the Pacific.
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