Saturday 11 February 2012

Captured Japanese tank from the battle for Singapore

I was surprised to read today that the Bovington Tank Museum in England has on display a captured Japanese tank from the Malaya battle being a Ha Go Type 95. Very successful in the Malaya campaign The interior of the tank was cramped and uncomfortable, especially for anyone trying to operate the rear turret machine-gun, and it is interesting to note that the main gun could move independently of the turret. However the British troops did not have any tanks and these Japanese tanks were very successfully used during the campaign. The markings indicate a tank of 14th Sensha Rentai (Tank Regiment) in 3rd Sensha Shidan (Tank Division) around 1941. What is interesting is that this Type 95 was captured in Malaya and was examined in Calcutta before being sent to Britain. Surviving Japanese tanks from the Second World War are extremely rare and so this was very interesting to discover.






No comments: