Type 3 heavy machine gun

The Type 3 heavy machine gun (三年式重機関銃, San-nen-shiki juu-kikanjuu), also known as the Taishō 14 machine gun, was a Japanese air-cooled heavy machine gun. The Type 3 heavy machine gun was in a long-line of Japanese Hotchkiss machine gun variants that the Imperial Japanese Army would utilize from 1901 to 1945.

History

Starting in 1901, Japan began importing Hotchkiss MLE 1897 heavy machine guns that were compatible with belt fed 6.5mm Arisaka cartridges. Japan eventually bought a license for domestic production, with the type seeing notable service during the Russo-Japanese War

Japanese gun designer Kijirō Nambu would later modify the domestic Hotchkiss MLE 1897 heavy machine gun to better meet Japanese requirements, to include lessons learned following the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War. This effort would result in the adoption of the domestic Type 38 heavy machine gun in 1907. The Type 38 heavy machine gun would first see action in Qingdao, China during World War I. The Type 38 heavy machine gun was still in service at the time of the 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

Kijirō Nambu would further modify the Type 38 heavy machine gun in 1909, focusing on improving dissipation and durability. This would result in the Type 3 heavy machine gun, entering service in 1914 and first seeing action in the 1919 Japanese intervention in Siberia. During the 1930s the Type 3 heavy machine gun would see wide-scale use in Manchuria and China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Type 3 tripod could be used as an anti-aircraft mounting, and special anti-aircraft sights were provided.

Users

•  Chile: Chile bought several hundred Type 3 machine guns in 7×57mm Mauser as Modelo 1920. Barrels were manufactured in France by Hotchkiss but most of the weapon was made at the Kokura arsenal.
•  China: Purchased for Chang Tso-lin's Fengtian Army. Later used by the Collaborationist Chinese Army
•  Empire of Japan
•  Manchukuo
•  North Korea: It was used by the Korean People's Army during the Korean War.
•  North Vietnam

Gallery

See also

• Type 92 heavy machine gun
• Type 1 heavy machine gun

Notes

Bibliography

• McNab, Chris (2004). Twentieth-century Small Arms. Grange Books. p. 186. ISBN 1-84013-381-3.

External links

• Japanese machineguns of WW2
• Catalog of Enemy Ordnance Archived 2011-04-01 at the Wayback Machine