Japanese Tanks on Betio

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Wellgunde
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Japanese Tanks on Betio

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Post by Wellgunde » 11 Jul 2014, 05:54

Extract from:

Supplement to the “Study of Japanese Defense of Betio Island, (Tarawa Atoll)” Part I. Fortifications and Weapons. [no date – presumed to be late 1943]

Prepared by Intelligence Section, 2nd Marine Division

Reference (a) Study of Japanese Defense of Betio Island (Tarawa Atoll)

Tanks:

Later conferences with representatives of the [USMC] TkBn now indicate that there were seven enemy tanks on the island. The discrepancy between this figure and that given in Reference (A) can be accounted for by the fact that the figure fourteen was arrived at after study of captured Japanese documents. It appears now that the documents apparently were proposed strength rather than actual strength. Tanks were run down into special emplacements which allowed their guns to fire out of a pillbox shield already in place over the emplacement. This made aerial photo interpretation extremely difficult.

These tanks were all the m1935 model, which weighs about seven tons; is fifteen feet long, seven feet wide and six and one half feet high. It mounts one machine gun in the hull fore. It can turn a complete circle within its own length because one track can be locked in place. The tank is very blind, having only 1/16” observation ports. A thin film of oil can cover these ports. A radius of 23 feet around the tank is dead space, the weapons being unable to depress sufficiently to cover this space. There is a crew of three: tank commander directs the tank, and fires both the 37mm and the machine gun. The other two are driver and other machine gunner respectively. A .50 caliber bullet will penetrate these Japanese tanks; our 37mm AT guns knocked out a few of their tanks. There was only one instance of a tank battle which resulted in the rapid destruction of one of their tanks. The Japanese would let our tanks go through their lines and then open fire on its rear.
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