Tamagakure
Not joined
"Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." - Yang Wen-li
The Type 4 15cm self-propelled gun Ho-Ro (四式十五糎自走砲 ホロ 4siki-15cm jisouhou Ho-Ro?) was a self-propelled gun developed by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. Inspired by the Grille series of self propelled artillery vehicles developed by Nazi Germany during World War II, wherein a 15 cm sIG 33 infantry support gun was mounted on a tracked chassis, engineers at the Army Technical Bureau resolved to do the same. Production was assigned to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The exact number produced is uncertain, but was approximately 25 units. The chassis selected was a modified Type 97 Chi-Ha chassis. On to this platform, a Type 38 15 cm howitzer which was based on a design by the German arms-manufacturer Krupp was mounted. This gun was capable of firing a 36 kilogram shell 6,000 meters, but dated from 1905 and had been withdrawn from service as being obsolete in 1942. The gun crew was protected by an open gun shield with armor thickness of 25 mm to the front, but was unprotected to the sides and rear, which made the design extremely vulnerable to close combat. Other issues with the design was that the gun had a traverse movement of only 3 degrees, and had a slow rate of fire due to its breech loader.
Type Self-propelled artillery
Place of origin Empire of Japan
Production history
Number built about 25
Specifications
Weight 13.3 tons (29,260 lb)
Length 5.537 meters (18 ft 2 in)
Width 2.286 meters (7 ft 6 in)
Height 1.549 meters (5 ft 1 in) to top of shield
Crew 4 or 5
Armor 12mm – 25mm (0.98in)
Main
armament
150mm Type 38 howitzer
Secondary
armament
none
Engine Mitsubishi Type 100 air-cooled V-12 diesel
170 Hp (126.8 kW)
Power/weight 12.8 hp/ton
Suspension bell crank
Operational
range
250 kilometers (156 miles)
Speed 38 km/h (23.6 mph)
The 20th Century is arguably the zenith of artillery.