Customer Reviews

Japanese Tanks 1939-45 (New Vanguard)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Armor expert Stephen J. Zaloga's Japanese Tanks 1939-45 is another fine addition to Osprey's New Vanguard series. As the other notes in the bibliography, there are not a lot of English-language sources on Japanese armor in the Second World War, so this volume fills a valuable niche in military history. Overall, this is a very good volume, that balances technical description with operational history fairly well, although clearly there are some "nice to have" items (such as an order of battle listing Japanese tank units, more data on guns/armor/penetration) that space did not permit.

The volume begins with about 10 pages focusing on pre-war tank development in Japan, starting with the rather clunky Type 89 tank in 1931. The first relatively modern tank the Japanese built, the Type 95 Ha Go light tank, appeared in 1936 and this type was encountered by U.S. forces during the Pacific War. In the next 10-page section, the author details Japanese tank development in the Second World War, culminating in the production of medium tanks by late in the war. As the author notes, the Japanese recognized the technical inferiority of their tanks after their defeat by the Soviets at Khalkin Gol in 1939 and vainly struggled to catch up with foreign medium tank designs. Instead, the Japanese Army was saddled for most of the Pacific War with tanks that were too lightly armed and armored to compete with Western tanks. Zaloga comments that at Peleliu in 1944, U.S. Marine Corps anti-tank guns blew the attacking Japanese Type 95 light tanks into so many fragments that the Marines were unsure after the battle how many enemy tanks had actually been destroyed -a telling indictment of the incompatibility of a weapon system on a modern battlefield. Although outside the scope of this volume, the author does not mention that the Imperial Japanese Army also had fairly obsolete artillery and infantry weapons as well.

In the final 9-page section the author goes over the operational history of Japanese tanks, campaign by campaign. This section is very good and lists units and numbers of tanks involved, as well as opposing Allied tank units. Throughout the volume, the B/W photos are quite good, most from NARA. The color plates by Peter Bull are also excellent, depicting most of the various Japanese tank models. The author also provides two charts on Japanese tank production. The only area that appears slighted in the technical description of Japanese tanks was in communications - there was no mention about internal communications (intercom?) or radio. Yet several of the B/W photos show old-style radio aerials on one or two tanks and clearly the battalion or regimental commanders must have had radio. Additionally, the volume really could have used a chart listing the major technical characteristics of the main Japanese tank models, since this was difficult to pull together in the text. Nevertheless, this volume is a nice addition to Second World War literature.

Osprey puts out a great many titles on all sorts of military eras. Some titles strive to give you a feeling of what happened and how things operate, others just crunch the numbers. This book is one of the latter.

There are a few, a very few, paragraphs about how the tanks were used but most of this volume is number crunching. Listing models of tanks and their vital statisics, this is a research book for people who already know about the tactics and needs the nuts and bolts information of different models clearly laid out for comparison. This is not MY sort of book, but for researcher and gear heads, it is very clear and easy to use.

Fast paced book summarises Japanese tank development from from 1918 thru 1945 in the first 22 pages. The last 10 summarize their use/tactics during WW2 in SW and Central Pacific, China, Burma, Philippines, and Manchuria. Filled with great photos makes you wish the book was several times larger. But the book does cover all major aspects of their developement and use. Includes photos of some experimental tanks including the Japanese equivalent of the Panther - well, it was meant to be equivalent.

This gets 5 stars primarily because it is the only one stop shop for info on Japanese tanks in the English language. The subject really deserves a full blown book, but if you need need to identify a tank the book gets the job done. The title is a bit misleading - it includes info not just on tanks from 1939-45, but starts with their use of WW1 era tanks as well as indiginous designs from the 20s. Amphibious as well as experimental tanks are also included. And it contains other valuable nuggets such as production dates and numbers, theatres employed and combat examples. Japanese tank cannon penetration figures would have been great to include, but when you are limited to 50 pages you can't have everything. Still, an invaluable reference for wargamers.

Japanese tank design was influenced, heavily, by the Army's war with China. Many of the tanks were based on European designs and, in some cases, units were supplied with European tanks. When the Japanese military switched its sights to the war with America, which was mostly a sea and air war, the tanks were left behind. Resources, development, and production went into naval units and aircraft. Japanese Tanks, like Italian military equipment, found itself fighting against enemy units who were new and modern. Japanese tanks were outnumbered, outgunned, and, near the end of the war, a decade old in design. The Japanese did not even have much in the way of tank designers has they had heavily depended on copying European tanks, with slight changes here and there, for their own tank production. For example they did replace the gas engines with diesel engines because they would not burn like the gas engines.
On top of that, the best, updated medium tanks were held back, stationed in the home islands, waiting for a battle that never came to be.
In the end, Japanese tanks failed to do much in changing the face of warfare in World War Two, being neglected by the Japanese Empire.
The book, while small, really does a good job at showing us the history of tank creation in Japan and the use of the tanks on the battlefields.

Just started a Japanese Armoured force in 15mm for Flames of War this is a must have item for the model maker and historical gamer.
Great unit history's painting info and colour plates for painting
Cant wait to see more like this....Gordon Hollis NH

A book about Japanese tanks. It is the only one I have that I don't have to translate. Lots of photos, some nice color illustrations, and a cutaway of a type 95 light tank. (Though I wish it had been a type 97). The book gives a brief history of the development of the different tank models, and then a short history of their employment in the Pacific war. I felt there could have been a bit more of the early war and pre- war history of the Japanese tank actions. So few books on this topic are around that this one is in a class of its own.