Type 41 75mm Mountain Howitzer

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Type 41 75mm Mountain Howitzer
Type 41 75mm Mountain Howitzer

As Japan continued modernizing its armed forces in the wake of the Meiji Restoration and the Russo-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army often turned to the German Army for its equipment. The Type 41 was a license-built version of the German M1908 75mm mountain gun, and was adopted in 1908--the 41st year of Meiji's reign, hence the designation.

The hard fighting over rugged terrain during the Russo-Japanese War had taught the IJN that a light mountain field piece was necessary, and the Type 41 admirably filled this role. It could be broken down into several parts and carried either by horses or its 13-man crew; the reason for such a large crew was because the gun had to be manually turned and ammunition would have to be carried to the gun by hand. A larger crew also meant that the Type 41 could be broken down, set up, and carried much faster. The design itself was meant to be robust and easy to use.

The Type 41 would see its first combat use during the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and was found to have a number of issues: it wasn't as accurate nor as easily transported as the IJA had hoped. As a result, the IJA began work on a new mountain gun (the Type 94), and relegated the Type 41 to infantry regiments, where it would be used in the support role in either direct or indirect fire.

Despite its shortcomings, the Type 41 would remain in production until 1942, ensuring that hundreds were still in service by the time Japan formally entered World War II in December 1941. The Type 41 would be used throughout China and the Pacific Theater, especially in jungle campaigns such as Malaya and Guadalcanal: because the Type 41's 75mm shell had greater weight than mortar shells, it was much less likely to detonate in the upper canopy of the jungle. Many were also captured by the Chinese during the war, enough that some Chinese artillery regiments were equipped with Type 41s; these would see service postwar in the Chinese Civil War. Those guns that survived the war were either scrapped or kept as museum pieces.

This particular Type 41 was captured in 1943 during the US Army's liberation of Attu Island from the Japanese; several Type 41s, assigned to the Japanese 6th Independent Mountain Artillery Battery, were captured by the US 7th Infantry Division, and most of these have ended up in museums--in this case, the Lewis Army Museum at Fort Lewis, Washington.

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Taken on: May 17, 2024
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Camera: samsung SM-A136U, 27mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: samsung SM-A136U
Focal Length: 27mm
ISO: 250
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Program AE
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: Uncalibrated
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