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Post subject: Pacific War Tanks
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Hi
I've been trying to make historical builds for the Pacific Front. According to my research I know of the following vehicles being used in Far East
M3 Grant
M4 Sherman
M3 Stuart
M5A1 Light Tank
Matilda (used by the Australian, special flame thrower version)
Do you guys know of any other?
Also do you if any of the following were used?
M7 Priest
M4A3 (105) Sherman
T-34 Calliope --- I'd want to use this one for the rockets attack
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 Mon May 18, 2009 11:33 am |
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I think you are save to assume the
Type 95 Ha-Go
Type 97 Chi-Ha
Type 1 Ho-Ni
and the
Te-Ke Tankette
were all used 
not so clear about the Type 3 Chi-Nu - don't think it was used...
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| Mon May 18, 2009 12:00 pm |
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Posts: 1517
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Post subject: Re: Pacific War Tanks
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 M3 Grant - CBI theatre in British hands only (in Pacific, the only combat use in U.S. service was on 10 miles long Makin Atoll in 1943 in very limited qty)
M4 Sherman - yes, from 1943 (Europe had always priority in deliveries)
M3 Stuart - yes
M5A1 Light Tank - yes
Matilda (used by the Australian, special flame thrower version) - from 1943, with Matilda III CS, Matilda Frog and Matilda Hedgehog variants.
M7 Priest - yes. Here is a note from WWII Vehicles: "The Marines would use them in an armored personnel carrier roll. It could carry up to 13 marines up to the front lines. The Marines used them extensively on Okinawa."
M4A3 (105) Sherman - from 1944.
T-34 Calliope - no.
+ M10 Wolverine
+ M18 Hellcat: "The M18 served primarily in Western Europe, but was also present in the Pacific. However, due to the comparitive rarity and poor quality of Japanese armour it was often used in a fire support role instead of as a tank destroyer."
+ M8 Greyhound
... but you can check it for yourself, use Wiki
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| Mon May 18, 2009 12:01 pm |
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I think the first use of the Sherman in the Pacific was at Betio during the Tarawa invasion. The unit was the 1st Corps Tank Battalion of the 2nd Marine division. That was in November 1943. Here's the reference:
http://www.tarawaontheweb.org/usmctank.htm
They served primarily as heavy assault units on fixed fortified positions rather than in an anti tank role. The need for heavy anti tank weapons was not as great. Keep in mind that once the 37mm AT gun was deemed obsolete in Europe it was still an effective weapon in the Pacific and the remaining guns were shipped to that theater. Tanks were also very limited on Pacific theater battlefields due to the difficult terrain and the difficulty in getting them ashore.
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| Mon May 18, 2009 2:57 pm |
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And for an island of 500 yards across, you don't really need too many tanks
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| Mon May 18, 2009 7:32 pm |
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"My dear general, the war can now only be won by the politicians." Von Rundstedt to Kurt Meyer.
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| Mon May 18, 2009 10:50 pm |
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Thanks for the info.
From what I've gathered the Type 3 Chi-Nu never saw action. Only 60 were made and they were being kept for the defence of Honshu (the main home island)
Here is the site I got some info
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/
Sorry General Hoth, I don't know of any battle that would help you with your scenario.
Most information on the War in the Pacific is naval. I need to look for more books on the subject. |
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| Tue May 19, 2009 12:46 am |
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SOCCEROO FEVER
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The Aussies used the m3's in New guinea. The Matilda CS had a 75mm how instead of the 2pdr.
Bren Carriers were in wide use by Aussies, japs and Brits.
M3 Scout car.
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| Tue May 19, 2009 2:34 am |
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| general Hoth wrote: | Interesting. 
Does anyone know of a Pacific battle where both sides had tanks?
It could be something for a "fun" scenario. |
Here is a reference describing several battles where the Ha-Go saw action. This was Japans most numerous tank and unfortunately was already out of date by the time Japan entered the war. They were mostly matched up against the Stuart but that was a newer design that had many advantages over the Ha-Go. Perhaps a scenario covering action in the Philippines in the early part of the war would be of some interest.
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_type_95_ha_go.html
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| Tue May 19, 2009 4:01 am |
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If interested in this topic, try:
Steven Zaloga, Armour of the Pacific War (Osprey Vanguard). You can also send me a message and I will share with you few documents I have.
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| Tue May 19, 2009 7:17 am |
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"My dear general, the war can now only be won by the politicians." Von Rundstedt to Kurt Meyer.
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| Tue May 19, 2009 9:06 am |
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SOCCEROO FEVER
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BTW i have seen some pictures of Japanese Type 89's on Bougainville, they were on fire detroyed by aircraft, Boomeangs i believe.
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| Fri May 22, 2009 11:00 pm |
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"My dear general, the war can now only be won by the politicians." Von Rundstedt to Kurt Meyer.
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i'd love to get feedback on a battle where we could field tanks from both sides. It would make for a great scenario.
I just bought a lot of japenese units on e-bay.
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| Fri May 22, 2009 11:54 pm |
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SOCCEROO FEVER
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| general Hoth wrote: | i'd love to get feedback on a battle where we could field tanks from both sides. It would make for a great scenario.
I just bought a lot of japenese units on e-bay. |
i get you details of the first armour v armour in the pacific. Biak i think
12 ha gos v 12 sherman. not even.
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| Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:26 pm |
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SOCCEROO FEVER
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Welcome to the boards 
and thanks for the info
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| Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:25 am |
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Howdy everybody,
I've been lurking on this forum for a long time, always content to read rather than post, but I finally created an account to answer general Hoth's question. Regarding battles involving both US and IJA tanks, I think I can help. Maybe not a lot, but a little help is better than none at all, right? Hopefully this info will provide some inspiration for a fun, non-standard scenario...
To my limited historical knowledge, the biggest tank engagement between the US and IJA happened on Luzon during the re-taking of the Philippines - specifically at the town of San Manuel on January 24th, 1945.
Realizing his tanks couldn't face the US head-on, General Yamashita dispersed all of his armor (some 500 tanks and tank destroyers of the 2nd Tank Division) to local towns and villages. He ordered them to dig into camouflaged adobe revetments and wait to ambush the Americans. Apparently, these positions also included multiple entrenchments so the Japanese tanks could move after firing yet remain protected.
In San Manuel, the Japanese had 45 tanks from the Shigemi detachment of the 7th Tank Regiment hidden throughout the village (40 Type 97-Kai Shinhoto Chi-Ha's and 5 Type 95 Ha-Go's). They were attacked by the 161st Infantry Regiment, who were supported by M7 Priests and a company of M4 Shermans. The battle lasted until January 28 when the last 10 IJA tanks made a banzai charge against the US. It did not end well for the Japanese.
That's just one example of the tank engagements that happened during the Battle of Luzon, but I think it would make for an interesting "hide-and-seek" type of scenario. To even things out game-wise, you could keep the Japanese tanks off the map and only place them when they fire for the first time, move out of cover/trenches or are somehow spotted by enemy infantry. To track their movements I would print out a hex grid and use coordinates similar to chess. It might slow the game down a bit, but I bet it would be fairly nerve-wracking for the US player. And in my book, suspense like that equals the good times.
Be Seeing You,
Yipe
P.S. For the curious, the following information is taken from Japanese Tanks 1939-1945 by Osprey Publishing. They also put out a second, newer book on this topic last October titled: WWII Japanese Tank Tactics.
The first book is slim at only 48 pages, but has some great color drawings (including a nicely detailed cut-away of a Type 95 Ha-Go) and tons of useful trivia about Japan's development of armor as well as several brief reports on battles involving their tanks. I recommend it to anyone interested in this topic. I don't own the second book (yet) so I can't comment on it much, other than to say it looks very nice. I plan on picking it up soon. |
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| Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:28 am |
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SOCCEROO FEVER
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| RAEVSKI wrote: | Welcome to the boards
and thanks for the info |
How did you repost like that?
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| Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:29 am |
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Thanks for the welcome, this is a great message board and a fun game - though I only own/play the IJA so I imagine my experience is probably a bit different than most.
As for how I reposted after deleting my post, well I guess the cats out of the bag that I originally deleted my post so... I used the old magic of select-copy-paste.
As I PMed you, I was having second thoughts about joining the conversation and strongly considered going back to being a simple lurker. But just in case I changed my mind a second (or would that be a third) time I decided to copy my post, and I'm glad I did as I decided to put it up after all. Man, it would have sucked to retype it!
And that is, err, uh, probably more than you wanted to know.
Be Seeing You,
Yipe |
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| Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:45 am |
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SOCCEROO FEVER
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i was tricked aagain.....
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| Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:35 am |
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Yipe,
To add, the commander of the Japanese 2nd Tank Division was Iwanaka, and Shigemi was actually commander of the 3rd Tank Brigade. The Shigemi Detachment actually consisted of the 7th Tank Regiment (Maeda) plus other troops.
I did post some info on the Iwanka and Shigemi threads in the AAM custom cards subforum. |
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| Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:26 am |
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