Japanese World War 1 Tanks That Need Adding to War Thunder

Toreno

Today we take a look at various World War 1 tanks that were used by Japan in the aftermath of World War 1, as Japan imported various tanks from different nations in order to jump start its tank development, these ranging from the British Mark IV Heavy Tank, French Renault FT-17 and many more!  Social Media ⬇️ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/toreno.bsky.social Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Toreno4 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toreno170 Mastodon: Toreno17@mastodon.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@toreno170 Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Toreno17 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/toreno5/videos  Sources⬇️ Army Engineer School (1924) Exercise to eliminate the flank defense gun nest at the Yabashira Workshop, June 10, 1924. Found at: https://filmisadocument.jp/films/view/85  Hara, T. (1972) Japanese Medium Tanks. No.49.  Taki's Home Page: Imperial Japanese Army Page. Found at: http://www3.plala.or.jp/takihome/  Zaloga, S. J. (2008). Japanese Tanks 1939-1945. Osprey Publishing.   Game: War Thunder  ⬅️  Intro: 00:00 Mark IV Heavy Tank: 00:50 Whippet Tank: 01:48 Renault FT-17: 03:01 Fiat 3000: 04:23  #warthunder #japan #japanese #worldwar1 #worldwari #worldwarone #tsingtao #pacificwar #chinawar #toreno

Transcript

00:00So, continuing our look at World War 1 tanks that I would like to see added to War Thunder,

00:04it's now time to take a look at some of the tanks used by Japan.

00:09So, Japan was involved in World War 1, but it was mainly involved in clearing German and

00:14Austro-Hungarian forces from the Pacific and China region, and these territories were given to Japan,

00:21including the Chinese region ones, which did annoy China at the time but there wasn't really

00:26much they could do about it. They did also send naval forces to the Mediterranean where they

00:31engaged German and Austro-Hungarian naval forces, but there was no large-scale deployment of troops

00:37to the Western Front. So, Japan missed out on the initial development of tanks. So, when it

00:43first started to build up its tank forces, it had to use imported models from the Allied Nations.

00:50The first of these tanks that Japan received was a single British Mark 4 female heavy tank,

00:56and this arrived in October 1918, so before the war ended. But as you might tell from the female

01:01designation, this means it was only armed with machine guns. So, it had five 7.7mm machine guns

01:08rather than the two 57mm cannons of male variants. Meanwhile, as a heavy tank, it does weigh 28 tons,

01:16meaning it has a slow top speed of 3.7mph or 5.9kmh, armour ranges from about 12-6mm,

01:24and it has a crew of 8. Of course, in-game, this tank would have to be a 0.0 tank due to

01:31its machine gun armament. While in real life, Japan, like pretty much every nation,

01:36was more interested in smaller, cheaper and lighter tanks. So, for future orders,

01:41Japan ordered the British Whippet tank, French Renault FT-17s and Italian Fiat 3000s.

01:48So, starting with the British Whippet tank, Japan received six of these in 1919,

01:53and this was a much lighter tank than the Mark 4 at only 14 tons, though still a bit on the

01:59heavier side compared to the French Renault FT-17. But it had a faster top speed of 8.3mph or 14kmh,

02:07so more than double that of the Mark 4's top speed. Unfortunately, like with the Mark 4,

02:12it is still only armed with machine guns, four of these being mounted at various points in the

02:18superstructure at the rear of the tank, which again limits the effectiveness of this vehicle

02:22when going against enemy tanks, while the armour ranges from about 6-14mm and a crew of 3 operated

02:30the tank. Like with the Mark 4, this would again be a 0.0 tank on account of the armament,

02:35but with its faster speed, it will be a much better choice for getting around the battlefield,

02:40capping points and flanking enemies from unexpected quarters,

02:44where armour-piercing bullets might have a chance of getting through their thin

02:47side and rear armour. In real life, the Whippets were mainly used for training purposes,

02:53though two were sent to Vladivostok as part of the Japanese contingent during the Allied

02:57interventions in the Russian Civil War. The next tanks to arrive in 1919 were 13

03:04French Renault FT-17s, or FT-Co in Japanese service, with these being armed with either

03:10an 8mm Japanese machine gun, or the French 37mm cannons in a rotating turret. So already,

03:18this is a massive jump up in combat effectiveness compared to the Mark 4 and Whippet tanks,

03:22because of course we have the turret and we now have some actual decent anti-tank weapons.

03:28These were also much lighter at only 6.5 tonnes, though unfortunately they're still very slow,

03:34with a top speed of 4.3mph or 7kmh, while the armour maxes out at around 22mm and a crew of

03:42two operates the tank. The machine gun-armed variants would again be 0.0 tanks, but the 37mm

03:49gun variants could probably go at 0.3 on account of having an actual non-machine gun armament,

03:55while the decent armour will work in your favour, though you might be a little bit let

03:59down by the slow speed and the fact it only has a two-man crew. Again, in real life these

04:05would be used mostly for training uses, but some of these would see combat during the Mukden

04:10incident, while Chinese FT-17s would also be captured by Japan, though by the 1930s these

04:16were relegated purely to training uses due to the availability of more modern tanks.

04:22The last of the WW1 era tanks to be acquired was an Italian Fiat 3000, this being an Italian

04:29design which was derived from the French Renault FT-17, with the main differences being its smaller

04:35size and lower weight, weighing in at only 5.5 tonnes, and it is also much faster at 13mph or

04:4221kmh, though again the main armament is still only two 6.5mm machine guns in the turret,

04:50with the tank itself manned by two crew, and having a maximum armour of 16mm for the front.

04:57Again, this would be a 0.0 tank, but it would also be the fastest WW1 tank available to the

05:02Japanese, so again like the Whippet this would be a much better suited tank to fast strikes

05:07against enemies and their flanks. In real life only one Fiat 3000 was ordered for testing,

05:14though some sources suggest more were possibly captured in Japan, but I haven't been able to

05:18verify the accuracy of these sources. So unfortunately that is it for the WW1

05:24tanks that were used by Japan, though of course Japan would go on to develop many of its own

05:29tanks in the interwar period, but I'd be interested to hear your views on the tanks covered in this

05:34episode, as well as any other tanks you'd like me to cover, I look forward to reading your comments

05:39below. So anyway that was just a quick episode, hopefully you've enjoyed it, hopefully you'll

05:43join me for the next one, I've been Toreno and I'll see you next time.

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