For some unknown reason, I really, and I would like to believe that I am not alone, like all kinds of "perversions" in firearms. Recently, something really new and bold has not been encountered, since everyone is trying to justify their developments financially and the profit is calculated even before the first sketch of the weapon appears. Previously, everything was different, before the designers looked for, created, even if they knew in advance that their development would never go into mass production and would remain only a prototype. However, there are exceptions to the rules, which, despite their obvious shortcomings and unusual design, nevertheless went into mass production and took their place in the armament of the army or police. I propose to get acquainted with one of such bold samples in this article. It will be about the Japanese machine gun developed by Kijiro Nambu, known for its pistols, namely the Type 11 machine gun.
In general, there is nothing surprising that this machine gun was put into service, despite the fact that it had enough shortcomings. Firstly, it is difficult to argue with yourself, when you yourself develop weapons and in fact decide whether it will go into production or not, and secondly, Japan really needed a machine gun of its own design, since the cost of buying such a weapon from someone were very great. In addition, do not forget that Japan is a country of people with imperial manners, which does not fit in with the fact that the country does not even have its own weapons. In general, since there were few gunsmiths in the country, there was not much choice, although it was possible to simply produce weapons under a license, but pride, apparently, did not allow it.
One way or another, but Kijiro Nambu developed his own weapon, while setting himself the task of lightening weapons and ammunition to the maximum. The designer coped with the task, but the implementation of the plan, in my opinion, was lame. The Type 11 machine gun did not feed from the store, did not have a feed belt, but received ammunition from the clips. It all worked as follows. A receiver for loaded clips was installed on the machine gun, in which ammunition was packed. In one clip, 5 cartridges were placed, they were stacked on top of each other in an amount of 6 pieces, that is, a total of 30 cartridges were obtained. The mechanism for supplying ammunition to the machine gun was of the following design. A new cartridge was fed from the lower clip with the help of a toothed part connected to the bolt of the weapon after each shot, which pushed the spent cartridge case and took its place. Accordingly, the remaining cartridges in the clip shifted. When there was no ammunition left in the lower magazine and there was nothing to feed, the empty magazine was thrown down through the slot in the ammunition box. Ejection of an empty clip was carried out by the action of the lid of the ammunition box, which was spring-loaded by a very stiff spring. So, the lid pressed on the upper row of cartridges in the cage, respectively, under these pressures, the lower empty cage was ejected, and the next one with cartridges took its place. What were the advantages of this? The weight of the ammunition carried by the crew was reduced, the equipment of the clips was simplified. There were many more cons. First of all, the main drawback was the low rate of fire equal to 400-500 rounds per minute, since at higher speeds, the casings were deformed during feeding, which led to refusals when sending a cartridge into the chamber. not a positive feature. In addition, to ensure the normal operation of the ammunition supply system, the cartridges had to be lubricated, and dust, sand and other delights of the field conditions sat on this lubricant very well, which led to weapon failures, and also increased the wear of the machine gun. Among other things, the spring of the cover that pushed the ammunition down was very stiff, which literally deprived the fingers of inattentive loaders, let me remind you that everything was in grease.
Actually, for the last reason, such weapons did not appear with us. Domestic designers managed to make a similar machine gun with a similar ammunition supply system, expanding the number of simultaneously equipped clips and their capacity, however, during the tests of this weapon, one of the commission members clearly demonstrated why we do not need such a sample. Putting the pencil on the edge of the ammunition box, he slammed the lid, which, thanks to a stiff spring, simply cut the pencil, with the loader's fingers it would have been the same. Well, such wounds on the battlefield were simply not necessary.
Weapon automation does not stand out as the cartridge supply system. The machine gun is built according to an automation system with the removal of powder gases from the barrel of the weapon with a long piston stroke. An interesting point was that the weapon was never adapted to the rifle cartridge of Nambu's teacher and predecessor, Arisaka. The cartridge case had to be reduced, and the powder charge was reduced accordingly. Thus, in addition to the new machine gun, the industry also had to master new ammunition.
Separately, it is worth paying attention to the appearance of the weapon, in particular to the butt, which is attached under the receiver behind the trigger. This butt is made so for a reason, it houses a set of tools for servicing the weapon, and the shape of the butt itself gives the sample its own special appearance, due to which the weapon cannot be confused with anything else. It is difficult to say how comfortable the machine gun is when firing, but having estimated the angles of the handle and the location of the butt, it can be assumed that the weapon is quite acceptable in terms of ergonomics. Air cooling of the barrel of the machine gun, the length of the weapon itself is 1100 millimeters. The machine gun proved to be quite good for firing at distances of up to one and a half kilometers, which is explained by the short barrel and weakened ammunition. The weight of the weapon was 10, 7 kilograms unloaded.
Despite the fact that this weapon had many shortcomings, this machine gun was in service with the Japanese army until the end of World War II. The power supply system of the machine gun interested many, but things did not go beyond the prototypes. In general, the weapon is interesting and even from a certain angle, cute, but the taste and color …
