What makes a person a person? Mainly upbringing - culture is not inherited. That is, something, some abilities, inclinations, habits even - are transmitted. But not a social person in general. In England, one of the universities conducted an experiment: students entered the room one by one and had to put a vase of flowers on the piano. Everyone put it in the middle. A Japanese student came in and put it on the edge. It was also repeated in Japan and with the same result, only the proportion was reversed. That is, we are brought up in love for symmetry, they are for asymmetry. But what about the technology then? What to look for? And how did this, say, affect the creation of new types of weapons?
A carbine based on the Arisaka Type 38 rifle.
Well, with regard to weapons, the same Japanese at first were like this - as soon as the modernization of the Western model began in the country, the Japanese military chose a Remington rifle with a crane shutter. She seemed more comfortable to them than the others. But already in the 1880 year of the XIX century, through the efforts of Major Tsuniyoshi Murata, Japan received a rifle of his 11-mm caliber system for flange cartridges with black powder. The rifle itself was a hybrid of the French Gras rifle and the Dutch Beaumont rifle, which received the designation "Type 13". This was followed by the improved Type 18 and, finally, in 1889, the Type 22, 8-mm caliber with an eight-round magazine under the barrel of the Kropachek system - that is, again, the French Lebel was taken as the basis. With this rifle, Japanese soldiers defeated the Chinese army in the Sino-Japanese War, but it turned out that the rifle has many shortcomings, so to speak, of "foreign" origin. Like all rifles with an underbarrel magazine, it had a variable balance. In addition, the height of the Japanese soldier did not exceed 157 cm, and the weight was 48 kg, that is, they almost universally suffered from dystrophy, which means that it was much more difficult for him to fight this phenomenon than for Europeans. In addition, the recoil when fired was simply excessive for them, and the rifle itself was too heavy. Of course, you could get the recruits to eat a lot of meat and build muscle with dumbbells, and the Navy did just that. But in the army, it was much more difficult to do this, so the new head of the rifle department of the Tokyo arsenal, Colonel Naryakira Arisaka (he replaced Murat in this post, who had already become a major general) decided to reduce the caliber of the future rifle to 6.5 mm. Again, they turned to the experience of Europe and found out that the Italian 6, 5-mm cartridge from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was the smallest and weakest in terms of recoil. It contained only 2, 28 g of Solemite smokeless powder, which made it possible to accelerate its 10, 45-gram (with a barrel length of 780 mm) to a speed of 710 m / s.
Rifle Arisaka "Type 30".
Arisaka considered that this cartridge could be even weaker, and placed only 2.04 g of nitrocellulose flaky powder in it. The sleeve had a length of 50.7 mm, which made it possible to designate its parameter as 6.5 × 50, and as 6.5 × 51 mm.
Bayonet for the Arisaka Type 30 rifle. The rifle itself was fired without a bayonet.
At that time, many masters of arms business with foam at the mouth proved to each other some of the advantages of a sleeve with a flange (flange), others with an annular groove. Arisaka did not choose, but provided his cartridge at the same time with a rim, albeit small, only slightly larger in diameter than the sleeve itself, and a groove. The concepts of "big-small" are extensible, so it makes sense to give data for comparison: the flange of the Arisak cartridge protruded by 0.315 mm, while the Mosin rifle by 1.055 mm. The bullet was traditionally blunt, had a cupronickel shell and a lead core. The speed she developed at the exit from the 800-mm barrel was 725 m / s. The gunpowder from the sleeve with such a barrel length burned out entirely, so there was practically no muzzle flame when fired, and its sound was low. This is how the Type 30 rifle of the 1897 model appeared, with which Japanese soldiers entered the war with Russia. And immediately after its completion, namely in 1906, a new Type 38 rifle was adopted, improved by its experience.
On the left is a cartridge for the Mosin rifle, on the right is a cartridge for the Arisaka rifle.
The bolt for the Type 38 rifle.
In that 1906, simultaneously with the Arisaka Type 38 rifle, a new cartridge was adopted by the imperial Japanese army, now not with a blunt-pointed, but with a sharpened bullet weighing 8, 9 g and with a cylindrical bottom part. This bullet had a thickened shell in the head part, but since cupronickel compared to lead had a lower density, the center of gravity of such a bullet shifted back, which positively affected its stability on the trajectory and at the same time increased its armor-piercing properties. In 1942, the cupronickel shell of the bullet was replaced with a bimetallic one - Japan had serious problems with raw materials. A charge of smokeless powder weighing 2, 15 g made it possible to develop a pressure in the bore of up to 3200 kg / m2 and accelerate the bullet to 760 m / s. Cartridges were produced with a tracer bullet (which was denoted by green varnish), with an armor-piercing (black varnish), with a bullet with a steel core (brown varnish).
Sights for the Type 38 rifle.
Sights and the emblem of the manufacturer's arsenal.
But this is something that no other rifle in the world had: a receiver cover that opened it simultaneously with the movement of the shutter. That is, neither dirt nor sand, which fell on the heads of the soldiers when the shells exploded, could not get into the mechanism.
The shutter is closed.
Open shutter. The cartridge feeder is clearly visible from the store.
For light machine guns, special cartridges were made with a charge of gunpowder reduced to 1.9 g, which helped the Japanese machine gunners carry a large supply of cartridges. Cartridges with a smaller charge did not differ from the usual ones, but they had a special identification mark on the box. Accordingly, for training shooting, a cartridge was used that had a short and light cylindrical bullet, with a tompak jacket and an aluminum core. For blank firing, cartridges were used in which the bullet was twisted from paper, and the same machine-gun cartridge had a bullet made of wood. In addition, special cartridges were used for throwing grenades from grenade launchers attached to the barrel. The magazine of the Japanese rifle also contained five rounds, as in the Russian one.
The shutter handle is up. The shutter is open together with the lid.
] The shutter is open, the sight is raised.
During the First World War, the release of "Japanese cartridges" was organized not only in Japan itself, but also in England, where it was produced under the designation 6, 5x51SR and exported to Russia, which purchased Arisaka rifles from Japan. The world's first Fedorov assault rifle was also made for it.
In 1915-1916. "Type 38" cartridges were also produced in Russia at the St. Petersburg Cartridge Plant, 200 thousand pieces per month. Of course, this was not enough, but it was better than nothing.
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Once again, a large image of the emblem on the trunk. Well, the Japanese loved the image of a multi-petaled chrysanthemum, it was not without reason that it was the emblem of the emperor himself.
So, what was the Arisaka Type 38 rifle of the 1905 model? Its bolt is designed on the basis of the bolt of the German Mauser 98 rifle, but the Japanese managed to make it more technologically advanced, so that according to this indicator the Japanese rifle corresponds to the American springfield M1903. The rifle, despite the reduced caliber, turned out to be quite powerful. Moreover, from the experience of the war, it was concluded that its bullets have both a good penetrating and lethal effect. Due to the lower weight of the cartridges, the Japanese soldier could take more of them than the soldiers of other armies. In addition, the 6, 5 × 50 mm Arisaka cartridge had a reduced recoil impulse, which had a positive effect on the firing accuracy. True, Russian newspapers after the war wrote that “our gun is stronger than the Japanese one,” however, the concept of “stronger” does not mean more lethal, but according to this indicator, as it was determined by doctors who studied wounds in hospitals, both rifles were almost identical. The Japanese cartridge was also more convenient. Thanks to the small welt, it was fixed in the chamber along the breech cut of the barrel, which required smaller manufacturing tolerances for both barrels and cartridges, which is especially beneficial in conditions of total war. But at the same time, the small welt did not interfere with the location of the cartridges in the store, as well as their ramming into the barrel.
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Fly with front sight (1).
Fly with a fly (2)
The handle, located at the rear of the bolt, made it possible to reload the rifle without lifting the butt off the shoulder, so that the target was not lost from sight. The store hidden inside the box was well protected from mechanical stress and deformation. The rate of fire was 20 rounds per minute, that is, it was more than sufficient.
Purely subjectively, the rifle seemed convenient and light to me, although its weight was 4, 12 kg. However, there was no feeling that a heavy iron "drill" was given to your hands, which immediately pulled them back. It was easy to carry it with a grip in the area of the magazine and the bolt, that is, in the very center of gravity, and also aim it at the target. The semi-pistol neck of the buttstock has a very comfortable shape and makes it possible to securely fix the rifle in the hands when aiming. It was alleged that the bolt cover was knocking loudly, unmasking the fighter, and that the Japanese soldiers even removed it because of this. Yes, it clicks slightly, but not louder than the jerked shutter itself, but the advantages of this solution are undeniable. Of course, it would be desirable to shoot from it, but what is not, that is not there! True, I cannot help but note that of all the rifles described here earlier (except for the Martini-Henry!), This one turned out to be the most "applied", and the worst in this indicator was the Mannlicher-Carcano carbine.
In 1914, Colonel of the Russian Imperial Army V. G. Fedorov carried out a full cycle of tests of the Japanese Type 38 rifle, which showed that it was very rationally designed, that is, all the best was really taken from different types of weapons. Further, in his review of the rifle, he noted that, although it has excessive accuracy rates (that's how it is!), Its production is cheaper than Mosin's rifles. Logically, after that, it would seem that our caliber should have been replaced with a Japanese one and a Japanese rifle and Japanese cartridges should have been adopted, but it is clear that during the war it would have been impossible to do this, and after the 6, 5-mm caliber we “went”, It again occurred to our new military men that“our gun is stronger than the Japanese one”and to convince them of V. G. Fedorov did not succeed! However, subsequent events in the world of weapons showed that reducing the caliber is a necessary thing, so the Japanese in the right trend, as they say now, were, it turns out, more than 100 years ago!
