"Arisaka" - a Japanese-made rifle (27 photos). Japanese rifles and carbines Japanese rifle type 99

	Arisaka Type 99 rifle

In 1938, the Arisaka rifle and carbine, converted to a 7.7 mm caliber cartridge, called M 92 (7.7x58), were transferred to the state department for testing small arms. This cartridge was designed for machine guns and was put into service in 1932.
Tests have shown that the M 92 cartridge is not suitable for Arisak repeating rifles and carbines. The recoil and the flames escaping from the barrel were too strong. In addition, there were problems with the supply of cartridges and the ejection of cartridges.

By May 1939, a new cartridge with a reinforced powder charge was designed, as well as a modified rifle based on the Arisaka rifle of the 1905 model, which had a caliber of 7.7 mm. In accordance with the system of reckoning from the date of the formation of the Japanese state, both the new cartridge and the rifle were named Arisaka Type 99 and immediately went into production.

	Complete disassembly of the Arisaka Type 99 rifle

Nevertheless, both the 6.5 mm Arisaka repeating rifle and the 1905 cartridges remained in service until the end of World War II and even some time after that.
In addition, there was a version of the Model 38 with a weaker powder charge and special ammunition for the Arisaka Type 97 repeating sniper rifle, as well as another type of 7.7 mm cartridge, similar to the English .303 Lee Enfield.
Such an unusually large number of types of cartridges, not only for rifles, but also for machine guns, as well as for other types of domestic and imported small arms, created many problems in production and supply. Old cartridges remained in circulation along with new ones, and for ordinary rifles alone, not to mention sniper rifles, there were at least five types of ammunition in two different calibers, which posed overwhelming challenges for the Japanese industry.
When Japan, after a long war with neighboring China, on December 7, 1941, also got involved in a second world war, attacking the American Pacific naval base of Pearl Harbor, then its reserves were completely exhausted after a few months. This concerned not only the production of small arms and the ammunition necessary for them. The situation in an already very underdeveloped industry became hopeless, especially in the metalworking industry.

	Rifle Arisaka Type 99 on a bipod with a regular bayonet-knife

Repeating rifle Arisaka Type 99, like its predecessor, was designed on the basis of the Mauser system with a cylindrical bolt and a built-in magazine for 5 rounds. The latter were inserted into the store in a clip. Although the modified rifle was, in principle, one of the oldest in the world by design, it, oddly enough, generally performed well during the war. If you do not take into account the typical flaws inherent in all Arisaka-type rifles, which were mainly caused by ammunition, then this rifle became the best regular weapon of the Japanese infantry.

The Arisaka Type 99 rifle differs from the Arisaka Model 1905 rifle in more than just the caliber. There are also differences in the design of the chamber, barrel, bolt and sight. The design of the fuse was improved, the rifle became not only shorter, but also lighter. A firing stop made of durable profiled wire is fixed under the barrel. It can recline, but in the unfolded position it is not fixed. Such an emphasis was provided for all rifles, but many were not installed.

The sight frame can take up a vertical position for shooting at low-flying air targets. There are two markings on the sight for anticipation when shooting. Marking on outside designed for passing targets, and on the inside - for targets moving in the direction of the shooter at an angle. Shooting at aircraft flying directly at the shooter is carried out in the usual way, by means of a rear sight and a front sight, and auxiliary markings are also applied on the side surfaces of the latter to take into account lead. However, the fire on the aircraft with rifles, as it turned out, was ineffective with rare exceptions.

Two versions of the Arisaka Type 99 rifle were produced: a long infantry rifle and a shortened one for cavalry, artillery and other special branches of the military. It should be emphasized that the shortened version is not a carbine. Already at the end of 1939, the production of a long rifle was discontinued in favor of a shortened version, which was to become a standard weapon for all branches of the military. However, this still did not help to satisfy all the needs of the army in weapons. Therefore, not a single old model was withdrawn from service.

	Arisaka type 99 rifle scope

Among other things, the Arisaka Type 99 rifle was produced in paratrooper and sniper versions. Shortly before the end of the war, the so-called reservist version of the Arisaka Type 99 rifle also appeared.
The sniper rifle, also called the 99, was developed in 1941, put into service in June 1942, and its industrial production began at the same time. It had the following technical data: total length 1115 mm, barrel length 662 mm, unloaded weight 4.42 kg. The rifle was equipped with a quadruple optical sight with a viewing angle of 7°. Sight graduation starts from a distance of 300 m. sniper rifle Arisaka Type 97, which was discontinued in mid-1942, the sight is placed on the left side. The rifle uses not special, but standard 7.7 mm caliber cartridges. Presumably, no more than 10 thousand of these sniper rifles were manufactured.
Another version of the Arisaka Type 99 rifle of the 1939 model was the landing rifle, which was disassembled into two parts. Perhaps it was designed already in 1940, but it entered the troops only a year later. Produced in small quantities.

	Arisaka Type 99 rifle, paratrooper variant

This rifle had a total length of 1120 mm, a barrel length of 657 mm and weighed 4.34 kg unloaded. The barrel and front part were attached to the body in a special way. True, this connection was fragile: it often became loose after a few shots.
A modernized sample of the landing rifle was presented in May 1943. The connection of both parts in it is already much stronger. The total length of this rifle is 1115 mm, the barrel length is 645 mm, the weight without cartridges is 4.05 kg.

In this regard, it is interesting that for the needs landing troops The Arisaka Meiji Type 38 carbine was also modified, designed for a 6.5 mm caliber cartridge. Its total length is 875 mm, barrel length 487 mm, unloaded weight 3.7 kg. At the point of attachment of the butt to the body, it has a hinge. There is evidence that the Arisaka Meiji Type 44 cavalry carbine, which was put into service in 1911, with a folding bayonet, was also converted into a landing version. Prototypes were made, but they did not go into mass production.

	Modernized sample of the Arisaka Type 99 landing rifle

Since December 1943, the production of the so-called Arisaka Type 99 reservist rifle of 7.7 mm caliber began. Its total length is 1115 mm, barrel length is 660 mm and weight is 3.8 kg. It is sometimes also referred to as the 99/2 or 99/3 model. These weapons, made of low quality materials, are similar to the rifles and carbines produced in Germany for the Volkssturm militias. A large number of such weapons were captured as trophies by American troops.
The build quality of all these rifles was extremely low. Welding seams and traces of metalworking tools are visible everywhere. Instead of an adjustable sight, a conventional rear sight was installed, the butt plate was made not of metal, but of plywood.
The Arisaka Type 99 repeating rifle and all its modifications were adopted as standard weapons. There is no data on the size of their deliveries to the troops. According to experts, at least 10 million Arisaka rifles were manufactured by the end of the war. This number includes rifles of all types since 1897, when the very first model was adopted.

In addition, Italian-made rifles were used in battles, and special versions of the 1905 Arisaka model of the year were used for testing.

This time I would like to tell you about one of the most beautiful cartridges of its time. Proportional, as if drawn, it really was quite good and left a big mark on our history. It will be about the 6.5x50 cartridge for Arisak rifles.

The Japanese, like many "hurried" rearmament, did not escape re-rearmament with the replacement of the cartridge. Moreover, the rifle of the Murata type 20 system (model 1887), which had a caliber of 8 mm, was at least no worse than the same Lebel, who fought in the First World War and had not undergone changes before.

But .. what is good for a European is not very good for a Japanese.
During the Meiji period, Japan made a breakthrough from a semi-colonial country, including in military affairs. The army, created according to Western standards (but also taking into account national characteristics), armed with fairly modern weapons, did not lag behind the armies of Europe and America. However, the anthropological features of the Japanese still had to be taken into account ... Back in the early 1880s, the Japanese began to intensively feed recruits with meat, the share of which in the traditional daily diet was relatively small. Undoubtedly, protein diet contributed to the growth of the soldier's endurance, but nevertheless, the "European" weapon systems were too heavy for the average soldier, and their recoil was difficult to bear.
This was one of the reasons for the quick replacement of the quite successful and relatively modern Murat rifle with a new "small" caliber weapon - 6.5 mm.

Experiments with a small caliber were conducted not only by the Japanese, but Italians and Austrians came to the same caliber (who sold licenses to the Romanians and the Dutch). But the Japanese went their own way, keeping up with the advanced "weapons" countries.
As a result, already in 1897, the Arisaka “type 30” rifle was adopted (i.e., the model adopted in the 30th year of the Meiji era).

The design of the rifle was very advanced for its time: structurally it resembled a German rifle mod. 1898 (Mauser).

The design of the store practically repeated the German weapons, the shutter was also very close to it. The rifle also received a clip-on loading similar to the same Mauser - a lamellar clip, with the shutter open, was installed in the grooves of the receiver, from where the cartridges were fed into the magazine with a finger movement.

One of the "chips" of that time was the use of segmental rifling in rifles, which somewhat reduced the friction of the bullet in the barrel and ensured a better entry of the bullet into the rifling.
But most interesting feature the rifle had a cartridge - the new 6.5 mm. ammunition with a sleeve length of 50 mm. A sleeve with a small welt and a groove, which made it possible to combine the advantages of welted sleeves (greater tolerances when processing the chamber due to fixation not with a sleeve slope, but with a welt) and bezelless (compact magazine design and no risk of engagement of cartridges with welts when feeding).
The described cartridges had a blunt bullet weighing 10.4 g and a charge of smokeless powder weighing 2 g and a muzzle velocity of 730 m/s.

This was more than 100 m / s higher than the initial speed of all 7-8 mm caliber cartridges before the adoption of pointed bullets. Together with a solid transverse load, this gave a huge gain in flatness, increasing the range of a direct shot by at least a third. In fact, such ballistics in cartridges of "normal" caliber could only be achieved ten years later ...
During the Russo-Japanese War, when analyzing the nature of wounds, it was found that wounds from 6.5-mm bullets of Japanese rifle cartridges heal faster than wounds from 10.67-mm bullets from the Berdan No. 2 rifle, however, in general, they practically do not differ from wounds produced by a 7.62-mm bullet of a Russian rifle cartridge.
Japanese rifles were superior in accuracy to Russian weapons, but the difficult conditions of Manchuria revealed the shortcomings of the weapon itself - the rifle suffered from dusting, however, like other weapons. In the future, already on the fronts of the First World War, in the Russian trenches, this rifle did not cause any particular complaints.
However, even then it was discovered that the Japanese bullets lag behind the Russians in terms of penetration and at long ranges have insufficient energy due to its faster loss.
However, pedantic Japanese, already 8 years after the adoption of the type 30 rifle, adopted its modification - type 38.

Arisaka type 38 carbine. The bolt cover and the trigger in the form of a cylindrical cap are visible.

This weapon, basically repeating the prototype, received an anti-dust shutter cover that moved along with the reloading handle, trigger new form and a slightly improved shutter.
Soon a new cartridge was adopted - with a pointed bullet.

The case is quite rare, since the excellent ballistics of 6.5 mm cartridges were considered sufficient even against the background of new cartridges with a pointed bullet, and most states did not accept new small-caliber bullets for service.
These cartridges had a pointed bullet weighing 9 g with a powder weight of 2.5 g and an muzzle velocity of 770 m/s. It is easy to understand that the increase in the speed of the new bullet had a purely positive effect on the combat qualities of the cartridge, allowing it to provide excellent flatness with moderate recoil. It is noteworthy that the bullet was equal in mass to the Russian bullet of the 1908 model, that is, it had a large transverse load.

The long bullets of the old and new "arisaki" in terms of terminal ballistics were in no way inferior to their large-caliber counterparts, and when they met dense bones, they often simply collapsed or went somersaulting, inflicting severe injuries.

The Japanese rifle was quite good, so much so that in 1910 Japan received its first foreign order for 40,000 rifles from Mexico. True, the Mexicans preferred to order rifles with a cartridge already in their arsenal, the 7-mm "Spanish Mauser". The difficult political situation in Mexico, however, did not allow the order to be fulfilled: after the delivery of 5,000 rifles, the contract was canceled. These rifles were acquired by Great Britain in 1914, since with the outbreak of the First World War, the need for weapons forced the fleet rifles to be transferred to the army, and the infrequently shooting fleet to equip the fleet with what they managed to get.
The same war became the "finest hour" of Arisaka rifles. Experiencing a severe "rifle hunger" the Russian army demanded rifles already, literally "for yesterday", and therefore, along with placing orders for the production of new rifles, an opportunity was sought to purchase existing ones.
Already in 1914 V.G. Fedorov conducted a full cycle of tests of the Arisaka rifle and was convinced of the safety, rationality and thoughtfulness of the design of this weapon. He carried out strength tests of the weapon and determined the pressure developed by the cartridge at the time of the shot (less than 3500 atm.) Fedorov noted that, despite the excessive accuracy indicators, the rifle is cheaper than the Mosin rifle.
Commission chaired by the same V.G. Fedorov, an agreement was reached on the purchase of old type 30 rifles for the army and, later, newer type 38 rifles, as well as carbines based on them. Nearly 600,000 rifles ended up in Russia, where, along with the Mosin rifle and captured Mannlichers, they became in the top three in terms of quantity. Rifles were used almost everywhere at the front, especially on the Northern Front, where the Arisaki had entire divisions. Yes, and in the South-Western Front, these rifles notably sang ...
Naturally, such a number of rifles with front-line ammunition consumption rates required a huge amount of ammunition. Part of the ammunition was supplied with the rifles, but this was not enough, and Russia placed orders for the cartridges in both Japan and the UK. Loans were attracted, generously paid in gold, but at first the British from the Kaynok company were forced to make cartridges with an old-style bullet and even without clips, the stamping of which had not yet been established. The Russians went for this, despite the obvious decrease in the combat capabilities of rifles ... In particular, orders for the supply of Arisaka cartridges were literally huge: 660 million Japanese 6.5-mm rifle cartridges were ordered with the funds of the British loan, and another 124 with the funds of the Japanese loan million rounds.
British cartridges were marked with the letter "K" on the bottom, so it is impossible to confuse them with Japanese ones. Japanese cartridges did not bear markings on the sleeve at all, and the bottom had only two deep marks from the punching, which attached the slightly old-fashioned "convex" primer.

The data about the cartridge was contained only on the capping of the cartridges, the cartridges were supplied equipped in clips of 5 pieces, 2 clips in a cardboard box. The only exception is the Kaynok cartridges produced in 1915, which at first went without clips.
Rifles and cartridges fought not only in the WWI, but also in the Civil War, and, having dispersed over the fragments of the former Empire, they served in various armies after the war. Part of the rifles became sawn-off shotguns, they are still found ... And the Arisaki that got into the warehouses were used for training, for example, by OSOAVIAKHIM. Instructions were even republished for them in the 1920s and 1930s.
Rumor has it that part of the “Russian Arisaks” was transferred to Spain, where they fought against the Francoists: by 1941, there were already few of them in the RAO warehouses, because if there were more of them, there would be something to arm the militias. One way or another, part of the rifles nevertheless shot at the Germans already in the second war of this century ...

However, the cartridge not only fought on the fronts of the First World War as a rifle. He, by virtue of excellent ballistics and successful design, became a cartridge for the first serial self-loading rifle of the Russian Empire - the Fedorov assault rifle.
The automation system used by Fedorov was based on the use of a short barrel stroke with locking by a vertically moving wedge (or rather, a pair of wedges).

V.G. Fedorov, having studied the situation, realized that the future of the infantryman's personal weapon was for reduced-caliber cartridges. The use of such cartridges made it possible to lighten the weapon, and increase the ammunition load, and reduce the fatigue of the shooter: the strong recoil of the rifle cartridge made frequent shooting uncomfortable and inaccurate, and the increase in the mass of the weapon, solving the problem of recoil, lay a burden on the shooter.
Before WWI, Fedorov developed a very promising cartridge - 6.5x57.

This cartridge made it possible to disperse a pointed bullet weighing 9 grams to 660 m / s and obtain a muzzle energy of 1960 J. This is only slightly less than the muzzle energy of the 7.62x39 cartridge, and the ballistics of both cartridges are quite close, which gave rise to many researchers to name Fedorov's cartridge the first ever intermediate cartridge.
However, structurally, the cartridge was closer to rifle cartridges, both in size and design, however, against the background of the cartridge for the Mosin rifle, the Fedorov cartridge really looked weakened.
The assault rifles went through an almost complete test cycle, but the outbreak of the war put an end to the Fedorov cartridge: the restructuring of the industry for the production of new ammunition was impossible due to the fact that the main task was to provide the army with the main rifle cartridge.
It would seem that the end was put on the machine: no cartridges, no weapons. But the massive purchase of Arisaka rifles and cartridges for them prompted Fedorov to think about reworking the machine gun for a Japanese cartridge, which is very close in design to the original Fedorov one.

The machine gun was produced in a small series, in fact, it passed military tests on the Romanian front, and although it received a lot of flattering reviews, the industry did not have the resources for the mass production of these weapons. The problem should have been solved by a new plant in Kovrov, but by the revolution of 1917 the plant had not been brought to its design capacity.
Nevertheless, the production of the Fedorov assault rifle under the Japanese patron began after the October Revolution, and in the 1920s the assault rifle entered the troops. Moreover, light machine guns and tank machine guns were produced on its basis, which to some extent predetermined the appearance of light machine guns based on the design of assault rifles / machine guns.
However, during the general revision and modernization of weapons in the 30s, it was decided to abandon the second cartridge for economic and logistical reasons. In addition, Simonov and Tokarev were actively working on "regular" caliber rifles, and this work was considered promising. As a result, Fedorov's machine guns and machine guns ended up in warehouses, and were removed from there only during the days of the Soviet-Finnish war, when a catastrophic shortage of light automatic weapons was discovered. Machine guns were received by specially formed detachments of skiers and scouts, and they were used quite effectively.
However, the assault rifle did not survive the renaissance, since during the 1936-40s they began to enter service automatic rifles Simonov and Tokarev's reloading rifles. However, the same problem of excessive rifle cartridge recoil made automatic firing from the ABC-36 practically useless. And, nevertheless, in the first year of the Second World War, when the shortage of light machine guns became critical, the SVT-40 was already “forced” to shoot in bursts, however, with the same success. But the economy put pressure on everyone: they came to the need for a “second cartridge” already on the basis of the experience of the war, and returned to a reduced caliber already in the 60s ...

At the same time, patron Arisaka lived in his homeland for at least interesting life, having fought almost until the end of World War II - the Japanese did not finally switch to the new 7.7x58 cartridge, although they began this process back in the 30s.
The reason for switching to a normal caliber cartridge was the same as in other countries: the use of 6.5mm cartridges with conventional bullets covered almost all the tasks of a shooter armed with a rifle. However, machine guns, firing at ranges up to 3,000 meters, and often cartridges with special bullets, became the main consumer of cartridges.
At long ranges, prohibitive for rifles but quite working for an easel machine gun, bullets of 6.5 mm cartridges lost in kinetic energy to bullets of 7-8 mm caliber. The penetrating power of the bullets was also insufficient, and an attempt to create special bullets (tracer, armor-piercing) ran into the impossibility of “packing” an effective filling into a small bullet. For example, if a fairly heavy armor-piercing core of 6 mm diameter was placed in a 7-8 mm bullet, then the core diameter of a 6.5 mm bullet rarely exceeded 4.5 mm. Naturally, due to the small mass and caliber, it was practically ineffective. This is what determined the exit from the arena of small-caliber rifle cartridges.
However, despite the fact that in 1939 the production of type 99 rifles under the new 7.7 mm cartridge began, a huge number of rounds and machine guns under the 6.5 mm cartridge did not go away. The cartridge continued to be produced until 1945, and then the Arisaki fought in new wars in Southeast Asia.

The modifications of the cartridge of the 1920-30s are interesting, because the Japanese were original here too. However, what could be more original than machine guns, which were loaded with rifle clips, laid down, literally, in a pile ?! But not only that, the apparent versatility was sacrificed - the cartridges had to be weakened. Unique case!
The characteristics of the pointed cartridge remained unchanged until 1922, when the Type 11 light machine gun was adopted. This machine gun originally used standard five-round clips from an infantry rifle with blunt bullets. Accordingly, when using new cartridges, it turned out that they lead to rapid wear of parts and machine gun breakdowns, since new cartridges develop more high pressure in the bore, which ultimately affects the operation of automation. This problem was solved by the release of a special series of cartridges with a reduced weight of gunpowder. On the packaging of these cartridges there was a special stamp with the Latin letter "G" (Genso (jap. 減少) - reduced, depleted). Such cartridges were also issued to soldiers with a Type 96 light machine gun and snipers with a Type 97 rifle. The advantage of using these cartridges by snipers was lower recoil (which did not tire the shooter) and a weak muzzle flash when fired (which made it difficult to detect a sniper when fired).
There were also cartridges with wooden or paper bullets, training cartridges (brass or wood with a red lacquer coating and a metal bottom) mock-up cartridges were produced. The cartridges used when fired from a rifle grenade launcher had paper bullets and can be identified by the reinforced fastening of primers (so that they do not fly out of the sleeve with increased pressure in the barrel).

One way or another, "Arisaka" and the cartridge for it became a kind of weapon legend both in Asia and on the territory of the former Russian Empire. By the will of fate, the patron fought both in the North and in the humid Asian jungle, invariably doing his job well. Yes, and still "sharp" and "blunt" cartridges of Arisak are a frequent find in the former positions of the First World War.

During the war in Manchuria, as well as during the Russian-Japanese campaign, Japanese rifles had many shortcomings, the main ones being:

Susceptibility to dusting of the shutter mechanism, which entailed frequent breakdown and the need, sometimes right during the battle, to disassemble and clean the entire system.

Assembling and disassembling the rifle itself was a rather difficult task, especially in combat conditions.
Sights often strayed, and sometimes completely deformed.
Taking into account the military experience of recent years, the Arisaka rifle of the 1906 model with a longitudinally sliding bolt and a 5-round magazine was adopted by Imperial Japan. In its design, all the shortcomings of previous models were taken into account and the necessary changes were made.
Home distinctive feature This rifle was a movable bolt cover, which moved along with the bolt itself. This decision made it possible to enhance the quality of protection of the shutter mechanism from environmental contaminants such as dirt, dust, water, and so on. However, she and often the fighters removed it.
One of the main advantages of this weapon was its cheapness (the cost of one rifle was within 30 rubles, while the Mosin rifle cost from 40 rubles and more), as well as ease of production. But, despite this, the rifle was distinguished by a rather high power, although the bullet was relatively small, only 8.9 grams and a caliber of 6.5 by 50 mm., While the same Mosin rifle, the bullet weighed as much as 13.6 g ., and had a caliber of 7.62 by 54mm.). Until 1942, the bullet was made from cupronickel, which has a lower density than lead, and this, in turn, made it possible to increase stability and bullets because its center of gravity shifted to the rear. But after the start of problems with raw materials, in 1942 the bullet was replaced with a bimetallic one. 2.15 grams of smokeless powder was placed in the sleeve, with the help of which, pressure was created in the barrel up to 3100 kilograms per m2, and the bullet flew out of the barrel reaching a speed of 750 km / h.
Walnut wood was used for the manufacture of the body and stock, but during the economic crisis of 1944-1945, even low-grade plywood was used. But despite this, more than 3 million samples of these weapons were produced. And in the hands of a soldier, this rifle was a truly formidable force. The rate of fire could reach as much as twenty shots per minute, and the range of aimed fire was up to two kilometers, although it was most effectively used at a distance of up to 500 meters.

Arisaka system rifle is one of the notable specimens. On her example, the excess power of the cartridges of classic rifles was indirectly proven, and under her cartridge, Vladimir Fedorov created The world's first machine . arisaka used not only by the Japanese. Finns, and Albanians, and even Russians used it - purchase Arisaki during the first world war, our government compensated for the shortage trilinear.

Arisakami, in particular, they armed the famous Latvian riflemen, who played a prominent role in the history of the revolution and the civil war.

Stocks of rifles arisaka used in Moscow battle to arm the militias. But I bought Arisaku not only Russia - it was used until 1921 by the British fleet. The Chinese had it in service even during Sino-Vietnamese War . Due to the high accuracy of the battle, it was used as a sniper.

However, let's start in order. The history of Japanese rifled small arms began in 1877, when the Japanese major Tsuniyoshi Murata arrived in France in order to purchase a batch of rifles of the system gra to suppress the outbreak in Japan Satsuma uprising Japanese samurai.
The choice of France was not accidental - in those years, European countries tried to preserve the backwardness of Japan, caused by long-term self-isolation, so that it remained only a market for colonial goods. Therefore, they refused to supply the Japanese with modern weapons. The only exception was France, which even during the Japanese Civil War Bosin senso (戊辰戦争, literally "War of the Year of the Dragon") supplied the shogun's army with the latest Shaspo rifles at the time. Returning to Tokyo, Murata offered to establish the production of namban guns in Japan itself. Namban, that is, southern barbarians, in Japan were called centuries from Europeans who sailed to Japan in the 16th-17th centuries from the south.
As a result of Murata's efforts, already in 1880, the Japanese imperial army received a Type 13 rifle, designated as such for the 13th year of the reign of the then emperor.
The rifle was a synthesis of constructive ideas embedded in the French rifle gra and a Dutch Beaumont rifle.

Murata rifle Type 13

Murata Type 13, created for an 11 mm metal cartridge with a sleeve length of 60 mm, had a 127.6 cm length with an 813 mm barrel length and weighed 4.09 kg. A 5.28 gram charge of smokeless powder propelled a 27.2 gram bullet at 437 m/s. Another modification of the cartridge with a 26-gram bullet provided a 455-meter muzzle velocity. There was also a carbine, the barrel of which had a 459 mm length. For him, a special cartridge was used with a lightweight 24-gram bullet fired at a speed of 400.2 m / s.

Murata Type 13 suffered from many childhood illnesses and, having experienced two improvements, eventually turned into a rifle by 1885 Murata Type 18.

Murata Type 18
The Japanese closely followed military innovations in civilized countries, and in 1889 they adopted a rifle Murata Type 22.

Murata Type 22

The rifle had a caliber of 8 mm and was equipped with an eight-round Kropachek underbarrel magazine.

The barrel length of the new rifle was 750 mm. From this barrel, a 15.9-gram bullet, ejected by a 2.4-gram charge of smokeless powder, flew out at a speed of 612 m / s. The carbine, which had a 500 mm barrel, had an muzzle velocity of 590 m/s.

A carbine based on the Murata Type 22 rifle

Test for Murata the Sino-Japanese War became, and although Japan emerged victorious from it, the joy of victory did not overshadow the identified shortcomings.
Murata Type 22 had all the shortcomings inherent in rifles with underbarrel magazines. Firstly, filling such a magazine took time and, having quickly shot the entire magazine, the shooter was forced to manually insert each cartridge individually, turning the rifle into a single-shot one. Secondly, as the cartridges were consumed, the center of gravity of the rifle shifted, which negatively affected accuracy. But a third problem emerged, which turned out to be characteristic of Japan. The fact is that the growth of the average Japanese conscript was only 157 centimeters, and the weight, as a rule, did not exceed 48 kilograms. The years of great change and the civil wars associated with them, which accounted for the birth and childhood of the soldiers of the 1890s, did their job - almost all of them suffered from dystrophy before the army, and Murata, created by European standards, turned out to be unbearable for many soldiers, and its return was irresistible.
That is why, when switching to a rifle with a middle magazine, the new head of the rifle department of the Tokyo Arsenal, Colonel Naryakira Arisaka(有坂成章), who replaced Major General in 1890 Muratu, decided to abandon the 8mm cartridge.
The weakest cartridge at that time was the Italian 6.5 mm cartridge from the Carcano rifle. It contained 2.28 g of Solemit grade smokeless powder. Such a charge made it possible to push a 10.45-gram bullet out of a 780-mm barrel at a speed of 710 m/s. True, there is evidence that sometimes this cartridge was equipped with 1.95 grams of ballistic nitroglycerin gunpowder, which made it possible to bring the initial speed to 745 m / s.

Arisaki cartridge with a blunt bullet

arisaka decided that the cartridge could be made even weaker, and poured only 2.04 g of nitrocellulose lamellar powder into it. At the same time, so that the gunpowder, when manipulating the cartridge, does not fall into its lower part, without contacting the primer, a cardboard wad was placed in the cartridge, which was subsequently abandoned. The sleeve had a length of 50.7 mm, which made it possible to designate its parameters as both 6.5 × 50 and 6.5 × 51 mm.
In those years, there was a serious dispute between gunsmiths about which case is better, with a flange or with a groove. Waiting for the end of this dispute, arisaka supplied the sleeve with both a groove and a flange. At the same time, the flange protruded beyond the dimensions of the cartridge by only 0.315 mm, while in our rifle this figure was 1.055 mm.
The primer nest of the sleeve had a central anvil and two seed holes. The brass primer of the Berdan type was usually with a convex surface. Occasionally, it was kerned with two radial strokes.
A blunt-headed bullet weighing 10.4 g with a spherical tip consisted of a lead core and cupronickel shell developed a speed equal to 725 m / s in a barrel of 800 mm length.
The long barrel length, combined with a small powder charge, led to an almost complete absence of a muzzle flash and a significant reduction in the sound of a shot.

The rifle, adopted in 1897, received the designation Infantry rifle Type 30(三八式歩兵銃) - the 30th year of the emperor's reign was in the courtyard Mutsuhito who ruled under the motto Meiji(明治) - enlightened government (mei 明 = light, knowledge; ji 治 = government).

Arisaka Type 30

in the trunk Arisaki there were six right-hand rifling, and along the outer surface of the barrel had a variable cylindrical section, decreasing towards the muzzle. In the back of it, a thread was cut, onto which the receiver was screwed with an interference fit. The latter belonged to the same type as the receiver of the Mauser rifle, but had one notable feature - a cover that moved along with the bolt.
On the rear jumper of the receiver there was a cranked cutout for placing the bolt handle, and on the left was a tide with windows for a slide delay with a reflector.
The bolt stem had three lugs, two of which were symmetrically located in front, and the third, additional, was the base of the handle. To lock the barrel bore, move the bolt forward and turn the stem handle to the right. Inside the stem of the bolt, there is a channel for placing a striker with a mainspring, passing in the front part into an opening for the exit of the striker. In the rear part of the stem, a helical cut is formed, which interacts with the cocking of the striker, and a nest for placing the cocking when the shutter is open.
The magazine box of a vertical-type rifle with a staggered arrangement of cartridges was filled with cartridges from a clip. when squeezing the cartridges out of the clip, the lower cartridge lay down on the plane of the feeder and, compressing its spring, jumped over the right edge of the lower receiver window. The second cartridge pressed on the first and, squeezing the feeder inside the magazine box, jumped over the left edge.
The fifth cartridge, having entered under the right edge of the receiver window, could not fall out, as it was pressed against the edge by the fourth cartridge.

When the shutter moves forward, the shutter stem of its bottom sent a cartridge into the chamber. The cartridge was guided by the slope of the sleeve along the oval bevels of the receiver. When locking the bore, the ejector hook jumped over the rim of the sleeve. The next cartridge, under the action of the feeder spring, rose up to the stop in the lower plane of the bolt stem, pressing against the left wall of the lower receiver window.

frame sight Arisaki consisted of an aiming block, which is integral with a tubular base, put on the barrel with an interference fit and, in addition, reinforced with a screw: an aiming frame; aiming frame springs and a clamp with a latch.
The aiming frame, connected to the sighting block with a pin, had three sighting slots, two of which were on the aiming frame itself, and the third on the movable collar. Divisions aiming ranges applied on the front side of the aiming frame in hundreds of meters.

Arisaka Type 38

The transition of some armies to cartridges with a pointed bullet did not go unnoticed by Arisaki, and in 1905, at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, a new cartridge of the 38th year of the Meiji era was adopted.

Arisaki cartridge with a pointed bullet. The green border means that the bullet is tracer.

External differences: Arisaka Type 30 on the left, Type 38 on the right

The rifle was converted to a cartridge with a pointed bullet, which had an 8.9 g mass. A charge of smokeless powder, increased to 2.15 g, developed a pressure in the bore of up to 3200 kg / m 2 and accelerated the bullet to 760 m / s. Improvements also touched the shutter and fuse. Now, to turn on the fuse, it was necessary to press the coupling from behind, turn it slightly to the right, and to turn it off, press and turn it to the left.

In addition to the infantry rifle, a carbine was also created, which was used in cavalry, artillery and sapper units. The length of its barrel was reduced to 480 mm.

Arisaka type 38 for three decades faithfully served the Japanese militarists. With its help they held our Far East in 1918-22. With its help, they occupied Manchuria and started a war with China with it.

Its latest development was the introduction sniper modification, which received the designation Type 38 - by that time two emperors had changed and a new chronology was introduced from the founding of Japan. Its starting point was 660 BC, when, according to legend, Emperor Jimmu founded the Japanese state. According to this calculation, 1938 was 2598, or simply 98. It was in this year that the sniper rifle was introduced.

However, next year Arisaku Type 38 waiting for a replacement. The fact is that in China, the Japanese encountered Chinese wedges (more precisely, English ones delivered to China), which had bulletproof armor. Bullet out Arisaki 7.7×58 mm. During development, the British cartridge .303 British was taken as a basis, but, firstly, it was deprived of a flange, and secondly, it was equipped with a 3.1-gram powder charge instead of a 2.58-gram one. The barrel length was shortened to 650 mm, and the 11.3-gram bullet flew out of it at a speed of 741 m / s. The rifle chambered for this cartridge was designated Type 99, and in memory of the deceased Arisaka, who died in 1915, she was finally officially named after him.
The shortening of the barrel made it possible to replace both long infantry rifles and carbines with one modification. In this form, Type 99 rifles were produced until 1945, their total production amounted to over three and a half million pieces. By the end of the war, Japan's resources had become seriously depleted, and the quality of Arisaka rifles, initially very high, had fallen sharply. The design of late-release rifles used low-grade steels, parts without heat treatment, so such rifles were often dangerous not only for the enemy, but also for the shooters themselves.

Arisaka Type 02

In 1942 at the base Arisaki Type 99 collapsible rifle was created Arisaka Type 02 designed to arm paratroopers. In it, the barrel was attached to the receiver with the help of a massive transverse wedge, which was inserted from the side through the forearm, below the bore. Often, these rifles were also equipped with a folding wire one-legged bipod under the forearm. All Arisaki equipped with a detachable blade-type bayonet, worn in a sheath. shot arisaka without a bayonet.

Japanese small arms of the Second World War period are little known outside of the Land of the Rising Sun itself, although many of these designs are extremely interesting, as they are an original mixture of peculiar national traditions formed under the influence of foreign designs.

By the beginning of the war, Japan came up as the most industrialized country in Asia. In those years, the Japanese arms industry, which was formed in 1870-1890, included both state arsenals and private arms firms. But the beginning of active hostilities in 1941 revealed a sharp lag in production volumes from the needs of the army and navy. It was decided to expand the production of weapons by connecting a number of civil engineering and metalworking firms to the military program. Speaking about the weapons production in Japan of that period, it is necessary to mention: the backlog technical base led to the fact that when in all industrialized countries they switched to new technologies in the manufacture of small arms (stamping of sheet steel parts, welding, etc.), the Japanese continued to use traditional processing methods on metal-cutting machines, which hindered the growth of output and influenced to its cost.

The experience of waging war in China and the battles at Lake Khasan forced the Japanese command to bring its concept of combat in line with the requirements of modern warfare. In October 1939, a new field manual for the Japanese army was adopted, which became the guide for the ground forces until the end of the war in 1945. It noted that the main type of hostilities is the offensive, which had the goal of "surrounding and destroying the enemy on the battlefield." The charter gave priority to the infantry over other branches of the military. For a more effective solution of tasks on the battlefield, its maximum saturation with automatic weapons was assumed.

In 1941, in service with the Japanese rifle division there were: rifles - 10369, bayonets - 16724 (some infantrymen were armed only with bayonets), light machine guns - 110, PTR-72. The cavalry brigades were armed with: carbines - 2134, sabers - 1857, light machine guns - 32, machine guns - 16, heavy machine guns - 8. This, perhaps, was enough for the war in China, but by that time it was clearly not enough to conduct active hostilities against the Allied forces, which many times surpassed the Japanese in saturation with automatic small arms.

One of the main miscalculations made during the war years by the Japanese military command can also be attributed to the fact that, having made the main bet on machine guns as essential tool infantry weapons, in time it could not appreciate the full significance for modern warfare of new types of small arms - submachine guns and self-loading rifles. The lost time, as well as the heavy losses of personnel in the infantry units, suffered by the Japanese in the battles for the islands in the Pacific theater of operations in 1942-1944 were caused precisely by the lack of much-needed infantry support weapons.

Speaking of Japanese weapons, it is necessary to dwell on its complicated notation in more detail. It usually consists of a two-digit number - according to recent years adoption of this model for service. The chronology in Japan began from 660 BC and was carried out according to the periods of the reign of emperors. Emperor Meiji ruled from 1868 to 1911, so the designation of the rifle "type 38" corresponds to the 1905 model. From 1912 to 1925, Emperor Taisho ruled, in accordance with this, the Type 3 easel machine gun is a model adopted by the Japanese army in 1914. Since 1926, the throne of the Land of the Rising Sun was taken by Emperor Hirohito. Under him, the name of small arms samples received a double interpretation. Thus, weapons adopted in 1926-1940 had a designation according to the last years of the common Japanese calendar, i.e. began in 2588 (1926). In 1940, in the 16th year of the Showa era (reign of Hirohito), the Japanese calendar turned 2600 years old, therefore, in order not to be associated with a multi-digit complex designation, it was decided to consider the year 2600 as 100, and when identifying weapons, to simplify, omit the number "10", leaving "0". So, the 1940 model submachine gun was called the "type 100", and the type 5 rifle became the 1944 model.

In Japan in those years, the development of small arms was led by the army weapons department, which subordinated all research institutes and institutions working on the creation of weapons. The designers tried to make the most of the achievements of Western countries in weapons, combined with the features of the national identity inherent in the Japanese. In developing new models of weapons, they sought to minimize their weight and size characteristics, first of all, the specific conditions of future theaters of military operations were taken into account. As confirmation of this, one can cite the fact that all Japanese machine guns developed in the 1920-1930s had an air-cooled barrel, enhanced by the use of multi-tiered transverse cooling ribs, since it was supposed to lead fighting in the waterless semi-desert spaces of China.

By the beginning of World War II, the armament of the Japanese army consisted of both outdated small arms, which were used mainly to arm the territorial units of the occupying forces on the continent and in the metropolis, and the latest models, which were mainly in service with the line units.

The Arisaka system rifle is one of the notable examples. On her example, the excess power of the cartridges of classic rifles was indirectly proven, and under her cartridge, Vladimir Fedorov created the world's first machine gun. Arisaka was used not only by the Japanese. Finns, and Albanians, and even Russians used it - the purchase of Arisaki in the First World War, our government compensated for the lack of three-rulers.

Arisaks, in particular, armed the famous Latvian riflemen, who played a prominent role in the history of the revolution and the civil war.

Stocks of Arisak rifles were used in the Battle of Moscow to arm the militias.

But not only Russia bought Arisaka - it was also used by the British fleet until 1921. The Chinese had it in service even during the Sino-Vietnamese War. Due to the high accuracy of the battle, it was used as a sniper.

However, let's start in order. The history of Japanese rifled small arms began in 1877, when the Japanese major Tsuniyoshi Murata arrived in France to purchase a batch of Gras rifles to suppress the Satsuma uprising of Japanese samurai that broke out in Japan.

The choice of France was not accidental - in those years, European countries tried to preserve the backwardness of Japan, caused by long-term self-isolation, so that it remained only a market for colonial goods. Therefore, they refused to supply the Japanese with modern weapons. The only exception was France, which, during the period of the Japanese civil war, Boshin senso (戊辰戦争, literally "War of the Year of the Dragon") supplied the latest Shaspo rifles to the shogun's army at that time. Returning to Tokyo, Murata offered to establish the production of namban guns in Japan itself. Namban, that is, southern barbarians, in Japan were called centuries from Europeans who sailed to Japan in the 16th-17th centuries from the south.

As a result of Murata's efforts, already in 1880, the Japanese imperial army received a Type 13 rifle, designated as such for the 13th year of the reign of the then emperor.

The rifle was a synthesis of design ideas incorporated into the French Gras rifle and the Dutch Beaumont rifle.

Murata Type 13, chambered for an 11 mm metal cartridge with a 60 mm case length, had a 127.6 cm length with an 813 mm barrel length and weighed 4.09 kg. A 5.28 gram charge of smokeless powder propelled a 27.2 gram bullet at 437 m/s. Another modification of the cartridge with a 26-gram bullet provided a 455-meter muzzle velocity. There was also a carbine, the barrel of which had a 459 mm length. For him, a special cartridge was used with a lightweight 24-gram bullet fired at a speed of 400.2 m / s.

The Murata Type 13 suffered from many childhood illnesses and, after two improvements, eventually developed into the Murata Type 18 rifle by 1885.

Murata Type 18

The Japanese closely followed military innovations in civilized countries, and in 1889 they adopted the Murata Type 22 rifle.

Murata Type 22

The rifle had a caliber of 8 mm and was equipped with an eight-round Kropachek underbarrel magazine.

The barrel length of the new rifle was 750 mm. From this barrel, a 15.9-gram bullet, ejected by a 2.4-gram charge of smokeless powder, flew out at a speed of 612 m / s. The carbine, which had a 500 mm barrel, had an muzzle velocity of 590 m/s.

Murata Type 22 carbine

A carbine based on the Murata Type 22 rifle

The test for Murata was the Sino-Japanese War, and although Japan emerged victorious from it, the joy of victory did not overshadow the identified shortcomings.

Murata Type 22 had all the shortcomings inherent in rifles with underbarrel magazines. Firstly, filling such a magazine took time and, having quickly shot the entire magazine, the shooter was forced to manually insert each cartridge individually, turning the rifle into a single-shot one. Secondly, as the cartridges were consumed, the center of gravity of the rifle shifted, which negatively affected accuracy. But a third problem emerged, which turned out to be characteristic of Japan. The fact is that the growth of the average Japanese conscript was only 157 centimeters, and the weight, as a rule, did not exceed 48 kilograms. The years of great changes and the civil wars associated with them, which accounted for the birth and childhood of the soldiers of the 1890s, did their job - almost all of them suffered from dystrophy before the army, and Murata, created by European standards, turned out to be unbearable for many soldiers, and her the payoff is irresistible.

That is why, when switching to a rifle with a middle magazine, the new head of the rifle department of the Tokyo Arsenal, Colonel Naryakira Arisaka (有坂 成章), who replaced Major General Murata in 1890, decided to abandon the 8-mm cartridge.

The weakest cartridge at that time was the Italian 6.5 mm cartridge from the Carcano rifle. It contained 2.28 g of Solemit grade smokeless powder. Such a charge made it possible to push a 10.45-gram bullet out of a 780-mm barrel at a speed of 710 m/s. True, there is evidence that sometimes this cartridge was equipped with 1.95 grams of ballistic nitroglycerin gunpowder, which made it possible to bring the initial speed to 745 m / s.

Arisaki cartridge with a blunt bullet

Arisaka decided that the cartridge could be made even weaker, and poured only 2.04 g of nitrocellulose flake powder into it. At the same time, so that the gunpowder during manipulations with the cartridge does not fall into its lower part, without contacting the primer, a cardboard wad was placed in the cartridge, which was subsequently abandoned. The sleeve had a length of 50.7 mm, which made it possible to designate its parameters as both 6.5 × 50 and 6.5 × 51 mm.

In those years, there was a serious dispute between gunsmiths about which case is better, with a flange or with a groove. Without waiting for the end of this dispute, Arisaka supplied the sleeve with both a groove and a flange. At the same time, the flange protruded beyond the dimensions of the cartridge by only 0.315 mm, while in our rifle this figure was 1.055 mm.

The primer nest of the sleeve had a central anvil and two seed holes. The brass primer of the Berdan type was usually with a convex surface. Occasionally, it was kerned with two radial strokes.

A blunt-headed bullet weighing 10.4 g with a spherical tip consisted of a lead core and cupronickel shell developed a speed equal to 725 m / s in a barrel of 800 mm length.

The long barrel length, combined with a small powder charge, led to an almost complete absence of a muzzle flash and a significant reduction in the sound of a shot.

The rifle, adopted in 1897, received the designation Type 30 Infantry Rifle (三八式歩兵銃) - in the yard was the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Mutsuhito, who ruled under the motto Meiji (明治) - enlightened rule (mei 明 = light, knowledge; ji 治 = rule).

Arisaka type 30

Disassembled si bolt: 1 - bolt stem, 2 - coupling, 3 - ejector, 4 - drummer, 5 - mainspring, 6 - receiver cover.

There were six right-hand rifling in the Arisaki barrel, and along the outer surface of the barrel it had a variable cylindrical section, decreasing towards the muzzle. In the back of it, a thread was cut, onto which the receiver was screwed with an interference fit. The latter belonged to the same type as the receiver of the Mauser rifle, but had one notable feature - a cover that moved along with the bolt.

On the rear jumper of the receiver there was a cranked cutout for placing the bolt handle, and on the left was a tide with windows for a slide delay with a reflector.

The bolt stem had three lugs, two of which were symmetrically located in front, and the third, additional, was the base of the handle. To lock the barrel bore, move the bolt forward and turn the stem handle to the right. Inside the stem of the bolt, there is a channel for placing a striker with a mainspring, passing in the front part into an opening for the exit of the striker. In the rear part of the stem, a helical cut is formed, which interacts with the cocking of the striker, and a nest for placing the cocking when the shutter is open.

The magazine box of a vertical-type rifle with a staggered arrangement of cartridges was filled with cartridges from a clip. when squeezing the cartridges out of the clip, the lower cartridge lay down on the plane of the feeder and, compressing its spring, jumped over the right edge of the lower receiver window. The second cartridge pressed on the first and, squeezing the feeder inside the magazine box, jumped over the left edge.

The fifth cartridge, having entered under the right edge of the receiver window, could not fall out, as it was pressed against the edge by the fourth cartridge.

Arisaki sight: 1 - aiming block, 2 - aiming frame, 3 - aiming frame spring, 4 - clamp, 5 - clamp latch.

When the bolt moved forward, the bolt stem with its lower part sent the cartridge into the chamber. The cartridge was guided by the slope of the sleeve along the oval bevels of the receiver. When locking the bore, the ejector hook jumped over the rim of the sleeve. The next cartridge, under the action of the feeder spring, rose up to the stop in the lower plane of the bolt stem, pressing against the left wall of the lower receiver window.

The Arisaki frame sight consisted of an aiming block, which is integral with a tubular base, put on the barrel with an interference fit and, in addition, reinforced with a screw: aiming frame; aiming frame springs and a clamp with a latch.

The aiming frame, connected to the sighting block with a pin, had three sighting slots, two of which were on the aiming frame itself, and the third on the movable collar. The divisions of the sighting ranges are marked on the front side of the aiming frame in hundreds of meters.

In addition to the infantry rifle, a carbine was also created, which was used in cavalry, artillery and sapper units. The length of its barrel was reduced to 480 mm.

Arisaka type 38 served the Japanese militarists faithfully for three decades. With its help they held our Far East in 1918-22. With its help, they occupied Manchuria and started a war with China with it.

Its last improvement was the introduction of a sniper modification, which received the designation Type 38 - by that time two emperors had changed and a new chronology was introduced from the founding of Japan. Its starting point was 660 BC, when, according to legend, Emperor Jimmu founded the Japanese state. According to this calculation, 1938 was 2598, or simply 98. It was in this year that the sniper rifle was introduced.

However, the next year Arisaka Type 38 was waiting for a replacement. The fact is that in China, the Japanese encountered Chinese wedges (more precisely, English ones delivered to China), which had bulletproof armor. A bullet from Arisaki did not penetrate it, but when the Japanese tried to shoot at them from our three-rulers, the armor of the wedges began to crack like eggshells.

Arisaka Type 99

Arisaki's grave at Yanaki Cemetery

Not wanting to waste armor-piercing shells on Chinese-type tanks, the Japanese decided to equip their infantry with rifles chambered for a stronger cartridge. As a result, a 7.7×58 mm wafer rifle cartridge was developed. During development, the British cartridge .303 British was taken as a basis, but, firstly, it was deprived of a flange, and secondly, it was equipped with a 3.1-gram powder charge instead of a 2.58-gram one. The barrel length was shortened to 650 mm, and the 11.3-gram bullet flew out of it at a speed of 741 m / s. The rifle for this cartridge was designated Type 99, and in memory of the late Arisaka, who died in 1915, it was finally officially named after him.

The shortening of the barrel made it possible to replace both long infantry rifles and carbines with one modification. In this form, Type 99 rifles were produced until 1945, their total production amounted to over three and a half million pieces. By the end of the war, Japan's resources had become seriously depleted, and the quality of Arisaka rifles, initially very high, had fallen sharply. The design of late-release rifles used low-grade steels, parts without heat treatment, so such rifles were often dangerous not only for the enemy, but also for the shooters themselves.