Type 3 Ho-Ni III

The Type 1 Gun tank Ho-Ni Japanese tank destroyer and self-propelled artillery vehicle used the existing Type 97 tank chassis and engine. There were three distinct variants of this vehicle, all produced in limited numbers. They all weighed about 13.9 tonnes, carried a crew of 5 and could attain a top speed of 24 mph. It had relatively thick armor for a Japanese armored vehicle of World War II: up to 25 mm on the sides and 51 mm on its vertical casemate superstructure. It saw limited combat action in the Pacific theater, first deployed at the Battle of Luzon in the Philippines in 1945, but also seeing late-war service in Burma. The Type 1 Ho-Ni III mounted a Type 3 75 mm (L/38) tank gun in a completely enclosed armored casemate to address the issue of crew protection in close combat. The welded superstructure had sloped armor and the gun mount had additional stamped armor plate. Japanese industry built 31 units between 1942 and 1945. The design had no provision for a defensive machine gun, which together with the open structure made it vulnerable in close combat.