| Full Name | Type 4 15cm self-propelled gun Ho-Ro |
| Class | Heavy Vehicle |
| Movement | 5 |
| Armor Value | 2 |
| Vs Infantry (RNG / FPR) | 6/9 |
| Vs Vehicle (RNG / FPR) | 5/7 |
| Traits | |
| Period | 1944-1945 |
| Theaters of Service |
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German self-propelled artillery vehicles inspired designers of the Type 4 Ho-Ro, who based this self-propelled gun on an already existing reinforced Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank chassis. The Type 4 Ho-Ro featured a stationary Type 38 150 mm (L/11) howitzer behind a vertical shield superstructure that was open on the back and top. The main gun could fire high-explosive, shrapnel, incendiary, smoke, illumination, and gas shells. The gun proved to be obsolete as artillery by the early 1940s--they were badly outranged by Chinese guns based on the German 15 cm sFH 18--but pressed into service as mobile artillery late in the war. It carried a crew of six at up to 23 mph and weighed 14.7 tonnes. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built at least 12 units in 1944. The Japanese rushed it into service and it saw combat during the Philippines Campaign in the last year of World War II. Remaining units served during the Battle of Okinawa in ones and twos for island defense, but were severely outnumbered by American artillery.