Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 152 Type 44 Carrier Rifle
This time, Li Yunlong was very generous and directly offered fifty light machine guns in exchange for rifles.

After all, one light machine gun could be exchanged for twenty rifles, even though this rifle was a carbine, not the Type 38 rifle used by the Japanese infantry, but the Type 44 carbine.

The Type 44 cavalry rifle was a special standard rifle used by the Japanese cavalry during World War II. It was originally designed to meet the needs of cavalry units for short and lightweight weapons.

The emergence of this rifle reflects the Japanese army's attempt to adapt traditional weapons to modern warfare despite its insufficient mechanization. From its technical specifications to its combat performance, the Type 44 cavalry rifle embodies the compromises and innovations of the Japanese military industry under limited resources, while also exposing a profound contradiction between its design philosophy and actual battlefield needs.

The development of the Type 44 cavalry rifle began in the 1930s when the Japanese army realized that the traditional Type 38 rifle was too long for cavalry, especially inconvenient to operate when fighting on horseback.

So in 1932, the seventh year of Showa, the Tokyo Artillery Factory began to develop a shortened version based on the Type 38 rifle. After several improvements, it was finally finalized as the Type 44 Cavalry Gun in 1939, the fourteenth year of Showa.

This rifle is only 963 millimeters long, about 300 millimeters shorter than the standard Type 38 rifle, and its weight is also reduced to 3.3 kilograms, which significantly improves the convenience for cavalry to carry and use on horseback.

It is also worth noting that the Type 44 adopted a unique side-folding bayonet design with a blade length of 370 millimeters. Normally, it is folded to the right side of the barrel, and can be quickly unfolded when in use. This design was quite distinctive among cavalry weapons of various countries at that time.

In terms of technical details, the Type 44 cavalry rifle continued the basic structure of the Type 38 rifle, adopting a rotating bolt action and a five-round internal magazine, firing the same 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka rifle cartridge as the Type 38 rifle.

Although this type of ammunition has relatively low recoil, making it suitable for the physique of Asian soldiers, its insufficient power became apparent in the later stages of World War II.

However, as the barrel length of the Type 44 carbine was shortened to 487 millimeters, the muzzle velocity dropped from 760 meters per second on the Type 38 to about 700 meters per second, so the effective range was reduced to about 400 meters.

Therefore, to compensate for this deficiency, the Type 44 improved the rear sight design, and the range of the sight was still set at two kilometers, but this was more of a psychological comfort.

The folding bayonet mechanism of the gun is fixed by a catch under the barrel. When unfolded, the overall length reaches 1,330 millimeters, which barely meets the length requirements for infantry bayonet fighting at that time. However, this design has revealed its shortcomings in actual use, such as complex structure and easy accumulation of dirt and jamming.

Production of the Type 44 cavalry rifle was mainly concentrated at the Nagoya Arsenal and the Kokura Arsenal, with a production volume of no more than 100,000 units. Compared to the more than 3.4 million Type 38 rifles produced by the Japanese, the production of the Type 44 was negligible, mainly due to two factors.

First, the size of the Japanese cavalry was limited. Second, as the war progressed, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was increasingly being replaced by mechanized forces.

Take, for example, the special operations cavalry regiment established by Wang Gensheng. They used horses purely as a means of transportation and basically did not engage in mounted combat or other horse-riding activities.

However, the Type 44 rifle was later issued to second-line troops such as engineers and artillery, as well as paratroopers, where its short length became an advantage.

During the Pacific War, Allied soldiers captured this rifle multiple times and were impressed by its unique folding bayonet design, but generally found it to be insufficient in firepower and difficult to maintain.

From a tactical perspective, the Type 44 cavalry rifle reflected the Japanese army's obsession with bayonet fighting. The original design of the folding bayonet was to allow cavalry to quickly engage in close combat on horseback, but this tactical concept was seriously out of touch with the increasingly firearms-based modern warfare.

There was no other way; the inertia of the Japanese Bushido spirit still lingered, and due to resource shortages, mass production of bullets was impossible. They were forced to rely primarily on bayonet fighting to conserve ammunition. In the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, the Japanese cavalry, facing the Soviet armored onslaught and automatic weapons, could hardly get close enough for hand-to-hand combat.

Compared with the cavalry weapons of other countries at the same time, the Type 44 cavalry rifle appeared particularly conservative.

For example, the Soviet M38 carbine and the US M1 carbine both adopted more modern design concepts, focusing on firepower density rather than close combat capabilities.

In particular, the M1 carbine, which was introduced to the United States in 1941, used .30 carbine cartridges fed by a 15-round magazine. The fully automatic version could fire 750 rounds per minute, completely overturning the concept of traditional cavalry weapons.

The Japanese failed to develop similar automatic cavalry weapons until the end of the war, limited by their weak industrial base and stemming from the army high command's obsessive focus on rifle accuracy and bayonet fighting. The "chrysanthemum crest" imperial emblem retained on the Type 44 rifle further symbolizes the feudal remnants of Japanese military technology.

When evaluating the historical significance of the Type 44 cavalry rifle, it must be considered within the broader context of the Japanese military strategy. This weapon was essentially a material manifestation of the Japanese army's "spiritual supremacy"—an attempt to address modern warfare through weapon improvement rather than tactical revolution.

Its design philosophy remained rooted in the Japanese War era, overemphasizing individual shooting accuracy and melee attacks while neglecting the development trends of automatic firepower and armor protection. Even as a weapon specifically designed for cavalry, the Type 44 failed to resolve its fundamental contradictions.

It's important to understand that on battlefields dominated by machine guns and armored vehicles, cavalry has become an obsolete unit.

Especially in the later stages of World War II, most of the Japanese cavalry units were converted to infantry combat, and the short barrel of the Type 44 rifle became a disadvantage, with many soldiers preferring to use captured American weapons.

For this reason, even though Wang Gensheng established a cavalry regiment, he never regarded the cavalry as the kind of cavalry used for charging into battle in ancient times, but only as a mobile and flexible means of transportation.

When Wang Gensheng left Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment, he was naturally overjoyed. After receiving fifty light machine guns from Li Yunlong, Wang Gensheng gave him five Type 92 heavy machine guns as a token of his gratitude.

Of course, these five heavy machine guns weren't given away for free; they were the same requirement as Kong Jie's request, which was to select elite soldiers for the cavalry regiment.

After leaving the Independent Regiment, Wang Gensheng thought for a moment and then went to Ding Wei's New First Regiment. Although Li Yunlong had exchanged 50 light machine guns for 1,000 Type 44 carbines from Wang Gensheng, Wang Gensheng still had 400 Type 44 carbines to exchange!

Even more than ten Type 92 heavy machine guns were not sent out!

Therefore, Wang Gensheng could only take these things to Ding Wei's new regiment to see if he could exchange them for some light machine guns.

For Wang Gensheng now, he could never have too many light machine guns.

(End of this chapter)