Japanese Type 1 Rheinmetall 37mm ammo

[saintlo990]

This is a really good job on explaining the 37mm Type 1 vs the RA ammunition. The Japanese did not issue type numbers to foreign made weapons unless they had made major modifications and produced it. The RA (PAk 35/36) was originally the Rheinmetal TAK L/50 sold to China. and the Germans made contract ammo for China. The guns and ammo were captured by the Japanese. The Japanese loaded a large quantity of German fired cases with their type 94 AP projectiles for testing . They made an intelligence report on it. There was probably more reloaded German cases than Japanese cases so it is very rare. The Chinese communist PLA took over the guns in 1949 and issued them. They also made up a 4 group arsenal wall poster showing all the parts and the ammuniiton. The AP looks the same as the Japanese or German, but the HE is definately a different shape and fuse. I have not been able to find out how long the gun was in PLA use but hope to have more info from China soon. Anyone who relys on the wartime U.S. intell .reports had better check it very carefully. The CBI reports have much less guesses and conjecture.

[US-Subs]

What are you referring to by the CBI reports?

While you are correct that many/most of the WWII reports are notoriously inaccurate, there was some good work done. The Navy MEIU Reports were very good, resulting in the progression of the MEIU manual on Japanese Explosive Ordnance and its Supplement, which eventually evolved into OPNAV 30-3M. Much of their accuracy comes from the use of photos instead of line drawings, and sending EOD teams into the areas specifically in search of data. The EOD "Black Books" of the time were also reasonably good, and the TM E9-1901, Identification Japanese Shells and Shell Fragments is pretty good, if limited in scope. Likewise the British Ammunition Leaflets were also very good, but limited to what was seen at Kirkee, India, primarily items coming from Burma. The problem was that nobody was in China but the Russians (then at the very end), and with minor exceptions little information was available on what was used in the theater until we started capturing it in Korea in the early 1950s. Ordnance is still being uncovered in the north of China that we still are not sure whether it is Japanese, Chinese or Russian.

Much of the Chinese info is doubtful as well, they did little to preserve the history of much of the ordnance and its use. It was not a priority at the time and with the difficulties immediately after WWII and through Korea they had other things to concentrate on. I've spoken on the ground with recovery teams, national experts and museum personnel, none were confident with the historical data, it was just too poorly recorded and not consistent with what was found in recoveries at the sites.