Japanese Machine Gun Team July 1939 Fighting Against Soviet Union Along Mongolian Frontier

The machine gun pictured here appears to be a Type 3 or Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun, each of which were based upon the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun. These were air cooled machine guns, fed using ammo strips. Each fired a relatively light round. The Type 92 fired a 7.7mm round larger than that used by its Type 3 predecessor, but compared poorly to the heavy machine guns fielded by several other army's of the day, including, most notably, the US Army and its far superior M2 .50 caliber Heavy Machine Gun.

Perhaps most problematically, the Type 3 and Type 92 heavy machine guns clip feed meant they were not only hard pressed to maintain an adequate rate of fire, but also suffered from a higher level of jamming than that experienced by many of their peers. Weighing in at well over 100 lbs., with its tripod, these Japanese heavy machine guns were typically served by a crew of three. This weight was not unusual and was comparable to the US .50 caliber machine gun of the day, but again it lacked the powerful punch of the M2 as well as the reliability and rate of fire.

Picture Courtesy of the Associated Press