100 mm anti-aircraft gun Type 98

The development of a 100-mm anti-aircraft gun began in Japan in the mid-1930s, simultaneously with the beginning of the design of the destroyer destroyer. The existing 127 mm / 40 Type 89 and 127 mm / 50 Type 3 guns did not meet the requirements - the first because of too low reach in height, the second because of insufficient rate of fire and aiming speed.

The Japanese managed to create a gun with very good ballistics, while sacrificing barrel survivability (a total of 350 shots versus 1,500 for Type 89). A closed gun mount with two of these guns was adopted in 1938 under the name Type 98 Model A, and its serial copies were mounted on destroyers of the Akizuki type.

For large ships, a semi-open Type 98 model A model 1 model was developed, but it was used only on the Oedo cruiser and the Taiho aircraft carrier.

Thanks to Type 98, Akidzuki-class destroyers proved to be very protected from air attacks (two ships of this type survived Operation Ten Guo under the attack of carrier-based aircraft from 11 aircraft carriers), but due to their small numbers (only for a short period from July to in November 1944, their number reached 6, but usually did not exceed 4), and due to the obsolescence of the guns (in Japan, shells with radio fuses and full-fledged radars that allow controlling artillery fire, unlike the Americans) did not significantly influence the course of the war in the Pacific not about Azali.

The role of large ships with these anti-aircraft guns was even less, since the Taiho died in the very first military campaign, and the Oedo was not really used until the end of the war.

In 1945, part of the Type 98 gun mounts intended for unfinished ships were placed on land, in those conditions being the only Japanese anti-aircraft guns that could even reach high-altitude American strategic bombers.

Destroyers like "Akizuki" - 4 gun mounts Type 98 mod. A (8 guns)

Light cruiser "Oedo" - 4 gun mounts Type 98 mod. A mod. 1 (8 guns)

Attack aircraft carrier "Taiho" - 6 gun mounts Type 98 mod. A mod. 1 (12 guns)

The second pair of battleships of the Yamato type was supposed to have ten units of Type 98 mod. And mod.1 (20 guns), but after Midway it was decided to complete the Sinano as an aircraft carrier (with medium-caliber air defense from Type 89 guns), and the ship with the serial number 111 was dismantled on a slipway.

Also, a number of ships were supposed to carry these anti-aircraft guns, but they were not even laid down: destroyers of the Kitakaze type (further development of the Akizuki), serial cruisers of the Oydo type and aircraft carriers of the Taicho type, battle cruisers of the B-65 type .

The main unit for this weapon was a unitary shot weighing 28 kg, which included a 13-kg high-explosive fragmentation shell and a 15-kg charge. In addition to it, only practical ammunition was available, armor-piercing, shrapnel and diving shells for this system never existed.

  US 127 mm / 38 Mk. 12

  USSR 100 mm / 56 B-34

  UK 102 mm / 45 QF Mark XVI

  UK 114 mm / 45 QF Mk.II

  Germany 105 mm / 63.3 SK C / 33

  France 100 mm / 45 Model 1930

• John Campbell Naval Weapons of World War II. - Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1985. - ISBN 0-87021-459-4 .