My dad's eldest brother took part in this action, having joined the Argylls in 1933 at the age of 17. He was captured at Singapore and spent the rest of the war as a P.O.W. Upon being freed he rejoined his regiment, and later fought in Korea and Aden. He retired from the army in 1960, having risen to the rank of RSM. I feel immensely honoured that I knew him.
It sounds dramatic, but a GI might just as easily have cut wires with the lid of a can of Spam. The point is, all that was really needed was a piece of sharp metal, and you use whatever you have on hand under the circumstances, whether that sounds poetic or prosaic.
I'm a Malaysian, and I can tell you that smaller tanks are much more suited to Malaysians tropical environment. Bigger and heavier MBTs will be sitting ducks here.
Kudos to you Dr Felton, for shedding light over a lesser known but very interesting piece of modern history. Lots have been written and said about the german panzerwaffein WW II, but to hear such an intriguing story of japanese armoured warfare is new knowledge to an old history nerd such as myself. A Happy New Year to you and keep up the good work!
lesser known because anglofile english books SHUN these military failures. You might be surprised that italian tanks in North Afrika did on occasions also badly damaged british units...no help from germans..but english narrators STILL attribute german DAK forces in their midst...because "italians can not fight"..
That was the whole point of Japanese tank doctrine, they were fighting enemies that generally didn't have the neccessary heavy equipment to defeat tanks, the Japanese were fighting the Chinese and colonial garrisons which didn't require tank designs of those in Europe and you also had to take into consideration of the Japanese industrial capabilities which of course led to designs that were effective for what they were going up against. But of course Japanese tanks towards the end of the war, when encountering American forces, showed their obsolescence against Sherman tanks.
Faceless Stark There capabilities were were extremely good initially in fact world class when it came to building ships subs and planes. Obviously they didn’t rate tank building as one of them The ‘Sherman’ tank was a terrible tank up against a tiger it took British engineering to make it a decent match for the tiger
You will sometimes see photos of knocked out 95s shot up by antitank fire by Australians on the Bakri / Part Sulong Road, Malaya. These photo's I believe are taken from footage filmed at the time that shows the action. In the film you actually see the antitank gunners firing into the type 95 tanks from point blank range. Pioneers dropped a line of trees across the road as the column of tanks came past to stop and separate them and then the gunners worked along the line and destroyed them. I've seen the photos many times but have only seen this amazing film once.
The Japanese tanks weren't always successful during the Malaya campaign of early 1942. On 18 January 1942 gunners of 13th Australian Anti-tank Battery, using 2 pounder anti-tank guns, staged an ambush near Bakri. During the subsequent battle, 8 Japanese type 95 Ha-Go light tanks were destroyed by the gun crews, firstly using solid anti-tank rounds, which passed straight through the first 3 tanks. The Australian gunners then switched to high explosive shells knocking out another 5 Japanese tanks.
Fortunately my father who was a member of the 2/19th Battalion AIF wasn't there at the time. He was later wounded on Singapore and went on to be one of the six survivers of the Sandakan Ranau Death March.
A very bad day for the British Empire, and well described. JFC Fuller was the British exponent of tank tactics. He was largely ignored by the British general staff, but Major Shimada in Japan, and Generals Rommel and Guderian in Germany, had studied his writing, as had Colonel Charles de Gaulle in France. That is why axis tank tactics were so superior at the star of the war.
Hella good stuff Mark. Refreshing to see Japanese armor used this effectively considering how much it's been berated by most mainstream historians. They may not have had the most impressive tanks, but for the theaters they operated in, they were adequate if used cleverly as depicted here. Happy New Year by the way. Can't wait to see this channel blow up with views in 2019.
Thank you Mark, as a patron myself I encourage more people to join, there are few really good channels like this! Lets help Mark. Happy New Year to Mark and all the subs!
It's a coincidence that I had just read about this passage of battle in Bill Yenne's book 'The Imperial Japanese Army: The Invincible Years 1941-42'. Your excellent video certainly helped with the visualisation of the battle. Good job!
The British were not only lacking hardware, they were lacking effective leadership. The field guns would have made an excellent anti-tank screen if properly deployed. For an artillery battery to be caught setting in "road march" order in the middle of an ongoing battle is inexcusable. If the unit had to move, the guns should have been held in a direct firing position until CSMO was given, (CSMO means Close Station Marching Order, or "get out of Dodge"). Once CSMO is called, a good gun crew can get their gun closed up, and hooked into the prime mover in less that 2 minutes, (our target was 90 seconds). Once hooked up, you MOVE, especially if the enemy is suspected to be in the area. It's sad that so many Commonwealth troops had to pay the price for poor leadership from above. It could have been that the best officers and non-coms were fighting in North Africa at the time, but it's a shame there were not just a few good leaders to resist the Japanese.
Agreed but remember the terrible communications they had, the confusion and disorder was as effective against the British as anything the Japanese did; and many of the British forces had of course been trained and equipped to fight in the old first world war way, i.e. either staying put and slugging it out or moving to a new position TO carry on doing that and expecting the enemy to do the same, nothing in between
Also even had they had good leaders, good communications and had expected that kind of armoured fist-type assault they still lacked the means to counter it, their AA guns and field artillery didn't have AP shells, Boys anti-tank rifles were only effective at very close range and then only against certain parts of the tank rather than the whole thing, their armoured car's machine guns would just bounce off even the thin Japanese tank's armour plate and while what few proper anti-tank guns they did have were good and effective they needed to be in the right positions, they needed to be ready to go and there needed to be a lot more of them. The British and Commonwealth forces actually did pretty well considering the paltry hand they'd been dealt
Japanese military history is so very interesting for me, growing up in England i did not really hear of the action it was mainly European action or pacific US action, but since i got to Aus i started to find more and more details. As ever thank you for the work Mark! i hope you have a great 2019.
Again a very interesting history story. Please take a look at the history of the Dutch Submarine K XVII. You will be amazed what this submarine discovered and reported in december '41
My grandfather was part of the 2/30th AIF battalion, and was a POW in Changi for 3 years and 8 months. Half of his battalion died, and underwent some of the most appalling treatment and conditions during WW2. He survived, albeit in a poor state of being, hence I am alive today. Thank you Mark for sharing this story, along with all the others that have helped me to understand what the world went through before I was born
I hope you could do a video about Johore Battery, a former British coastal artillery battery located at Changi, Singapore.It consisted of three large BL 15-inch Mk. I naval guns installed on land by the British government in the late 1930s to defend Singapore from direct invasion by Imperial Japan.
I read a couple of great books on this, the stories of the fighting spirit of the Gurkhas and Punjabis is quite inspiring; however one should note, as was written at the time, that smaller tanks were perfect for these fighting conditions. For example, in the Vietnam war, heavy tanks built for European theaters of war that were used by both sides, were exceptionally ill suited for jungle warfare. Indeed during the island hopping campaign by the Americans, the Stuart light tank proved to be exceptionally useful. Sun Tzu wrote extensively about how vital it was to utilize and match the right tools to the battlefield environment. Though the Japanese may have been brutal and ruthless, I still tip my hat to the military boldness of that Major. Excellent video.
@MarkFeltonProductions - please do more of these LONGER videos. They are extremely entertaining. I love how you break down how each action was fought along with the minute details. Please do more videos of battles/actions!
Man... that was so depressing to watch and listen to! Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and even the bold attempts of brave men to rush to where they were most needed, fell victim to inopportune timing - being caught out in the open and unprepared for the daring and well thought out lightning advance of the Japanese tank units. Reminded me of the Japanese Carrier disasters at Midway... caught with their pants down, swapping bomb loads and rearming.
Thank you - I always wanted to be reunited with the tank assault incident that was described in the instructions leaflet of my Fujimi Chi-Ha model, 40+ years ago !!!
Don't know the Japanese tank but on Saipan. The Anti aircraft quad watercooler .50 cal. BMG mounted on a ton and quarter truck assigned to my uncle's destroyed the tank which was trying to flank their battery..must have been a very light tank!!!!
Japanese intelligence had been mapping and scouting out all of Asia between the wars. Every road, rail line, river and military base had been investigated. The Japanese Navy had better maps of the waters of north eastern Australia than the RAN. With dominant Naval and air-power and the European Nations either occupied or engaged elsewhere the Japanese were unstoppable. Percival was not a top general and lack of modern military equipment and supplies made his poor situation hopeless.
Having a poor tank is better than no tank at all, and versus a force that lacks anti-tank measures, they're a decider of war - Cutting down vehicles and infantry and demoralizing the helpless opposing units... Until your fuel and munitions run out. In WW1, the tanks didn't have much range, protection or armor. But, on open ground against infantry without anti-tank, they were scary things that demoralized opponents and boosted morale for those that fought alongside them.
Pretty much sums up the performance of our troops in the Malayan campaign. They were no match for the Japanese. It would take another two years of mistakes, and hard fighting, before the lessons were learned and we were able beat the Japanese in the field. Tanks and air superiority helped.
This is the very first and only video by Mr Felton where I had already read a book about the event! Shocked I tell you. Regardless, another great video.
Brilliant soldiering on the part of the Japanese. Battle is such a disorganised chaos, it is incredible that the British could keep any semblance of control in the absence of modern communications equipment.
Makes my head hurt thinking how much different History would have been if Great Britain had used all it's Resources to Defend the Empire instead of supplying the Soviets in 1941
The Allies were so short of the necessary weapons to take on the Japanese in south East Asia. The fact they didn't have one tank in that theatre of war is unbelievable. The poor POW's of the Japanese were treated so badly too.
Shambolic defenses coupled with a horrendous underestimation of the enemy and this is what happens. Hopefully the lessons learned here will never be forgotten.
Hey Mark, I'm curious to ask; How did the Japanese respond to the creation of the Soviet t-34? How did the Japanese response differ from the German response? Seeing that Germany used the iconic 8.8cm gun, what did the Japanese use? Did the Japanese develop a specific tank to compete with the T-34? I really hope you can give some insight.
No. Japan never had enough resources or time to develop a tank to counter anything the russians made. Their priority was to defend the pascific islands ans Manchuria which were not suited for tank warfare, or their enemies had nothing better to counter their light tanks. Everything that was designed late in the war was to counter the sherman, which in a way, the t-34 by extent.
Japan wouldnt meet the T-34 until 1945 but the weapons used against it would be the same as the weapons used against the M4. Type 90 field guns, Type 88 AA guns, and Type 1 AT guns being the common types. Tanks wise, no tanks were specifically deployed there except the Type 4 heavy (yes this was a real project of which only 1 was built, captured, and destroyed by the Soviets). The other designs the Japanese had were kept in Japan for the predicted invasion of Kyushu
Excellent. I have lived in Singapore. Agree, a massive shortage of proper weapons was a factor as was poor leadership and basic training of the troops.
Nice story about battle in my country. Maybe you should dig in about Japanese intelligences, a reason why the Japanese able to conquer Malaya without struggiling. They sent spies disguised as Chinese immigrants. There one I know became a photographer and opened a Camera Store, little did the Brits know he taking photos of British military. There more too, Japanese agents managed to updated the current geographies of Malaya and gave it to the High Command.
My dad's eldest brother took part in this action, having joined the Argylls in 1933 at the age of 17. He was captured at Singapore and spent the rest of the war as a P.O.W. Upon being freed he rejoined his regiment, and later fought in Korea and Aden. He retired from the army in 1960, having risen to the rank of RSM.
I feel immensely honoured that I knew him.
6:50
"The Japanese office has cut the wires with his sword" is the most imperial Japanese line ever
It sounds dramatic, but a GI might just as easily have cut wires with the lid of a can of Spam. The point is, all that was really needed was a piece of sharp metal, and you use whatever you have on hand under the circumstances, whether that sounds poetic or prosaic.
@@christosvoskresye I think an Imperial Japanese soldier doing any middling task with a sword, is always poetic.
TheMinipily TENNO HEKKA BANZAI!!!
I'm a Malaysian, and I can tell you that smaller tanks are much more suited to Malaysians tropical environment. Bigger and heavier MBTs will be sitting ducks here.
"The Japanese tanks were small and undergunned."
Japan: *Laughs in having the only tanks*
Kudos to you Dr Felton, for shedding light over a lesser known but very interesting piece of modern history.
Lots have been written and said about the german panzerwaffein WW II, but to hear such an intriguing story of japanese armoured warfare is new knowledge to an old history nerd such as myself.
A Happy New Year to you and keep up the good work!
lesser known because anglofile english books SHUN these military failures.
You might be surprised that italian tanks in North Afrika did on occasions also badly damaged british units...no help from germans..but english narrators STILL attribute german DAK forces in their midst...because "italians can not fight"..
World of tanks wz120a
The fall of Malaya and Singapore are the most tragic stories of the war for me. They were so avoidable in many ways.
Immulating German blitzkrieg tactics. "uses 15 tanks to fight through the jungle"
I guess even tin can tanks are effective if your adversary has none.
The Boys anti-tank rifle on the British armored cars could have easily taken out the Japanese tanks. Poor optics?
I have read they had a very short range and only about 20 % actually exploded , But then I'm no expert. @@sillyone52062
@VolDep45 The british wont be ready for german auto-reload flying tank in ww3. Titanium outter shell
That was the whole point of Japanese tank doctrine, they were fighting enemies that generally didn't have the neccessary heavy equipment to defeat tanks, the Japanese were fighting the Chinese and colonial garrisons which didn't require tank designs of those in Europe and you also had to take into consideration of the Japanese industrial capabilities which of course led to designs that were effective for what they were going up against. But of course Japanese tanks towards the end of the war, when encountering American forces, showed their obsolescence against Sherman tanks.
Faceless Stark
There capabilities were were extremely good initially in fact world class when it came to building ships subs and planes. Obviously they didn’t rate tank building as one of them
The ‘Sherman’ tank was a terrible tank up against a tiger it took British engineering to make it a decent match for the tiger
Very rare to see Type 95 Ha-Go tanks historical footage
You will sometimes see photos of knocked out 95s shot up by antitank fire by Australians on the Bakri / Part Sulong Road, Malaya.
These photo's I believe are taken from footage filmed at the time that shows the action.
In the film you actually see the antitank gunners firing into the type 95 tanks from point blank range.
Pioneers dropped a line of trees across the road as the column of tanks came past to stop and separate them and then the gunners worked along the line and destroyed them.
I've seen the photos many times but have only seen this amazing film once.
Can you imagine turning a corner and getting nuked by a 4.5 inch artillery piece from 30 yds away?
The Japanese tanks weren't always successful during the Malaya campaign of early 1942. On 18 January 1942 gunners of 13th Australian Anti-tank Battery, using 2 pounder anti-tank guns, staged an ambush near Bakri. During the subsequent battle, 8 Japanese type 95 Ha-Go light tanks were destroyed by the gun crews, firstly using solid anti-tank rounds, which passed straight through the first 3 tanks. The Australian gunners then switched to high explosive shells knocking out another 5 Japanese tanks.
Fortunately my father who was a member of the 2/19th Battalion AIF wasn't there at the time. He was later wounded on Singapore and went on to be one of the six survivers of the Sandakan Ranau Death March.
Bakri? Lol, I used to live there. Never heard of this before.
A very bad day for the British Empire, and well described. JFC Fuller was the British exponent of tank tactics. He was largely ignored by the British general staff, but Major Shimada in Japan, and Generals Rommel and Guderian in Germany, had studied his writing, as had Colonel Charles de Gaulle in France. That is why axis tank tactics were so superior at the star of the war.
Thanks Mark
Happy New Year
love you dad
Blake Robson love you grandpa
Impenetrable and impregnable? The Ardennes Forest and Fortress Singapore.
Hella good stuff Mark. Refreshing to see Japanese armor used this effectively considering how much it's been berated by most mainstream historians. They may not have had the most impressive tanks, but for the theaters they operated in, they were adequate if used cleverly as depicted here. Happy New Year by the way. Can't wait to see this channel blow up with views in 2019.
And those left alive faced four years of grueling captivity.
Outstanding piece of lost military history. I was well-informed very good I enjoyed every moment of it I've played it back several times.
Dark days for the British Empire.
Thank you, Mark!
Thank you Mark, as a patron myself I encourage more people to join, there are few really good channels like this! Lets help Mark. Happy New Year to Mark and all the subs!
This is a perfect example of the typical western mindset of underestimating of its East Asian counterpart. No tanks in Malaya? Ha!
It's a coincidence that I had just read about this passage of battle in Bill Yenne's book 'The Imperial Japanese Army: The Invincible Years 1941-42'. Your excellent video certainly helped with the visualisation of the battle. Good job!
happy new year mark hopefully this year ur channel will blow and get way popular u make history enjoyable!
The British were not only lacking hardware, they were lacking effective leadership. The field guns would have made an excellent anti-tank screen if properly deployed. For an artillery battery to be caught setting in "road march" order in the middle of an ongoing battle is inexcusable. If the unit had to move, the guns should have been held in a direct firing position until CSMO was given, (CSMO means Close Station Marching Order, or "get out of Dodge"). Once CSMO is called, a good gun crew can get their gun closed up, and hooked into the prime mover in less that 2 minutes, (our target was 90 seconds). Once hooked up, you MOVE, especially if the enemy is suspected to be in the area. It's sad that so many Commonwealth troops had to pay the price for poor leadership from above. It could have been that the best officers and non-coms were fighting in North Africa at the time, but it's a shame there were not just a few good leaders to resist the Japanese.
Agreed but remember the terrible communications they had, the confusion and disorder was as effective against the British as anything the Japanese did; and many of the British forces had of course been trained and equipped to fight in the old first world war way, i.e. either staying put and slugging it out or moving to a new position TO carry on doing that and expecting the enemy to do the same, nothing in between
Also even had they had good leaders, good communications and had expected that kind of armoured fist-type assault they still lacked the means to counter it, their AA guns and field artillery didn't have AP shells, Boys anti-tank rifles were only effective at very close range and then only against certain parts of the tank rather than the whole thing, their armoured car's machine guns would just bounce off even the thin Japanese tank's armour plate and while what few proper anti-tank guns they did have were good and effective they needed to be in the right positions, they needed to be ready to go and there needed to be a lot more of them. The British and Commonwealth forces actually did pretty well considering the paltry hand they'd been dealt
My father was a MilPo at Kuala Lumpur 🇦🇺
This video was both released in 2018 and 2019
@@UFCMania155 Not true, depends where ur living
@@UFCMania155 It was 2019 in Australia.
@@UFCMania155 Depends which part of the world you live in surely ;)
@@UFCMania155 Timezones
Wow. A daring blitzkrieg done by the Japanese. Thanks again for this little piece of history.
As a Malaysian
I got A+ on this Subject xd
Japanese military history is so very interesting for me, growing up in England i did not really hear of the action it was mainly European action or pacific US action, but since i got to Aus i started to find more and more details. As ever thank you for the work Mark! i hope you have a great 2019.
Again a very interesting history story. Please take a look at the history of the Dutch Submarine K XVII. You will be amazed what this submarine discovered and reported in december '41
My grandfather was part of the 2/30th AIF battalion, and was a POW in Changi for 3 years and 8 months. Half of his battalion died, and underwent some of the most appalling treatment and conditions during WW2. He survived, albeit in a poor state of being, hence I am alive today.
Thank you Mark for sharing this story, along with all the others that have helped me to understand what the world went through before I was born
Great video as always mark. Have a good 2019
I hope you could do a video about Johore Battery, a former British coastal artillery battery located at Changi, Singapore.It consisted of three large BL 15-inch Mk. I naval guns installed on land by the British government in the late 1930s to defend Singapore from direct invasion by Imperial Japan.
Indian troops fighting to the death as always such brave soldiers
Charles Goodwin na that’s just what Uncle Sam wants you to think
I don't think they fought to the death. It's the rabbit that runs, that gets shot...
Bitches fighting for another country
Get lost u fascist communist
I see WW2 stuff about my country, I click.
And great videos! Informative, interesting and enjoyable to listen to.
A better title for the video,would have been,"A Banzai Blitzkrieg"
😁😳
I think there was an instance in Muar where they took out 7 tanks. They should have been given more 2 pounders
Japan used Blitzkrieg.
It's super effective!
I read a couple of great books on this, the stories of the fighting spirit of the Gurkhas and Punjabis is quite inspiring; however one should note, as was written at the time, that smaller tanks were perfect for these fighting conditions.
For example, in the Vietnam war, heavy tanks built for European theaters of war that were used by both sides, were exceptionally ill suited for jungle warfare.
Indeed during the island hopping campaign by the Americans, the Stuart light tank proved to be exceptionally useful.
Sun Tzu wrote extensively about how vital it was to utilize and match the right tools to the battlefield environment.
Though the Japanese may have been brutal and ruthless, I still tip my hat to the military boldness of that Major.
Excellent video.
Ouch! Thanks Mark. I forgot to say that I was born in Singapore in 1970. My Dad was in the RAF.
Rich.
@MarkFeltonProductions - please do more of these LONGER videos. They are extremely entertaining. I love how you break down how each action was fought along with the minute details. Please do more videos of battles/actions!
I cross the Slim river many times a year. Glad it's no longer so hazardous.
Wow. A very interesting engagement. Magnificent courage and daring shown by the Japanese. Great video Mark 😊👍🏻
Man... that was so depressing to watch and listen to! Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and even the bold attempts of brave men to rush to where they were most needed, fell victim to inopportune timing - being caught out in the open and unprepared for the daring and well thought out lightning advance of the Japanese tank units. Reminded me of the Japanese Carrier disasters at Midway... caught with their pants down, swapping bomb loads and rearming.
You rarely hear about Japanese tanks let alone a tank battle that they won. Great job Mark !
Happy new year from Germany.
Frohes neuse Jahr aus Kalifornien🎉
@@motorTranz Von mir auch!
wo taking side,churchill did said one of the greatest military disater in the british empire.....
Thank you - I always wanted to be reunited with the tank assault incident that was described in the instructions leaflet of my Fujimi Chi-Ha model, 40+ years ago !!!
British arrogance cost them Singapore and the lives of many others . Deeply underestimated Japan .
Don't know the Japanese tank but on Saipan. The Anti aircraft quad watercooler .50 cal.
BMG mounted on a ton and quarter truck assigned to my uncle's destroyed the tank which was trying to flank their battery..must have been a very light tank!!!!
Thanks Mark. Very interesting video, excellently presented.
Japanese intelligence had been mapping and scouting out all of Asia between the wars. Every road, rail line, river and military base had been investigated. The Japanese Navy had better maps of the waters of north eastern Australia than the RAN. With dominant Naval and air-power and the European Nations either occupied or engaged elsewhere the Japanese were unstoppable. Percival was not a top general and lack of modern military equipment and supplies made his poor situation hopeless.
That "155mm" is in fact commonly known as a 25 pounder. One of those guns could shoot up any number of lightly armoured tanks like those.
The British Forces were good but the command structure was very narrow minded
50k subs already, 100knwithin the month then a million within a year and then t-series
Having a poor tank is better than no tank at all, and versus a force that lacks anti-tank measures, they're a decider of war - Cutting down vehicles and infantry and demoralizing the helpless opposing units... Until your fuel and munitions run out. In WW1, the tanks didn't have much range, protection or armor. But, on open ground against infantry without anti-tank, they were scary things that demoralized opponents and boosted morale for those that fought alongside them.
Another great report Mark. keep them coming.
These tubes should be on tv!!
Thanks for including more maps in your Videos, great work!
In the kingdom of the blind the man with one eye is king!
You explain it so well I felt like I was watching it happen.
Pretty much sums up the performance of our troops in the Malayan campaign. They were no match for the Japanese. It would take another two years of mistakes, and hard fighting, before the lessons were learned and we were able beat the Japanese in the field. Tanks and air superiority helped.
Unless an army has the proper equipment they are doomed to fail. Thanks for the video and Happy New Year.
This is the very first and only video by Mr Felton where I had already read a book about the event! Shocked I tell you.
Regardless, another great video.
Brilliant soldiering on the part of the Japanese.
Battle is such a disorganised chaos, it is incredible that the British could keep any semblance of control in the absence of modern communications equipment.
Makes my head hurt thinking how much different History would have been if Great Britain had used all it's Resources to Defend the Empire instead of supplying the Soviets in 1941
The Allies were so short of the necessary weapons to take on the Japanese in south East Asia. The fact they didn't have one tank in that theatre of war is unbelievable. The poor POW's of the Japanese were treated so badly too.
This was pretty much the perfect scenario for a group of small, mobile light tanks designed for infantry support to succeed in.
Another excellent video Mark, I would love to see more Pacific theatre videos, and Happy New Year
Amazing channel.
It’s not the size that counts. It’s how you use it.
The little tank that could. thanks for sharing.
Shambolic defenses coupled with a horrendous underestimation of the enemy and this is what happens. Hopefully the lessons learned here will never be forgotten.
Congrats on the 50K Subs you deserve it. Happy New Year!
Hey Mark, I'm curious to ask; How did the Japanese respond to the creation of the Soviet t-34? How did the Japanese response differ from the German response? Seeing that Germany used the iconic 8.8cm gun, what did the Japanese use? Did the Japanese develop a specific tank to compete with the T-34? I really hope you can give some insight.
i know they made the chi-he, chi-nu and chi-to tanks to compete against the M4 and t-34
No. Japan never had enough resources or time to develop a tank to counter anything the russians made. Their priority was to defend the pascific islands ans Manchuria which were not suited for tank warfare, or their enemies had nothing better to counter their light tanks. Everything that was designed late in the war was to counter the sherman, which in a way, the t-34 by extent.
Japan wouldnt meet the T-34 until 1945 but the weapons used against it would be the same as the weapons used against the M4. Type 90 field guns, Type 88 AA guns, and Type 1 AT guns being the common types.
Tanks wise, no tanks were specifically deployed there except the Type 4 heavy (yes this was a real project of which only 1 was built, captured, and destroyed by the Soviets). The other designs the Japanese had were kept in Japan for the predicted invasion of Kyushu
Japanese tanks usually did not show well against U.S. Marines. At first I thought the subject of the Banzai tank charge was the one on Pelielu.
'twas a frightful tale, thank you. A small tank is still a tank.
Excellent work Mark Happy New Year - hopefully your videos will keep the lessons of the past alive !!
Thank you very much for this video, as excellent as the rest.
Thoroughly enjoyable. So wel put together . Good job.
very good documentary, quite interesting and very well executed. Thanks
mmmm i love your channel i wonder if a movie could be made of this whole action hollywood needs to know about this,the story needs to be told.
I have diaries war the battlefield of kelantan in WWII...
Idk how but this guy makes history so exciting and interesting
And once again a nice piece of education! Greetings from🇳🇱
What a disaster! If the British had possessed even one squadron of Matildas it might've been a different fight.
@Marc Conyard - Amen to that! The Japanese had no artillery that could have knocked out a Matilda, though dive bombers might have done so.
great video,as always.thanks and a healthy and happy new year.
Excellent. I have lived in Singapore. Agree, a massive shortage of proper weapons was a factor as was poor leadership and basic training of the troops.
Good job Mark :) You won a patreon
Next stop for the British soldiers: The Burmese-Siamese railway.
Thank you for this interesting video! Happy new year!
Love your commentaries! Keep it coming me friend!!!
Nice story about battle in my country.
Maybe you should dig in about Japanese intelligences, a reason why the Japanese able to conquer Malaya without struggiling.
They sent spies disguised as Chinese immigrants. There one I know became a photographer and opened a Camera Store, little did the Brits know he taking photos of British military. There more too, Japanese agents managed to updated the current geographies of Malaya and gave it to the High Command.
Afnan Zahran that’s why Japanese were locked up on west coast of USA.
Happy new year!
Unbiased. Quick. Informative. Everything thirsty minds crave lol
Superb job once again Mark! TY
Now imagine giving Shimada a HT6 tank (Japanese Tiger tank)..
Excellent video...had never heard about this battle or the more pressing overall lack of tanks (as in the Brits had None!) in south east Asia.
Happy New Year!
Another brilliant tactic brought to you by Imperial Japan
Actually, it's a great lesson.
Even crappy tanks are better than no tanks at all.
Very good video!