Type 96 light machine gun

The was a light machine gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the interwar period and in World War II. It was first introduced in 1936, and fires the 6.5×50mm Arisaka from 30-round top-mounted magazines. A combination of unimpressive ballistic performance and a lack of reliability caused the Imperial Japanese Army to try to replace the Type 96 with the Type 99 light machine gun, though both saw major usage until the end of the war.

History and development

thumb|left|[[Imperial Japanese Army|IJA soldiers firing their Type 96 at positions]]Combat experience in the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and subsequent actions in Manchuria and northern China reaffirmed to the Japanese army the utility of machine guns in providing covering fire for advancing infantry. The earlier Type 11 light machine gun was a lightweight machine gun, which could be easily transportable by an infantry squad into combat. However, the open hopper design of the Type 11 allowed dust and grit to enter into the gun, which was liable to jam in muddy or dirty conditions due to issues with poor dimensional tolerances. This gave the weapon a bad reputation with Japanese troops, and led to calls for its redesign. The Army's Kokura Arsenal tested the Czechoslovak ZB vz. 26 machine gun, samples of which had been captured from the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, and (after borrowing certain elements) issued a new design, designated the Type 96 light machine gun, in 1936. The gun was produced at Kokura, Nagoya Arsenal and Mukden between 1936 and 1943, with a total production run of about 41,000.

According to Rottman, the Type 96 was a slightly modified copy of the ZB vz.26 despite claims to the contrary, while US military manuals note that the gun combined the features of both the Hotchkiss machine gun and the ZB vs. 26. Ness notes that the Type 96 featured a unique bolt lock system designed by Kijiro Nambu.

Design

thumb|left|[[United States Marine Corps|Marines with a captured Type 96]]

thumb|Type 96 light machine gun with Type 99 (1939) armor shield, size 12 in.x16 in.

The Type 96 light machine gun was almost a complete reworking of the Type 11, combining the features of the Hotchkiss with some of the ZB vz. 26. As with the Type 11, it continued to use the same 6.5×50mm Arisaka cartridges as the Type 38 rifle infantry rifle, although the adoption of the more powerful 7.7×58mm Arisaka rimless round for the Type 99 rifle soon created a demand for a new light machine gun capable of firing the same ammunition, the Type 99 light machine gun. Due to their visual resemblance to the British Bren light machine gun they are often mistakenly regarded as clones.

The major differences from the Type 11 were the top-mounted curved detachable box replacing the problematic ammunition hopper with an overhead magazine and the removal of the receiver-mounted oiler (though cartridges needed to be lubricated before they were loaded into the magazines), the latter made possible the incorporation of a quick-change barrel to avoid overheating; the Type 96 also features a unique Nambu-designed bolt lock, in the form of a square frame that moves up and down to lock and unlock the barrel. The Type 96 had a blade front sight and a leaf rear sight, with graduations from 200 to 1,500 meters, with windage adjustment. A 2.5X telescopic sight with a 10 degree field of view could be attached at the right side of the gun. notably during the attack on Jogjakarta 1949. It was used by the Viet Minh and the North Vietnamese forces during the First and Second Indochina Wars.

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