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Modern What would the optimal Imperial Japanese tank force look like?

C

Celene

Guest
Simple. With the tech they had, and the time, and economy. as well as situiations. What do you believe their optimal tank force would look like in the relevant years.

1937

1940

1942

1944
 
The 1930s tanks would be their OTL ones, as they were actually leading the field in diesel-powered tanks at the time (the US chose radial aircraft engines because 1) they were far better in terms of logistical ability (pretty much share all the same parts as most US aircraft did) and reliability (diesels didn't really come into their own until the late 1930s, but they were heavier than their petrol or aircraft counterparts, the Germans used a mix of petrol (early war) and aircraft engines (late war) for their tanks) and 2) size limits as they all had to be able to be hauled on the US rail network which is the largest in the world back then and one of the largest to this day)... the tanks that would have shown up late-war in OTL would be showing up earlier if the IJA didn't have to fight not just within itself (Traditionalists v New Blood) but also the IJN (Yamamoto's faction and the Battleship factions with the Mahan worshipers faction and those that didn't being sub-factions within both... yeah, IJ military politics got crazy once you get into it...). Then you've got the fact that there really isn't a doctrine for these tanks because of the aforementioned factions of the IJA.

Many of the New Blood members wanted to basically copy German Blitzkrieg, just with IJA equipment. Combined arms from the air and land, tanks spearheading mechanized/motorized infantry units to smash into enemy lines, that sort of thing. The Traditionalists... quite literally pissed on all of that and went with the French model of dispersing tanks among the infantry...

I've found a video about Japanese tanks on Youtube that I can dig up for this:
 
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