Chapter 767: A Negative Example

The Japanese soldiers on Midway Island were trying their best to repair their Type 11 light machine guns. This weapon had performed poorly after being put into service in the Pacific theater, frequently exhibiting all sorts of unbearable faults.

Ever since the Great Japanese Empire’s operation to attack the Hawaiian Islands had ended in failure, the Japanese Navy had drawn up a massive plan for a strategic showdown centered around Midway. Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy had not taken the bait. They had hunkered down in Hawaii, waiting for more of their own aircraft carriers to be launched.

A helpless Yamamoto Isoroku had no choice but to lead the remaining forces of the Japanese Navy south, retreating to the waters near the island-filled Marshall Islands. There, he trained the heavily damaged Naval Air Arm, hoping for a chance to fight again. With the support of this naval force, the Japanese Army in Australia had launched an offensive codenamed “Long Sword,” capturing a series of important northeastern towns in Australia.

However, this series of attacks did not bring joy to Japan. Anyone with a bit of foresight knew that the Japanese Navy’s all-or-nothing gamble on the American government collapsing and surrendering had completely failed. The Americans had not, as most of the politicians in the Japanese high command had predicted, surrendered and sued for peace in the face of setbacks and humiliation. Instead, like a giant whose beautiful dream had been disturbed, they had drawn their long sword in a rage.

The Combined Fleet had run away, or rather, “advanced in another direction.” The mess they left behind was handed over to a group of poor souls from the Japanese Army and Navy marines. These soldiers had been sent thousands of miles to Midway, only to have to fight a desperate war after losing air and sea superiority.

A group of Japanese soldiers had been ordered to dig trenches on the beach, using hastily transported sandbags and timber from the island to build various fortifications. They still believed that the Japanese Navy could come to their rescue when they needed it, to completely wipe out the U.S. Navy landing forces that were preparing to invade the “sacred soil” beneath their feet. The optimists felt they would achieve final victory in the war within the next month. The more pessimistic ones also believed they could return to their hometowns by the end of 1939.

The commander in charge of the more than 20,000 Japanese infantry on Midway was named Ando. He was a veteran commander who had fought in China for several years. He had rich combat experience and was one of the more highly regarded figures in the Japanese Army. To be sent to command the battle on Midway at such a critical moment was a testament to the high command’s trust in him.

But to be honest, although this Ando had very rich combat experience, it was all so-called “experience” gained from fighting in China. Against the regular Chinese army, whose weapons and equipment were similar to, or even slightly inferior to, Japan’s, his command could be considered competent. But to be transferred to the Pacific to face the U.S. military, which had a clear firepower advantage, his bit of experience seemed a bit out of place.

Just as on Kauai, the Japanese Army was still building its defense line on the beach, attempting to completely block the American landing at the water’s edge. This tactic was also one of the oldest methods of resisting a landing and could only be described as uninspired. Moreover, the army and the marines had not received the news of the navy’s “advance in another direction.” They had always believed that the navy was nearby and could support their combat.

“Wipe it a little cleaner. This thing jams too easily,” a Japanese machine gunner reminded his comrade who was cleaning the machine gun. “I wonder if those officers know that using this weapon is simply harming our own people.”

The Type 11 light machine gun was the main frontline light machine gun of Japan, designed and produced in 1922. In accordance with Japan’s consistent “non-mainstream” thinking at the time, this machine gun was also intended to create an epic “imperialist development path with Japanese characteristics.”

The Japanese Army bizarrely believed that incorporating their automatic weapons into the same combat units as the infantry squad and platoon would inevitably increase the ammunition consumption of the frontline infantry. Therefore, the resulting ammunition supply problem had to be considered. This was not a problem at all for Germany and the United States, which had high industrial production capacity, but for Japan, it became a fatal technical indicator. This shows that Japan, which had become rich overnight after the First Sino-Japanese War, was not as wealthy as it appeared on the surface.

Before being equipped with this light machine gun, the basic combat units of the Japanese Army’s frontline infantry had not been equipped with automatic weapons. They all used the bolt-action “Type 30” or “Type 38” rifle. And the Japanese army had always advocated for thrift and diligence, emphasizing a “Bushido spirit” of using a bayonet whenever possible instead of a bullet. Of course, the real reason was to save a little steel to build more useful big things like battleships.

And so, once they started using light machine guns, ammunition supply became a problem. Specifically, it included two aspects: first, the quantity of ammunition, that is, to ensure there was enough; second, the model of ammunition, that is, to ensure it was universal. And universality was the fundamental requirement to ensure ammunition supply. Using the same cartridge for both rifles and machine guns could maximize the convenience of ammunition supply in combat.

Hearing this, one can’t help but applaud this nascent family-of-weapons design philosophy of the Japanese Army. Far across the ocean, Germany, under Akado’s leadership, had only just truly embarked on the path of paying attention to the standardization and universality of weapon families, which had also led to the birth of a batch of highly versatile weapons and equipment.

For example, most of the parts for Germany’s Panther tank could be interchanged with those of the Tiger tank, which gave Germany a great advantage on the tank production line. However, even the American joint fighter project of the 21st century had not been able to achieve the grand wish of complete parts interchangeability. Don’t doubt it, yes, this time, the cute high-ranking officers of the Japanese Army were once again at the forefront of the world. They had made a cute request.

The Japanese Army had considered the convenience of using ammunition in combat for the frontline infantry. They required that this new automatic weapon, which was about to be incorporated into the frontline infantry combat organization, should use the same feeding device as the rifle. In other words, the machine gun had to be fed by the rifle’s 5-round stripper clips. In this way, the infantry would achieve a common feeding device, which would not only further improve the convenience of ammunition supply, but also simplify the production process in the factory, especially in terms of ammunition packaging. A whole case of Japanese 6.5mm rifle ammunition had the cartridges loaded on 5-round stripper clips for storage. There was almost no loose ammunition packaging. This way, when a case of ammunition was opened on the battlefield, it could be used directly by both rifles and light machine guns.

While emphasizing the commonality of rifle and machine gun ammunition, they also emphasized the commonality of their feeding devices. With the same ammunition and the same feeding device, a rifleman could use a case of ammunition directly, and a machine gunner could also use it directly. In combat, the riflemen’s cartridges could be collected for the machine gun’s use. If the machine gun broke down, or to save ammunition, the remaining cartridges could be distributed to the riflemen for use.

Doesn’t that sound grand? Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Of course, to be able to design something that could still work after all this, one has to admire the great tolerance of the Japanese firearm designers. But the final result of such a compromise was that the “user experience” of this product was really too poor.

In today’s society, products all emphasize the “user experience,” which shows that the user’s feelings during the use of a product are very important. As a weapon, its users are the soldiers. And if a weapon’s user experience is poor, then the soldiers can only complain with their lives.

This light machine gun with Japanese characteristics was very sensitive to changes in the weather. In the beginning, its reliability was very poor when used in the low-temperature, severe cold conditions of northeastern China. The frontline troops, at their wit’s end, proposed improvements. The manufacturer adopted the method of installing an oil can next to the loading mechanism to keep the parts and cartridges lubricated at all times to maintain reliability.

Clearly, this temporary remedy did not fundamentally solve its reliability problem. Later, its reliability became even worse when used in the high-temperature, high-humidity conditions of Southeast Asia. Even the oil can was of no use. In the reports of the frontline machine gunners, the Type 11 light machine gun’s failure rate was only relatively low in seasons that were neither too cold nor too hot, neither too dry nor too wet, and under ideal conditions of careful cleaning and maintenance and low-intensity combat. Doesn’t this set of operating conditions sound familiar? In fact, thirty years later, the instruction manual for the American space agency’s Titan launch vehicle also recommended the same.

This explains why the reputation of this Japanese-invented weapon was so poor, to the point that even the Chinese army rarely kept and used it after capturing it. Because according to the quality of the Chinese army at the time, there really weren’t many who could use this machine gun.

The poor Japanese Army had set up this failure-prone machine gun in a few simple machine gun nests on the beach, preparing to resist the American attack. In fact, the commander, General Ando, had never even thought the Americans would come. Because a month ago, the Japanese Navy had tried to lure the Americans into a decisive battle nearby, and had waited for more than ten days without seeing a shadow of the U.S. Navy. To this day, he still stubbornly believed that, at least for two months, the U.S. Navy could not possibly appear in the waters near Midway.

The facts proved that his aide liked to slap him in the face, and he did it hard and accurately. While Ando was being self-righteous, his aide rushed into his command post and shouted the sentence Ando least wanted to hear: “American planes have appeared in the sky! The Americans are attacking!”

Before this aide could even calm down, the shrill sound of the air-raid siren began to wail. The entire ground of Midway seemed to tremble, trembling violently amidst the sound of one aerial bomb after another exploding.

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