Type 38 pattern 1907 (6.5 mm)

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Revision as of 21:43, 11 January 2020 by Jareel_Skaj (talk | contribs) (Added Comparison with analogues and Usage in battles. Also fixed some of the linking in the article.)

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Type 38 firing, with a visible gun barrel

Description

Considered a very weak, low-calibre machine gun, the Type 38 pattern 1907 (6.5 mm) primarily fulfils a support role when needed. Even when used in pair it's a rather impotent weapon, most of its value is in a psychological effect, as the player taking hits will constantly see shrapnel from hits, markers from inflicted damage and clearly visible bullets hitting the vessel. Even if the unit is not destroyed, often it's enough to deter opponents from continuing attack or cause them to take unnecessary precautions not realizing the small calibre of rounds they are being hit with.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

General info

Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.

Available ammunition

Penetration at most angles is more than adequate to deal with wood or steel in the superstructure. That said though: low calibre gives it a very low damage output.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of warhead Penetration in mm @ 0° Angle of Attack
10m 100m 500m 1000m 1500m 2000m
6.5 mm ammunition belt with tracers T/T/T/T 23 22 20 18 16 15

Comparison with analogues

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Type 38 has the lowest calibre of all the comparable machine guns, and at the same time one of the lower rate of fire, however it has the best penetration. While bulk of the boats in a comparable battle ratings do not have any protection for that to matter, as they're built from a relatively thin wood, there are few exceptions, such as S-100's cockpit and rear gun shield.

owest caliberl

; Cannon

Ammo Calibre

(mm)

RoF

/min

Targetting

speed (°/s)

Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
100m 1000m 2000m
Japan flag.png Type 38 pattern 1907 HE 6.5 600 50 22 18 15
Japan flag.png Type 92 Universal 7.7 600 60 19 13 10
Britain flag.png Lewis pattern 1916 Universal 7.72 550 64 19 13 10
Germany flag.png MG34 API-T 7.92 900 72 9 4 0

Usage in battles

This particular machine gun is used only on a single unit, therefore it's usage in battles is highly determined by the particular unit. The weapon is mounted on two armored turrets with a horizontal guidance of ±146° and ±148° for front and rear respectively, which is excellent, offering very wide fields of fire where both guns can be used simultaneously. While weapon's designated role is anti-aircraft, its vertical guidance is only -10°/+25°, which is unusually low for an AA (to compare: Type 92 on Mutsuki has a vertical guidance of -10°/+60°), realistically making it primarily an anti-naval weapon And in such a duty it's a decent weapon, even if an individual shots have a low damage, overall two guns from a relatively small turrets, able to independently guide targets are always a welcome addition to any boat.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Good penetration
  • Enclosed in a turret protected by 6mm RHA

Cons:

  • Lowest calibre gun among the naval units
  • Low damage
  • Only tracer bullets

History

Type 38 machine gun (三八式機関銃) was introduced in 1905 for the Imperial Japanese Army. It was a license-built variant of an imported Hotchkiss M1900 (Mitrailleuse Hotchkiss modèle 1900, which itself was adapted into IJA service in low numbers as the Type Ho).

This weapon saw combat use in the Siege of Tsingtao and further up till 1940, including the China Incident, as a second-line weapon. In front-line use, it was replaced by the 6.5 mm Type 3 heavy machine gun (三年式機関銃) introduced in 1914.

An empty machine gun without tripod had a total mass of 28 kg and a total length of 1.4 m. It was fed by 30 round brass strips, much like it's Hotchkiss predecessor, with a maximum firing rate of 450 RPM. Maximum range was 4,000 m, with an effective range of 2,000 m.

Media

An excellent addition to the article would be a video guide, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

See also

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

  • topic on the official game forum;
  • encyclopedia page on the weapon;
  • other literature.


Naval machine guns
USA 
7.62 mm  M73
12.7 mm  AN-M2
Germany 
7.62 mm  MG-3
7.92 mm  MG08 pattern 1908 · MG15 · MG34
13.2 mm  Hotchkiss
15 mm  MG M38(t)
USSR 
7.62 mm  Maxim
12.7 mm  DShK
14.5 mm  KPV
Britain 
7.62 mm  FN MAG
7.7 mm  Lewis 1916 · Vickers GO No.5
12.7 mm  Vickers Mk.V
Japan 
6.5 mm  Maxim · Type 38 pattern 1907
7.7 mm  Type 89 · Type 92
13.2 mm  Type 93
Italy 
6.5 mm  Breda Mod.30 · Fiat Model 26
12.7 mm  Breda-SAFAT
13.2 mm  Breda Model 31
France 
13.2 mm  Browning · Model 1929 Hotchkiss