Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[gwsiii]

Came across some pictures of a dewatted Type 99 20mm Flex Gun. Pretty nifty looking beast, would be curious what parts from other weapons would be usable.










Translation of the markings by Edokko:
1) E-shiki Nijju-miri Senkai-kiju Toku Ichi-gata Kai : Type-E (as in Oerlikon) 20mm Flexible Machine Gun Special Model 1 Rev.
2) Showa Ju-Roku-nen Go-gatsu : May 1941
3) Dai-nihon Heiki Kabushiki Kaisha / Tomioka Heiki Seisakujo : Dai-nippon Weapons Co., Ltd. / Tomioka Weapons Manufacturing Plant

A brief history of the Japanese Type 99 20mm Flex gun provided by Edokko.
Yes, these 20mm MG beasts were used quite broadly by the IJN.
They were initially built under license from the Swiss company Oerlikon from
1936 by The Tomioka Weapons Manufacturing Plant, established solely to build
these 20mm cannons by a private company called Uraga Dockyard Co., Ltd.,
under agreement from the navy that they will purchase the MGs and ammo if
the final product meet their specs.
The license was for the Models FF, FFL and FFS, each increasing in barrel
length and powder contents in order, but the weight specs initially limited
the aircraft application to the FF type, and hence Tomioka's first
production was the Type E (pronounced "E" as in "egg", not as in "eat") 20mm
Fixed Machine Gun Model-1 based on the Oerlikon FF coming off of the
production line in June 1937 using mostly imported materials. On July 1938,
The Tomioka Weapons Manufacturing Plant spun out from Uraga Dockyard and
became the Dai-Nippon Weapons Co., Ltd.. Produced the first purely domestic
material based 20mm MGs in July 1939, and the Type E 20mm Fixed MG Mode-1
was renamed the Type 99 No.1 20mm Fixed MG in February 1941. Obviously
during the course of evolution of this company, many more types of 20mm MGs
were made including larger capacity drum mags, belt fed MGs and of course
the flexible MGs as the one your friend owns.
The initial application of the fixed MG onto aircraft was the Type 96
fighter, but was most known for it's use on the famous Zero fighter. The
Zero saw several evolutions of the Type E and then the Type 99 20mm MG to
improve ammo capacity and accuracy, and the final magazine fed variation was
called the Type 99 No.2 20mm Fixed Machine Gun Model 3 with a 100 round
capacity magazine and was used until the end of war on the fighters Zero,
Raiden and Shiden.
The belt fed variation was developed in 1943 and named the Type 99 20mm No.2
Fixed MG Model 4, but had many problems with their production examples and
had to undergo many improvements as they were used on the Zero, Raiden,
Shiden, Shiden-kai and the Gekko.
There is much more info on the history of the 20mm navy MG born as the
Type-E but is just too vast to write up here. As for the flexible MGs, these
were built for the tail gunner of flying boats (ie Type 2 Flying Boat etc)
and the Mid-range Bombers (ie. Betty Bomber etc), but your friends model
Type-E 20mm Flexible Machine Gun Special Model-1 Rev. is a manually aimed
variation of the Type-E 20mm Flexible MG Special Model-1, which in turn was
a flexible MG modified from the Type-E 20mm Fixed MG.
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[type-14]

I still say you should have broken loose for a few bucks and bought the one at the show.

[arisakadogs]

The perfect weapon for home defense!
_________________
"A woman, a dog & and a walnut tree. The more ya beat em, the better they be" (From "The Red Bagde of Courage")

[type-14]

ADogs, The one at the show was nice and the funny thing was that the price kept going UP as the show went on. Started out at aournd 1500 and by the time Trey showed it to me it was at $2500. Dewatted it still was something to see. I tried to get Trey to buy it for me but he kept spending all his monies on those funny split stock rifles.

[arisakadogs]

Bad Trey! That would be a cool weapon to own.
_________________
"A woman, a dog & and a walnut tree. The more ya beat em, the better they be" (From "The Red Bagde of Courage")

[gwsiii]

It was a terrible show to not have any money. But, it beat going to work. Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[whitesharkseeker]

Thanks for posting, it's hard to find good info on this weapon. The Japanese used those 20mm's on Peleliu Island to beef-up their defenses. Some can still be found in cave entrances or atop ridges. They apparently scavanged them off destroyed aircraft prior to the invasion. So you see, they were not used just for air combat!

-Eric

[gwsiii]

Eric, thanks for the update on ground usage.

I saw it at the show on Friday, (it was the 'coffee table' I mentioned on the AGCA show post) and then I spent from 10pm Friday till 4am Saturday trying to find decent pictures and information, I wasn't able to turn up much, so I figured I needed to at least get some decent pictures and a little information. I'm going to add a page to the main web site, so if anyone has any additional info, post it, or email it to me for inclusion on the page.

Dale mentioned the price kept going up, when I first heard about it, it was not for sale, but for trade, 1 good Japanese rifle, and 1 good Japanese pistol. By Saturday it was 'priced' at $2500, with a class ??? dealer that wanted to buy it and and re-manufacture it as a single shot coming perilously close with his offer.

For taking pictures at shows, or on the road, consider buying a tri-pod ($20) and a cheap roll up white vinyl/plastic window shade ($5-$10) for a background. It doesn't take up much space, put a chair on each side of the subject, with the shade unrolled across the chairs and under the subject (resting on shade on the ground), it gives a good neutral background and amplifies the available 'bad' lighting found at shows. When the shade gets dirty, you can just wipe it off. You can edit the pictures for brightness. It does 'wash them out a bit', but I didn't find any pictures or information even close to the quality of what is posted here, my thanks to Edokko and Eric for providing background info.

Owner wants me to keep an eye out for any parts, anybody got anything that would fit? Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!