英国二战情报 日本97式Chi-Ha历史揭秘

　　Okay, here’s a MUST see for historyfans: Listy found in archives (amongst other things) accounts about Japanesetanks. Go check it out!

　　我们来普及历史知识了:在档案馆尘封的资料库中wg找到了本子系坦克的资料。

　　A couple of weeks ago I was flicking through anArchive here in the UK. I was mostly after light tank related information. Ithen saw a file simply called "light tanks". So a file in a UKarchive titled "light tanks"... want to guess what it held? Well itdid have a few pages on Japanese light tanks, but it was mostly a filebuilt up by MI10 (the intelligence department for foreign equipment) during thewar about what we now know as the Type 97 Chi-Ha.

　　几个礼拜前，我在英国的一个档案馆里找资料的时候，发现一份叫做“轻型坦克”的资料。一份在英国名为“轻型坦克”的资料里头到底有啥东西呢?里头有有几页关于日本轻型坦克的资料，但这东西看上去应该是战争期间国外武器情报部门写的关于type97Chi-Ha的资料。

　　Inside it gave an interesting look at what anIntelligence Officer has to work with to produce a viable assessment. Includinginformation from a Japanese POW. Now I don't know if this POW, or the laterone, was deliberately providing false information, or if they genuinelybelieved what they were saying.

　　档案里头记录了情报部门不得不对来自日本战俘口中的坦克资料对这型坦克做出可靠的评估。我不知道这个战俘，或者后面的战俘所提供的信息是不是故意混淆视听，或者他们真的相信自己所说的。

　　The first POW was a Lieutenant in the 1stIndependent Mixed Regiment on Saipan, he was captured in July 1944. Howeverhalf his interrogation file seems to be missing, and only the bits relating tothe tank survive. He stated that the Type 97 Chi-Ha had 15 mm of armour and atwelve cylinder diesel engine. His unit had trained on them in August 1941.

　　第一个战俘是来自塞班岛的第一独立混编团的中尉，他在1944年被俘。但是关于他的审问记录有一半掉了，只有关于他对坦克的描述留了下来。他说type97CHIHA有15mm装甲和12汽缸的柴油引擎。他的部队在1941年8月训练如何操作过。

　　Equally he claimed all tanks had radio's, air conditioning and twin 47mmguns, with one mounted in the standard turret and another in the hull. He alsoclaimed that they could fit 30 ammunition boxes in the tank, each box being 2feet long, 1 foot tall and 1.5 feet wide.

　　同样的，他声称所有坦克都有无线电，空调和双联47mm炮，一门装在普通炮塔上另一门装在车体上，每个炮塔2英尺长，一英尺高，1.5英尺宽。

　　Finally and most bizarrely he claimed as wellas one drive wheel at the front, it had two smaller drive wheels at the back,both 14 inches across. The intelligence officer indicates that this mightsignify an earlier model.

　　最后也是最奇怪的一点，他声称，这坦克不但有一个驱动轮在前部，而且在坦克后部两个驱动轮，都是14英寸宽。情报人员表示这可能是个重要的初期模型。

　　The POW also gave a rundown of crew numbers.Three men for this particular medium tank, two for a light tank and an unknownnumber for a heavy tank.

　　战俘最后给了一个成员责任的划分。这特殊的中型坦克有三个成员，其中两个是轻型坦克成员，最后一个未知的成员是重型坦克成员。

　　"Heavy tanks?" I thought, so more searchingensued, and another POW report was found.

　　“重型坦克是什么鬼?”，我继续调查，发现了另外一份战俘的报告。

　　This one is from a private captured in theManus Islands. He was wounded and sought help from natives. Unsurprisingly theypromised to help and simply turned him over to the US forces some time aroundthe 6th of August 1944. In civilian life he'd been a foreman at the Hitachi'sforging plant at Kameari, where he'd been working up until at least November1943. Whilst there he'd seen several of Japan's heavy tanks; the Type 97.

　　这一份是来自在马努斯岛的一个二等兵战俘。他在负伤后向海军求助。美帝海军当然很乐意的帮了他一把然后在1944年8月6日左右把他押在美军。战俘表示自己在1943年11月前在龟有日立锻造工厂工作。他已经看到过多部日本type97重型坦克。

　　Then this story takes a bizarre turn. In one ofthe files I was reading there was a page of French. When translated it wasfurther stats for the Type 97 Heavy Tank. In a final odd twist some originalcaptured Japanese documents appear, again detailing the Type 97, with planswhich look somewhat like the above sketch.

　　然后这故事有了个奇妙的大转变。在这些文件中，我看到了一页法文资料。翻译后发现这是一份更进一步的type97重型坦克的资料。在资料结尾有了惊人的发现，结尾有些资料来自于日本被缴获的资料记载。其内容记载了type97的详细资料，和上文所说的有相同之处。

　　Further searching finds even more of what appearto be original Japanese plans for several models of heavy tanks.

　　更多的研究使得更接近历史上日本多种重型坦克计划。

　　Finally, I'll leave you with a report that is abit of a mystery. What were the Japanese firing? Any of you want to take aswing at it?

　　最后，我给你们透露一份资料。日本人打的什么?你们有人有啥意见?

　　在瓜达康纳尔岛，一队m3轻型坦克小队奉命支援在伦格河西岸的战斗的美军步兵团。指挥坦克和编号为1，4，5的坦克排成纵列向前推进到日军沿河的机枪阵地。编号4的坦克开开进了丛林，从那以后就再也没被找到过。五号坦克随后从捷径绕到丛林后面，但也没找到失踪的坦克。五号坦克的驾驶员说在丛林边缘，有日军用手雷攻击坦克，然而并没有对坦克照成多大的损坏。当被从炮塔右侧攻击的时候坦克是不动的。炮弹击穿了坦克同时又击中了另外一个炮塔当炮弹爆炸的时候。驾驶员估计是多管坦克大约在100尺外攻击了他们。炮弹的填充物掉在地上燃烧呈黄色的火焰蓝色的烟。驾驶员表示第一击后散发出刺鼻而且令人窒息的烟，而且嘴巴觉得相当干燥和口腔皱缩。几乎和第一击同时，第二击来自炮塔右侧。炮弹击穿了坦克，炮弹内的弹药掉落在地上和坦克弹药架上开始燃烧。扑救是无效的，坦克幸存成员跳出坦克逃向后方部队。日军靠近了坦克，但是发现里头成员早溜了。驾驶员看见坦克在燃烧，但是无法确定日军是否泼了汽油。