#type 11

British Troops Gather up Abandoned Japanese Weapons

The photograph above is extremely interesting as it shows a very broad range of Japanese small arms being collected up in Malaya. The photograph comes from the Imperial War Museum’s archive and is captioned:

“Flying Officer Gogarthy from Belfast supervises the collection of abandoned Japanese weapons at Prai power station, Port Butterworth, Malaya. The collection of arms and equipment was vital to stop them falling into the hands of nationalist fighters or criminal gangs.”

It includes an interesting plethora of Japanese small arms including a whole host of Type 99 rifles, two light machine guns a Type 99 LMG (on the far left) and an older Type 11 (to the right of it). The Type 11 is leaning against a Type 92 medium machine gun mounted on a tripod, another can be seen leaning on the front of the gun. Interestingly we can see at least five Type 89 7.92mm aircraft machine guns (one is being handed to the man kneeling by the Type 92, three more can be seen in the hands of the men waiting and another can be seen on the floor beneath the rifles. Two wooden batons are also on the floor near the medium machine gun. Flying Officer Gogarthy, holding a Type 99 rifle with its action open, on the right also has a Japanese officer’s pistol holster hanging around his chest. 

These weapons were quickly collected up to prevent them from falling into the hands of local nationalist insurgents. The situation in post-war Malaya was complex and within two years unrest would boil over into what later became known as the Malayan Emergency. 

Image Source

Trotz des Namens sind Autofabrica aus London. Despite the name Autofabrica is London based.

Starring: ‘46 Gordini Type 11