#type 92

Soldats chinois communistes de la 8e Armée de Route (Eighth Route Army) posent avec des mitrailleuses japonaises Arisaka Type 92 – Guerre sino-japonaise – Yan'an – Province de Shaanxi – Chine – 1944

Photographe : Harrison Forman

©University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries - Harrison Forman Collection – fr206822

De gauche à droite : Tsuo Chi, Chen Wai-ou, et Liu Chuan-lien, trois héros du 717e Régiment. Tsuo Chi a perdu son bras droit dans l'engagement qui a permis la capture des mitrailleuses lourdes japonaises.

Dutch Bren Carriers

Following the end of the Second World War the Dutch Army made extensive use of surplus equipment. This interesting photograph features a British-made Universal (or Bren Gun) Carrier in Dutch service mounted with a Japanese Type 92 medium machine gun. 

The photograph was taken between 1946-48, during the Indonesian National Revolution, or Indonesian War of Independence. Many of the photographs, including those above, show men of the 4th Battalion, 8th Regiment of Stoottroepen, serving in the East Indies. The situation in the Dutch East Indies at the end of the Second World War was a complex one with British and Commonwealth troops arriving to take the surrender of remaining Japanese forces in the area only to find themselves embroiled in a counter-insurgency operation against Indonesian Nationalists.

Two Dutch soldiers examine a Japanese Type 92 machine gun (source)

Dutch troops began to arrive in force in 1946. With them they brought British tracked Universal Carriers. These were used as troop carriers, to carry supplies and pull trailers and also British 6pdr anti-tank guns. The Dutch forces that relieved British and Commonwealth troops were largely trained and armed with British weapons. On top of these they also put some Japanese small arms into service, predominantly machine guns such as the Type 92. In the first photograph we see a carrier mounted with a Japanese Type 92. 

Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force tanks and other armoured vehicles take part in an annual training session, which is based on a scenario to defend or retake islands in Japanese territory, near Mount Fuji at Higashifuji training field in Gotemba, west of Tokyo, August 18, 2015. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)