"Arisaka" - rifle of Japanese production

If you are even a little interested in the history of the Russian army, you can certainly recall at least a couple of samples of foreign weapons. The first to come to mind is the machine gun "Maxim", someone can recall the "Lewis", this is also the English tanks "Vickers". But "Arisaka", a rifle of Japanese production, is not known to everyone. Nevertheless, these weapons played an important role in the development of modern Russian statehood.

How it all began

In 1914, the Imperial Army quickly realized that it ... is not corny shells, guns, cartridges and ... rifles. Industry in those years and could not establish the production of the proper amount of individual small arms. Their role was played by soldiers: history subtly "hinted" that the time of huge, but completely untrained armies had finally passed.

There is a well-known fact when one of the Russian generals, visiting the positions left by the soldiers (they were frightened of the German offensive), discovered ... several hundred thousand abandoned rifles and tens of millions of cartridges. And this despite the fact that weapons were already becoming scarce by the end of 1914, the factories simply could not cope with the sharply increased output.

Economic upheavals

In short, there was definitely not enough weapons. And then the Tsarist government decided to turn to its yesterday's enemy, Japan. The Japanese Arisaka rifle proved its worth in the years of that war. Even the ingenious Fedorov first created his first machine in the world precisely for her patron. In addition, strangely enough, it was the Japanese that turned out to be much more "generous", not wringing unconditional prices for weapons.

However, do not consider the Japanese altruists: the fact is that initially more than 35,000 rifles were intended for Mexican soldiers, but the US government gently hinted that the "Mexican order" in no case should be fulfilled. So the Land of the Rising Sun decided to get at least some benefit. One rifle "Arisaka", sold under the original contract of Russia, originally cost ... 29 rubles. And this despite the fact that domestic factories offered "three-line" at a price of 41 rubles per unit. So initially the idea looked tempting.

The first problems with purchases

Almost four million rifles were purchased during the period of the bidding with Japan. Only the first 35 thousand units were delivered on time. Very soon problems began: Mikado did not want to sacrifice the mobilization stocks of his own army. With great difficulty, it was possible to agree on the supply of only 200,000 units, and the conditions were mocking.

To each rifle, the Japanese attached only 100 cartridges. After numerous petitions it was possible to increase this amount ... to 125 charges. A ridiculous stock, especially since all cartridges were old, with expired warranty period of storage. They were taken from the mobilization depots at that time in Korea.

In the future, often there were deliveries of frankly worn, old trunks of "very dubious dignity", as they were characterized in the army in operation. But they were a good help against the backdrop of an extremely sluggish increase in production by domestic industry. As the sources of that time point out, the rifle of "Arisaka", the description of which is in the article, was in service with every tenth division. It's no wonder that the army team jokingly called them "Japanese."

"China or rifles"

Soon the supply of "diplomatic bargaining" broke out: Japan at that time put forward the famous "21 demand" for China, practically offering the country full surrender and recognition of the Japanese occupation government. Initially, Russian diplomats were against such arrogant demands ... but the onset of the German offensive in Galicia dictated its terms. With the tacit approval of the Tsarist government, China was forced to sign a bonded contract.

And then Japan took up our country. Inspired by the resigned submission of the tsar, Japanese diplomats began to put forward "breathtakingly brazen demands", expressed in particular in "requests" ... to give the entire Far East in exchange for an unfortunate million rifles. To the credit of domestic diplomats, such impudence could not stand, even negotiations about it did not begin. Moreover, the Japanese attaché was given a real pillow-case, after which the trading partner did not put forward such "projects".

Moreover, Japan agreed to a request for the sale of another million weapons. True, by that time each rifle of "Arisaka" had already cost 32-35 rubles. But it was still cheaper than domestic models. In addition, the Japanese began to supply normal cartridges of a modern design.

Interestingly, the Japanese bayonet "model 30" to the rifle "Arisaka" was, in fact, slightly shortened dagger. Since the domestic Mosinoks traditionally had needle bayonets, soldiers armed with "foreign" weapons, it is easy to find out in any photo of that period.

Overseas Intermediaries

Also curious is the fate of 60 thousand "Arisak", originally sold by the Japanese in England. "The Lady of the Seas" by that time also found herself in a quandary, despite the power of her metallurgical plants. But every "English" rifle "Arisaka" eventually ended up in Russian arsenals anyway. The fact is that by the end of 1915 the Germans again activated the offensive, as a result of which the British government, extremely frightened by this fact, decided to "plug the Russian avalanche into the Teutonic breakthrough". Rifles went to our country.

Thus, by February 1917, a vast number of weapons had been purchased and even more cartridges for them. It's only necessary to understand that the "Japanese Arisaka rifle" is not at all a single model. Seven (!) Of its various modifications were delivered to our country, which created countless problems for the already shaken supplyers. It is interesting that the last 150 thousand "Arisak" were purchased literally on the eve of the October Revolution.

But after Lenin's speech on "Peace and Land" the history of "Japanese women" in the service of the Russian army was far from complete. We can say that later they were fought by both the Red and the White Guard units. And the feedback on the practical application of this weapon was very different, regardless of who it was from. But still most of her "users" agreed that the rifle "Arisaka" (the photo of which is in the article) is a high-quality and reliable weapon. Note that the Japanese "held the brand" until 1944, when due to serious economic problems, the quality of produced weapons fell sharply.

By the way, what is the proportion of used rifles in the parts of the opposing sides during the Civil War? Here the information varies greatly. It is known that some units, directly subordinate to Kolchak, were almost entirely armed with them. But the number of "Arisak" in the Red Army in certain periods reached up to one-third of the total number of individual small arms used by them.

The gunsmiths also say that the notorious Latvian shooters were mainly armed with "Arisaki". So the role of these rifles in the history of our country is very high.

What did the soldiers think about Arisaki?

Miscellaneous. And it depended, as a rule, on the technical level of the fighter himself, the level of his formation, the type of rifle. If the "Japanese Arisaka rifle" was new, then there were almost no complaints about her in her direction. It is known that the old carbines had an unpleasant property, expressed in the "boiling" of the bolt. Again, it is hardly the fault of the rifles themselves: most likely, the soldiers themselves are guilty, for months they did not clean their personal weapons.

Recent use cases

After the Civil War, the rifle "Arisaka" type 30 was used by many countries. Especially a lot of this weapon was in the newly-born Finland with Estonia, where the "Japanese" almost completely were armed with border services.

In 1941, "Arisaki", in the execution of the mobilization plan, was sometimes given out to militiamen and rear units, but they did not receive wide dissemination. In the USSR, the production of weapons was put on stream, and therefore its shortage was not so acutely felt. It is possible that somewhere in the domestic arsenals there are still remnants of these rarities. It is known that the last batch of canned "Arisak" was sent for melting down by the Ukrainian Armed Forces back in 1993.

General technical information

Both in Japan itself and in our country, the most common were two types of these rifles: "Type 30" (the very first variety) and "Type 99". They differed in caliber. If the old "thirty" used for shooting a cartridge of 6.5x50 different modifications, then for the "Type 99" was developed a separate ammunition of increased power - 7.7x58. Most likely, the unusual caliber for the Japanese was borrowed from the British with their "Lee-Enfield".

In addition, in our country right up to the end of the use of this weapon, there was a rifle of "Arisaka" type 38. This is the second modification, the time of its development dates back to the beginning of 1900 of the last century.

As for the technical characteristics, these rifles are quite typical examples of weapons of their time, which had some distinctive features. The barrel bore is locked by a sliding pivot. The latter had two combat arms. Initially, Colonel Arisaka, who was the chief designer of this weapon, wanted a design with three warheads, but the production realities and the necessity of reducing the cost of the rifle caused some simplification of its design.

Other characteristics

At the front of the stalk of the shutter was a spring-loaded ejector. Since all the cartridges used by "Arisaki" had flanges (like the domestic 7.62x54), a reflector (cut-off) was mounted inside the receiver, on its left side.

The application, the box for the receiver and the lining on the trunk were made of wood. As a rule, they initially tried to use the nut, but in 1944-1945, when the economic situation of the fought Japan was greatly shaken, manufacturers had to switch to the cheapest types of wood, and the butt in some cases was made from low-grade plywood.

The knob of the bolt is interesting: it is very large, resembles a chicken egg in its section. The choice of this form was due to the fact that it proved to be the most convenient on tests. It is interesting that the fighting spring was located inside the tubular part of the impactor, as a result of which it is perfectly protected from the action of dust, moisture and dirt. This is due to the high reliability of weapons, which was repeatedly spoken of by both domestic and foreign soldiers.

Again, because of this feature, the spring was more sensitive to contamination with its powdered carbon (the same "boiling" that we mentioned above). But still, in order to bring the weapon to this state, it was necessary to "try" without cleaning for a very long time.

By the way, "Arisaki" had a special cover-casing to protect the bolt from contamination. But its practical importance was extremely small: the lid constantly clattered, created a lot of problems when carrying (there was a risk of losing it), and therefore many soldiers preferred to remove this detail beforehand and put it in pouches.

Protection against accidental shots

What else is characterized by "Arisaka" (rifle)? "Button" -fuse is a very characteristic feature of this weapon. The mechanism of its action is interesting. To activate the fuse when the shutter was cocked, it was necessary to press the "button" with the corrugated texture located on the back side of the shutter, and then turn it clockwise. At the same time, the projections cut out on the coupling securely blocked the firing pin, preventing him from hitting the primer.

The firing squad was put in a firing position automatically, with the cocking of the bolt. Charging was carried out with the gate open. It was possible to do this as one patron, and five, using special clips for this purpose.

It is also interesting that these weapons had a shut-off delay! That is, when the ammunition is consumed, the bolt automatically became in the extreme rear position, which greatly simplified the process of charging the rifle.

Bayonet fight

As we have already said, the bayonet to the rifle "Arisaka" was made in the form of a practically full dagger. There are cases when such bayonets were used by our fighters throughout the Great Patriotic War. The choice of the Japanese was not accidental: the concept of needle bayonets and bagitets, which guided domestic weapons designers, by that time is already very outdated.

On the contrary, it was very important for the soldiers to have a full-fledged knife with them, which could be used not only in combat, but with the daily arrangement of the camp. Due to the fact that the bayonet to the Arisaka rifle was made of high-quality steel, it was very popular with soldiers on both sides of the front. In particular, many American veterans in the "storerooms" have a knife from "Arisaki", which was much more convenient and quality than the American model.

And what are the Japanese soldiers armed with today? The individual rifle weapon is the assault rifle "Arisaka". It, like its numerous predecessors, is distinguished by high reliability and original technical solutions used in the design.

It so happened that the weapons manufactured in factories and factories in Japan, with which the Russian Empire had fought not long before, served a significant service in military operations against Kaiser Germany, and then in the formation of Soviet power.