The Type I Arisaka (イ式小銃 I-shiki shōjū, pronounced "Type-eye" or "Type-ee") was an Italo-Japanese bolt-action rifle designed by Fabbrica d'Armi Terni in 1938 and produced by various arsenals in Italy from 1938 to 1939. A foreign version of the Arisaka rifle, the Type I in essence was a version of the Type 38 Arisaka produced in Italy.
History[]
Following what was known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded China and strained manufacturing heavily; as the war was going on, priority for firearms manufacture was given to the Army, with other organizations such as the Imperial Japanese Navy not given such luxury.[1]
It was because of this that the Navy (which procured small arms independently of the Army) was heavily lacking in arms production, so they sought to secure arms from outside sources. Luckily for the Navy, Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact that year. As such, the Navy approached their new ally to produce rifles for their use; a contract was then signed and a delegation sent to Italy to oversee production of a rifle comparable to that of the Type 38 rifle used by the Army.[2]
The weapon was designed by Fabbrica d'Armi Terni (or Terni) in 1938[3]; the resulting rifle was designated the "Type I" (with "I" being the first phonetic in "Italia"). The rifle was produced from 1938 to 1939 by three arsenals, Fabbrica d’Armi Regio Esercito (or Gardone), Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (or Beretta) and Fabbrica Nazionale d’Armi di Brescia (or FNA-B), in a number of 9,999 rifle blocks with serial numbers prefaced with a letter from A to L (i.e. A1234); Terni ended up producing the barrels for the weapon, after which they would be sent to one of the three manufacturing plants for completion. Japanese inspectors gave final approval on the manufacturing of these rifles in Italy.[2]
The contract for production was fulfilled in a year,[2] with the rifles seeing use in a number of campaigns, most notably in the Philippines[4] and at Kwajalein Atoll.[2] The total number of rifles produced over that timespan remains unclear; the generally accepted figure is that 60,000 Type Is were produced,[5][1][6] although the serial number range of the Type Is would suggest a total production of somewhere between 120,000 and 140,000 rifles.[4][2]
Design Details[]
In essence, the Type I is a Carcano rifle made to look like a Type 38 Arisaka,[2] and as such, functions very similarly to both rifles although some characteristics from either the Carcano or Arisaka are not retained in the Type I.
The Type I is a bolt-action rifle with a five-round internal box magazine fed by stripper clips. The Type I could also mount the standard Japanese Type 30 bayonet and had notch sights as opposed to peep sights on the Type 38.[5]
During the manufacturing process, a standard Carcano receiver and action is mounted onto a custom-made stock meant to resemble that of a Type 38 Arisaka's, with the five-round magazines of the Japanese rifles replicated on the Italian-made stocks. The stocks appear to be made of a harder wood than what most Japanese rifle stocks were made out of. Many other minor details such as barrel bands, cleaning rods and bayonet lugs were also replicated on the Italian rifles.[2]
Ammunition[]
The Type I used 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka ammunition as it was a requirement of the contract issued.[2]
Trivia[]
- The manufacturer of a specific Type I can be determined using its serial number; the letter used to preface the serial number is what can be used. Serial numbers with any letter from A to F were produced by Gardone, G to I by FNA-B and J to L by Beretta.[2] However, some Type Is with the J prefix were also produced by FNA-B due to production overruns.[4]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/type-i-carcano/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 http://surplused.com/rifle-carcano-type-i/
- ↑ http://personal.stevens.edu/~gliberat/carcano/type-i.html
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2794
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.nambuworld.com/typeipix.htm
- ↑ http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum/the-galleries/wwii,-korea,-vietnam-and-beyond/case-63-world-war-ii-allies-and-japan/%27%27japanese-garand%27%27-wwii-semi-automatic-rifle.aspx