Japanese 57mm Ho 401 aircraft gun

[genkideskan]

The Ho 401 was very similar to the Ho 203 gun. There are 17 cartridges in the cage. The gun weight was about 160 Kg, the length was app. 2m.







The gun was used in the Ki 102 Randy, mounted in the nose. Mounts in the bomb bays are known too.

Here a Ho 401 in a ventral position- note the pneumatic.


The powerful gun in the nose section. Rate of fire 80 rd/ min.





The 57 x 121 R ammunition was very similar to the cartridge used in the 57mm tank gun.
The projectile was shorter and use an smaller fuze made for 20mm ammo . It was fired at 560m/sec.

 

[Fokker D21]

This gun was supposed to be used against the B29's.

Luckily for the Americans the Ki-102-Ko interceptor didn't see service because of the problems with the turbo superchargers. The ground attack version was used as interceptor as well with unknown results.

So the Japanese Army had an extremely powerful gun, but couldn't use it to stop the bombers.