Ronin at War: Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun

The Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun (also known as the Taishō 14 Machine Gun) was the first Japanese machine gun to be domestically designed. It appeared in 1914, designed by General Kijiro Nambu, and was based on the french Hotchkiss M1914.

Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun (worldofweapons.blogspot.com).

Some differences with the Hotchkiss model were the feed, the fire controls and the locking system. It also modified the caliber, as the French one used 8mm cartridges and the Japanese used their then standard 6.5x50mm Arisaka ammunition.

Type 3 HMG (historywars.tumblr.com).

Type 3 HMG was an air-cooled gun. It was quite heavy (about 55kg), and its rate of fire was slower compared to other guns of its time (400-450 rounds per minute, fed with a 30 rounds strip). It was primarily used as a infantry machine gun, but its tripod could be also used as an anti-aircraft mount. Anti-aircraft sights were provided.

Type 3 HMG used as anti-aircraft gun (http://www3.plala.or.jp/).

During the late 1920s, as experience in China showed the Type 3 caliber to be ineffective, the IJA decided to improve their machine guns. In 1932, the Type 92 heavy machine gun was released (it was a slight modification of the Type 3) which used a bigger 7.7x58mm rounds.

Men of the 4th Division shooting their Type 3 HMG near Miluo River in Hunan Province, China, Sep 1941 (pinterest).

The Type 92 would become the main machine gun of the Japanese through WW2, but in China and Manchukuo in 1939 Type 3 was still the predominant gun. So it is quite likely that most of the heavy machine guns used by the 23th Infantry Division in the Nomonhan incident were Type 3.