Type 88 AA (75 mm)

This page is about the Japanese naval cannon Type 88 AA (75 mm). For other uses, see Type 88 (Disambiguation).

The Type 88 AA (75 mm) on Type 5 in Tricolor geometric camouflage

Description

75 mm Type 88 AA is a naval cannon of the Imperial Japanese Navy adopter early in the interwar period, seen its first wide use in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Despite having the AA, Anti-Air, designation, it struggles to deal with aerial targets, owning it to a very limited vertical guidance. Instead, it performs very well against coastal vessels, in particular small motor torpedo boats, with the HE shells.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• Type 5

General info

Available ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		100 m	1,000 m	2,000 m	3,000 m	4,000 m	5,000 m
Type 90 HE	HE	7	7	7	7	7	7
Type 95 AP	APHEBC	100	83	68	55	45	37
Type 90 HE-TF	HE-TF	7	7	7	7	7	7

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
Type 90 HE	HE	720	6.52	0	0.1	420	79°	80°	81°
Type 95 AP	APHEBC	720	6.53	0.15	0.1	150	48°	63°	71°
Type 90 HE-TF	HE-TF	720	6.52	0	0.1	420	79°	80°	81°

Comparison with analogues

Compared to its peers, Type 88's strong point is a large explosive filler in the APHEBC shells. Shells trade that explosive filler for a lower penetration, but that penetration is still more than enough to reach ammo racks on any coastal vessel, destroyer, most of the light cruisers or even several heavy cruisers. Her performance in the coastal battles is also aided by a good horizontal targeting speed of 21°/s and a fairly good rate of fire. Where she suffers is an extremely limited vertical targeting, slow muzzle velocity, fully exposed crew or a poor performance of the HE shell, which ultimately makes it a rather unremarkable weapon for the calibre.

HE

Cannon		Sample Ship	Ammo	Calibre (mm)	Muzzle velocity (m/s)	Sustained rate of fire (rounds/min)	Targeting speed (°/s)		Vertical guidance (°)	TNT equivalent (kg)	TNT equivalent per minute (kg)	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
							Horizontal	Vertical
	3-inch Mark 10	USS Raleigh	HE	76	825	17	8.5	15	85	0.5	8.5	8
	3 inch Mk.33	Geniere	HE	76.2	823	6	20	26	85	0.5	3	8
	3-inch Mk.34	USS Asheville	HE	76.2	823	49.8	20	26	85	0.5	24.9	8
	34-K (76 mm)	Soobrazitelny	HE	76.2	845	27	12	8	85	0.483	13.04	8
	39-K (76 mm)	Tashkent	HE	76.2	845	20	18	11	87	0.483	9.66	8
	76 mm/60 AK-176M	MPK Pr.12412	HE	76.2	845	20	30	26	85	0.616	12.32	10
	AK-726 (76 mm)	SKR-7	HE	76.2	980	16.2	26	30	85	0.616	9.98	10
	3 inch 12pdr 12 cwt QF Mk.V (76 mm)	HMS Churchill	HE	76.2	823	17	25	25	70	0.5	8.5	8
	76 mm/45 QF 3in 20cwt (76 mm)	HMS Valhalla	HE	76.2	762	12	13	10	40	0.32	3.84	6
	Type 88 AA (75 mm)	Type 5	HE	75	720	20	21	20	50	0.42	8.4	5
	8 cm/40 3rd Year Type (76 mm)	Type K-8 No.13 late	HE	76.2	685	20	11	10	75	0.48	9.6	8
	8 cm/60 Type 98 (76 mm)	IJN Agano	HE	76.2	902	25	18	16	85	0.399	9.98	7
	76 mm/40 Ansaldo mod.1917 (76 mm)	RN Aquila	HE	76.2	690	15	11	10	75	0.65	9.75	10
	76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact (76 mm)	Sparviero	HE	76	925	85.7	51	30	85	1.08	92.57	15
	76 mm/62 SMP 3 (76 mm)	Albatros	HE	76.2	930	8.57	34	60	85	0.864	7.40	15
	75 mm/50 model 1922	Duguay-Trouin	HE	75	850	15	19	18	85	0.45	6.75	8

AP / SAP

Cannon		Sample Ship	Ammo	Calibre (mm)	Muzzle velocity (m/s)	Sustained rate of fire (rounds/min)	Targeting speed (°/s)		Vertical guidance (°)	TNT equivalent (kg)	TNT equivalent per minute (kg)	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack @ 5000 m (mm)
							Horizontal	Vertical
	3-inch Mark 10	USS Raleigh	APCBC	76	823	17	8.5	15	85	0.13328	2.27	57
	3-inch Mk.34	USS Asheville	APHE	76.2	823	49.8	20	26	85	0.0637	3.17	62
	34-K (76 mm)	Soobrazitelny	APHEBC	76.2	816	27	12	8	85	0.119	3.21	65
	39-K (76 mm)	Tashkent	APHEBC	76.2	816	20	18	11	87	0.119	2.38	65
	Type 88 AA (75 mm)	Type 5	APHEBC	75	720	20	21	20	50	0.150	3	55
	76 mm/40 Ansaldo mod.1917 (76 mm)	RN Aquila	APHE	76.2	690	15	11	10	75	0.319	4.79	20
	76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact (76 mm)	Sparviero	SAP	76	925	85.7	51	30	85	0.6552	57.46	32

Usage in battles

Clearly visible side profile of the Type 88 AA firing, with the breech pushed by the recoil.

Typically for the Great War-era guns, Type 88 AA struggles to deal with air targets, and has a fully exposed crew. But in many other ways it overperforms compared to other guns of the period. She's able to deal with the coastal vessels relatively well. Firing 1 high-explosive round every 3 seconds, and typically 2 to 3 rounds are able to destroy every boat it gets to see. AP rounds are best avoided, except for the situations when firing at a particularly large bow of a vessel, such as the Schnellboot, in order to prevent rounds constantly fusing on the same section. HT-TF rounds should be used only against aerial targets, as they might fuse ahead of a boat, inflicting minimal damage with the shrapnel.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Horizontal targeting speed
• Good sustained rate of fire
• Explosive filler of the HE rounds is more than enough to deal with wooden boats
• Very good characteristics of the armour-piercing shells
• Access to the dedicated anti-air shells (HE-TF)

Cons:

• Slow muzzle velocity and long shell travel time makes it difficult to hit distant targets
• Relatively low explosive filler of the HE shells
• Very limited vertical guidance make it impossible to engage dive bombers
• Exposed crew

History

The Type 88 was the most produced Japanese medium anti-aircraft cannon during World War II. The Type 88 AA was designed to replace the earlier Type 11 design from World War I. A modern medium anti-aircraft gun developed for the Imperial Japanese Army, the gun was not a straight copy of any foreign design, but an amalgamation of the best aspects of foreign designs according to the Army Technical Bureau. The primary influence was the British OQF 3in 20cwt anti-aircraft gun from World War I.

Adopted in 1928 (on the Gregorian calendar, 2588 on the Japanese Imperial calendar, hence the Type 88 designation), 2,000 guns were ultimately built and used by every field artillery unit for medium-level air defense. While it was battle-proven during the 1937 Invasion of Manchuria, the 1938 Soviet-Japanese Border Conflicts, and the 1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese War, it was obsolete by 1941. It was still effective against the obsolete aircraft used in China and was also used during the war as an anti-tank gun, which was particularly effective against the M4 Shermans at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The gun was also planned for use on the Kei-Tei Mod. Kō studied but never finished during 1945. The final significant role was the defense of the Japanese Home Islands against the Allied Bombing Campaign. However, they were not capable of shooting down the high altitude B-29 Superfortresses leading to an experimental attempt to mount the Type 88 on the Ki-109 to counter these aircraft, though it never made it into production.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

• 34-K (76 mm)
• 3-inch Mark 10 (76 mm)
• Type 88 (75 mm) - Aircraft variant

External links

• [Wikipedia] Type 88 75 mm AA gun
• [Australian War Memorial] 75 mm Type 88 (1928) Anti Aircraft Gun

Japan naval cannons
20 mm	JM61 · Type 98
25 mm	25 mm/60 Type 96
37 mm	Type 4 · Type 11 pattern 1922
40 mm	40 mm/62 Vickers
57 mm	Type 97
75 mm	Type 88 AA
76 mm	3-inch/40 Type 41 · 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type · 8 cm/60 Type 98
100 mm	100/65 mm Type 98 mod A
120 mm	120 mm/45 3rd Year Type · 120 mm/45 10th year type
127 mm	5 inch/40 Type 89 · 127 mm/50 3rd Year Type
140 mm	140 mm/50 3rd Year Type
152 mm	6-inch/45 Type 41 · 15 cm/50 Type 41
155 mm	155 mm/60 3rd Year Type
200 mm	20 cm 3rd year type No.1
203 mm	20 cm/45 Type 41 · 20 cm/50 3rd year type No.2
356 mm	36 cm/45 Type 41
410 mm	410 mm/45 Type 3
	Foreign:
20 mm	20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II (USA/Britain)
40 mm	Bofors L/60 Mark 1 (USA) · Bofors L/60 Mark 2 (USA) · Bofors L/60 Mark 3 (USA)
47 mm	3 pdr QF Hotchkiss (Britain)
76 mm	3-inch Mark 10 (USA) · 3 inch Mk.33 (USA) · 3-inch Mk.34 (USA)
120 mm	4,7-inch/40 Armstrong (Britain)
127 mm	5 inch/38 Mk.12 (USA)
305 mm	12-inch/45 Vickers (Britain) · 12-inch/50 Vickers (Britain)