JAPANESE "TYPE I" CARCANO
A note from the Author:
As already stated in the intro and in the sources, this article couldn't have been done without the initial discoveries of Aaron Zou, without Anderson's thread on Gunboards forum and consequent Youtube Video. The whole page was made in close collaboration with Anderson, which I cannot thank enough for his active support for this website and his friendship.
I would also like to thank C&Rsenal for their Youtube video on this topic, I am really grateful for their recognition and their dedication to create passionate documentaries about our beloved milsurp firearms. Extra thanks to JeromeZP for his help!
The Japanese referred to the "Type I" differently in different documents and reports. The most common are the “I (Italian) Type Rifle” (イ式小銃 or 伊式小銃), or the “Italian-made modified rifle” (伊太利製改造小銃).
You can often find it on the collector market as "Carcano-Arisaka", "Italian Arisaka" or "Japanese Carcano".
This gun has been a weird mystery for decades: it was an Italian gun, produced on Japanese request, in order to be shipped across the world to arm very few units during the second world war, being found mostly in the hands of IJN units in the 1941-45 period.
Recent dives into the Japanese Archives (freely accessible through their Internet database) intiated by fellow gun collectors J. Anderson and Aaron Zou, along with some collaborators, offered finally some answers to this oriental conundrum.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The history of the Type I begins around 1937, when Italian and Japanese diplomats were looking for stronger ties with Germany.
Up until 1936 and the Italo-Ethiopian war, mussolini saw hitler as a possible issue for the European chessboard, especially since hitler wanted to expand the german borders annexing Austria (they tried already in 1934 and only mussolini's intervention, deploying armies to the border prevented it) and accessing the Danube basin, while getting menacingly close diplomatically to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, main anthagonist of Italy's desires in the Balkans.
Italy on the other hand was getting closer to France after October 9th 1934, when the king of Yugoslavia Alexander the 1st got assassinated in Marseille, along with the anti-italian french foreign minister Barthou.
The new French foreign minister, Laval, wanted to have Italy on its side in an anti-german diplomatic coalition, but when mussolini decided to invade Ethiopia to boost its popularity, France had no other choice than to join England and the rest of the diplomatic world in sanctioning Italy's aggression of a free country who was a member of the League of Nations.
This diplomatic isolation drew mussolini straight into hitler's embrace, and thus slowly aligned Italy's policies to that of Germany.
Germany ricognized Italian annexation of Ethiopia on October 24th 1936, and the following day the two countries signed the Berlin Protocols, a traty of friendship and cooperation, laying the fundation of the Axis.
Japan instead was fearing a diplomatic isolation on its own: After its internationally criticised invasion of Manchuria in 1931 (sparked by its semi-autonomous Kwantung Army), Japan had to find a way to justify its expansionism in Asia, and thus in 1932 they created the State of Manchukuo, putting former Chinese Emperor PuYi at his head, in a way to further justify this entity.
Of course Manchukuo was just a puppet state, completely in the hands of Japan and of the Kwantung Army.
When Germany signed in 1935 a naval pact with Britain, in a vague hope to ward off the UK from its alliance with France, Japanese fear of international isolation grew even stronger. Relationships within Germany and Japan were never really great, especially since Germany had huge interests and military ties with Japan's main anthagonist, China, but the fear of an anglo-german entente was absolutely the worst possible nightmare for Japanese diplomatics hopes.
Luckily, Japan found a strong ally in this venture with joachim von ribbentropp, who, despite not being Foreign minister - yet- was really influential with hitler's foreign policies.
Ribbentrop managed to push hitler and the old prussian ministers and generals to work for stronger ties with japan, by claiming that they needed to form an anti-soviet alliance. He had practical evidences to convince them, since the Soviet Union in 1936 had their first big international intervention since the 1920s, openly helping Republican spain with tanks, men and guns.
This diplomatic exchange between Germany and Japan culminated in the Anti-comintern pact, signed on November 25th 1936, with ribbentropp and hitler claiming that Italy would have soon joined it too.
So Japan started moving towards Italy too, for reasons really similar to the ones tying it to Germany: creating a stronger international relationship, obtaining Italian technological expertise (especially related to airplanes) and hoping that Italy would cut its long lasting trade deals for military supplies with China.
Another important goal of these stronger ties with Italy was the dire need of Japan to have its Manchukuo puppet state recognized internationally.
In order to tempt Italy into recognizing sooner the Manchukuo state and join the Anti-comintern pact, in February 1937 the Japan Defense Ministry solicited the foreign minister to open up negotiations, while in June-July of the same year, it opened up direct negotiations to open commercial treaties in the name of the Manchukuo state, while completing other orders for the Japanese state itself like the 72 (then 85) ultra-modern Fiat BR.20 "Cigogna" airplanes, with spare engines, guns and parts, delivered within January 1938 and May 1939.
Dairen (today Dalian, Manchukuo) docks , January 1938. Fiat BR 20 "Cicogna" bomber offloaded from the Italian ship "Ircania", departed from the port of Livorno on November 30th 1937. [3]
Italy gladly accepted these propositions, dropped its previous deals with China (along with Germany, that recalled military attaches and whatever military supply to China after the Japanese invasion in July 1937) and joined the Anti-Comintern pact on November 7th 1937, while recognizing Manchukuo on November 29th and shipping the first airplane parts on November 30th.
The "Type I" order was one of the upstated commercial treaties. [15]
DEVELOPMENT
In December 1937 the Japanese defense Ministry, through its Military Attaché in Italy, Arisue Seizo, offered the Italian government a contract to produce about 130k rifles, formally for the "Manchukuo Government for Training purposes".
The request was for a brand new gun, preferibly with a similar manual of arms to the Japanese type 38, back then the standard issued rifle of the Japanese Empire.
It was expressly requested that the gun had to be in 6.5x50 Arisaka and that it should have been compatible with the type 30 bayonet, other features could have been discussed. No accessories were to be produced for the guns, and stocks had to be delivered untreated, in order to be finished in Japanese Arsenals.
Total amout allocated for this project was 10 million yen, and the initial request was for these guns to be aquired /contract signed) on december 1938. [1a]
The Terni Arsenal projected a rifle built around the Carcano action, using a proprietary stock and metal furnitures, almost identical to the one used in the type 38, included the typical split buttstock, and started the setup to produce the 6.5x50 barrels.
In May/July 1938 (The June 15th telegram we have quote a May 19th Telegram) the Japanese defense ministry and Italian government (through the Italian military attachees) started to exchange a series of telegrams to settle the details of the final production.
The Terni Arsenal offered two possibilities: [1]
- A rifle with a standard Carcano Magazine and to be used with Mannlicher clips, costing 65 yen (350 liras) and ready to be delivered after 9 months.
- A rifle with a Type 38 Mauser style magazine, to be fed with stripper clips, costing 75 yen (400 liras) and ready to be delivered after 12 months.
Final details were settled within September 1938, with the Japanese Ordnance Bureau, Firearms secion, asking in October 1938 for 130,000 guns with the type 38 style magazine, spending a grand total of about 9.6 million yen of the 10 million allocated. The 400k yen advanced were used to buy some more anti aircraft ammunitions from Germany. [2]
The final contract was formally signed on January 1939, with Italian primary sources claiming that the final number of guns set for production was 120,000 for 50 million liras. The reasoning for this change is unclear, probably the Japanese government settled for 120,000 guns in order to have some spare funds to buy spare parts and extra wooden stocks, as we'll see in the next paragraph.
The purchase and shipments were apparently organised with the help of the Mitsui & Co Ltd, that acted as a liaison, as a commercial facade for the deal. [4] Payment was made in "Precious values" and divided in 50% at the contract sign, 25% Before shipping and 25% once delivered to Japan.
Arisue Seizo, Military Attaché to
the Japanese Embassy in Italy
Wikidata
Japanese center for Asian historical records
Copyright Ugo Venturoli,
via www.exordinanza.it
Pics courtesy of J. Anderson
PRODUCTION AND USE
Once Terni finished to produce all the barrels, they sent them to three different facilities to produce the other parts and assemble the guns.
These were:
- SFARE GARDONE VAL TROMPIA, assemblying half of the guns, serial prefix A-F
- Fabbrica Nazionale d'Armi - Brescia, assemblying a quarter of the guns, serial prefix G-I
- Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta - Gardone v.t., assemblying the last quarter of the guns, serial prefix J-L
All weapons produced were tested by SFARE of Gardone V.T. with ammunition procured by the Japanese government: 650,000 cartridges of 6.5x50 Arisaka were sent free of charge, not without encountering some issues along the way. The Italian Ministry of Finance (Customs Office) demanded full payment of customs duties for each imported cartridge from the Japanese government. This impasse was resolved only through the intervention of Colonel Arisue with the Italian General Staff, who successfully waived the requested customs duties, highlighting the significant hard currency contract already in progress and the absolutely free nature of the ammunition supplied. Gardone used approximately 254,000 cartridges and returned the remainder (395,880 rounds in 55 cases [5a] ) to Mitsui & Co ltd for repatriation. [5]
The Gardone Arsenal fire tested the guns produced by all factories, controlled measurements, tolerances, and prepared them to be shipped, usually with the supervision of the Japanese Ordnance Commission.
The guns were shipped in 6 different shipments of about 20k guns each between July 1939 and December 1939.
On October 18th 1939 the 6th and final batch of guns was tested at the presence of the Japanese Ordnance commission, that judged the rifles "generally good and all production was completed without incidents". [6]
On November 15th, a contract for additional extractors was submitted and signed, and in December an additional 5000 Type I Beech stocks were requested as spares, paying them about 40 lire each. [7]
4th shipment of guns arrived in Japan on December 6th 1939. [8]
The Last shipment of guns left the port of Genoa on the "Suwa Maru" cargo ship on December 21st 1939. [9]
The ammo left over from the testing (395,880 rounds in 55 crates) were sent back to Japan in January 1940 on the Muroran Maru Cargo Ship. [10]
Contract was terminated on March 5th 1940, when the last payment was done by the Japanese, with 186,669 lira left as excess cash. [11]
The Japanese documents indicate that some of the cargo ship got inspected by british troops while passing through a british port along the route, but the guns weren't discovered.[9] The Japanese Ministry of Defense took countermeasures in order to keep guns and aircraft purchases as hidden as possible from UK and France sights. [12]
MARKINGS
All Type I guns produced weren't marked with the Imperial Japanese Chrisantemum Seal, being formally destined to the Manchukuo Government.
Despite being serialised only on the barrel with no apparent other crest nor markings, an "all matching" Type I rifle can actually be obtained, or at least you could easily spot a bolt swap.
Both Beretta and F.N.A. marked the Bolt handles' base, the Receviers (on the bottom, cannot see it unless you disassembly the stock) and bolt parts with their own logos, while Gardone Val Trompia Arsenal marked the same parts with their inspection markings, usually a number inside a diamond, a FAT or FAG stamp, or didn't mark them at all.
Beretta used their tipical PB (Pietro Beretta, with and without crown), while F.N.A. used their logo, stylized, as they did on all of their manufactured parts.
Being, training and ammo wise, very similar to Type 38 rifles, but different in terms of spare parts, Type I rifles were usually sent all around the Japanese empire in small batches, in order to have them issued to specific units, to ease spare parts logistics. Both the Japanese Navy and Japanese Army got these rifles, with no evident differences among them. These were just "spare" rifles aquired through diplomatic deals, ready to be used efficiently by second line units who didn't need a constant flow of replacements and that weren't suppose to get any kind of war attrition.
Some of these rifles show a shortened stock, about 1 inch removed from the buttplate side, in order to be more comfortable for some Japanese units. These modifications were most likely done in Italy, since the stocks and buttplates are shaped at the factory, and Italian inspeciton marks are impressed in the buttstocks rear. These shortened stocks could be part of the 5000 extra stocks purchased or be a former request expressed in the contract.
DOCUMENTED MOVINGS AND SURRENDERINGS (Partial)
As discussed in the introduction of this article, these rifles were sent all over the Japanese Empire and its dominions:
2000 rifles were sent in march 1940 to the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, basically a puppet regime installed in Nanjing by the Japanese.
1000 rifles were sent in march 1940 to the Mengjang Autonomous government, basically a puppet regime installed in the Inner Mongolian region by the Japanese, that it will be absorbed into the RNG Republic of China later that year.
100 rifles went to the Nagoya Second Army Hospital, for security and allegedly in anti aircraft use (request for 3000 ordinary rounds and 1000 "air defense purposes" rounds, July 27th 1942). [14]
Several units of the Imperial Japanese Navy received these rifles, both for training use
1700 were captured from the Marines forces in Shanghai
650 were captured by the 186th Airfield Battalion [13]
224 were captured from the Zhoushan Guard units (Naval unit in Shanghai)
563 were captured from the Hario Naval Corp
Japanese center for Asian historical records, with notes by Anderson, Zou and collaborators
Primary Sources - Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR)
As discussed in the introduction of this article, these rifles were sent all over the Japanese Empire and its dominions:
2000 rifles were sent in march 1940 to the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, basically a puppet regime installed in Nanjing by the Japanese.
1000 rifles were sent in march Anderson's thread on Gunboards forum
Aaron Zou's Article
[1a] - Proposal of the Army Ministry to purchase italian rifles Ref.C04120693100, 1938 Rikushimitsu Dainikki No.73 (NIDS)
[1] - Purchasing rifles - Options Ref.C01004544600, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 15, 1938 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[2] - Purchasing rifles - Ordnance request Ref.C01004553400, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 15, 1938 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[3] - Ircania shipping BR20 Ref.C01004358600, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 8, 1937 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[4] - Mitsui Involvement Ref.C01004665900, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 11, 1939 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[5a] - Leftover ammo Ref.C01004876900, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 15, 1940 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[5] - Leftover ammo - Return to Mitsui & Co Ltd Ref.C01004704700, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 13, 1939 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[6] - Overall budget, 6th batch inspection Ref.C01004703100, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 13, 1939 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[7] - Purchasing extra beech Stocks Ref.C01004704000, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 13, 1939 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[8] - Cost of individual rifles, 4th shipment Ref.C01004875400, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 15, 1940 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[9] - 6th shipment depart from Genoa Ref.C01004875900, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 15, 1940 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[10] - Shipping remaining ammo Ref.C01004879900, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 15, 1940 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[11] - Final cost and leftover money Ref.C01004889400, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 15, 1940 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[12] - Hiding stuff from the Brits Ref.C01004809000, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 8, 1940 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[13] - 186th Airfield Battalion Ref.C15010589500, September, 1945 1st weapon transfer list (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[14] - Nagoya Hospital Ref.C06030135500, 1942, No. 15 of Rikuafu Dainikki (National Institute for Defense Studies)
[15] - Trade deals Japan- Italy-Manchukuo Ref.C01001663700, Dainikki, Koshu, 1938 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
Cost of Rifle Paid Ref.C01004699700, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 13, 1939 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
Purchasing Rifle - Banca Commerciale Italiana Ref.C01004703800, Mitsu Dainikki, Vol. 13, 1939 (National Institute for Defense Studies)
Surrendered rifles, 13th Air Division Ref.C15010659300, January 1946, Weapon transfer list, 13th Air Division (National Institute for Defense Studies)
to the Mengjang Autonomous government, basically a puppet regime installed in the Inner Mongolian region by the Japanese, that it will be absorbed into the RNG Republic of China later that year.
100 rifles went to the Nagoya Second Army Hospital, for security and allegedly in anti aircraft use (request for 3000 ordinary rounds and 1000 "air defense purposes" rounds, July 27th 1942). [14]
Several units of the Imperial Japanese Navy received these rifles, both for training use
1700 were captured from the Marines forces in Shanghai
650 were captured by the 186th Airfield Battalion [13]
224 were captured from the Zhoushan Guard units (Naval unit in Shanghai)
563 were captured from the Hario Naval Corp