Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun

Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun. All blued metal construction except for the wooden downward hinging traverse handles. The receiver has Japanese characters on the top indicating the Type 92 with the serial number, the Kokura arsenal triple ring trade mark and 14.8 (August 1939) on the left side. The barrel has machined cooling fins for half its length towards the muzzle. The barrel jacket has larger cooling fins from the receiver to approximately half way along the barrel. A cone shape flash hider is fitted to the muzzle and it has a large cocking handle on the right side of the action. It is fed by a Hotchkiss design 30 round ammunition strip which is lubricated by an oiler to assist with cartridge extraction.

The Type 92 was one of the most widely used heavy machine guns in the Japanese Army during the Second World War. The weapon was introduced in 1932 to take advantage of the new 7.7mm semi-rimmed cartridge which offered improved ballistic performance over long ranges. The mount is built to be carried by means of detachable wooden poles that fit into each of the front legs and with a single fork type pipe fitted to the rear leg. This allows two men to carry the gun and mount in firing position relatively rapidly over limited distances. The rate of fire was low, and because of a curious stuttering effect during firing, the gun was nicknamed the "woodpecker". It is essentially a modified Hotchkiss 1914 machine gun design. The 7.7mm semi-rimless round needed to be lubricated for reliable functioning.