Type 5 Na-To
In service Never entered service
A lightly built tank destroyer on the Type 4 Chi-So carrier chassis, mounting the best Japanese 75 mm gun on an open pivot mount. Only prototypes were completed.
Built byHino Motors
Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.
Development history
By 1944 Japan needed an anti-tank weapon that could be built quickly and in quantity. The Na-To took the Type 4 Chi-So tracked carrier, a utility chassis rather than a tank hull, and fitted the long 75 mm Type 5 gun on a turntable with a shield. Protection was minimal and the vehicle would have been fragile in action, but it was cheap and the gun was effective against the Sherman. Two prototypes were finished and a production order placed for the defence of the home islands; the surrender ended the programme. It is documented here as an experimental vehicle, not a service type.