The Sumida M.2593 (Type 91) was an armoured car produced by the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

in the 1930s. It could operate on both the roadway and railway lines. There were two main versions of the Sumida M.2593 produced. The Type 91 armoured railroad car was used by the army and the Sumida Model P armored car was used by the

Special Naval Landing Forces The Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF; ) were standalone naval infantry units in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and were a part of the IJN land forces. They saw extensive service in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in the Pacific theatre o ...

(SNLF) of the navy.

History

Sumiya (often simplified to , sometimes styled ), established in 1640, was the designated red light district () in Kyoto. Following the outlawing of sex work in Japan, it went defunct as a red-light district in the 1950s but continued as a geisha dist ...

firm, beginning in 1931 the M.2593 was produced at the Ishikawajima Motor Works. A defining feature of this vehicle is that its six road wheels could be exchanged for flanged railway wheels. When not in use, the tires would be secured to the sides of the hull. It had four built-in jacks to raise the vehicle when the wheels were changed. It would take ten to twenty minutes to change the wheels. The front and rear sets of wheels could even be adjusted to various

rail gauge In rail transport, track gauge is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many different track gauges exist worldwide, gauge dif ...

s. The car was capable of 25 mph (40 km/h) on road and traveling at higher speeds on rails, going up to 37 mph (60 km/h). The car was successful in covering great distances in the 1937 invasion of China. They were also used in Manchuria, to "guard railway lines". They could be coupled together and operate on the rails like "rolling stock". This led them to be used in joint operations with trains and were used for reconnaissance by the army. The M.2593 had a crew of six men, and was armed with either one 6.5 mm machine gun or one 7.7 mm machine gun. A total of 1,000 units of all versions of this armoured car were produced.

Variants

One version of the Sumida M.2593 (Type 91) was produced without a main fixed machine gun for armament. A variant produced by Ishikawajima was known as the Sumida Model P armored car. It was used by the

(SNLF) of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

(IJN).Taki's Imperial Japanese Army: Sumida Model P Armored Car
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Gallery

File:Type 91 Broad-gauge Railroad Tractor, with street wheels.jpg, Side view of a Sumida M.2593 File:Type 91 Broad-gauge Railroad Tractor hooked to another Type 91 Broad-gauge Railroad Tractor.jpg, Sumida M.2593 hooked in tandem to another Type 91 (1933) File:Japanische Eisenbahnpioniere in ihrer Ausbildung.jpg, Sumida M.2593 on railway bridge File:IJA troops in Type 91 guarding railroad tracks.jpg, Infantry in a Sumida M.2593, guarding the railroad tracks File:SumidaM2593 3.jpg, Sumida Model P armored car of the SNLF File:Sumida Model P armoured car.jpg, Sumida Model P armored car of the SNLF on patrol File:Jap hokoku panzerwagen 2.jpg, Rear side view of a Sumida Model P armored car (SNLF)

Notes

References

* *Trewhitt, Philip, and Chris McNab (2004). ''Fighting Vehicles of the World: over 600 Tanks and AFVS of the World''. London: Amber.

External links

{{WWIIJapaneseAFVs Armoured cars of Japan Isuzu Armoured cars of the interwar period World War II armoured fighting vehicles of Japan Military vehicles introduced in the 1930s Military draisines Road–rail vehicles