What's in a Bunker/Pillbox?

can anyone describe what sort of weapons would be in a japanese bunker?

im hoping for a howitzer and a heavy machine gun, any ideas if those would both fit in there?

thank you

 

Lots of photos of Japanese defensive systems at Pacific Wrecks website . Should find what you need on there, certainly both of the above.
Cheers,
Adam.

 

thank you.

that's perfect.

 

oh and im also trying to figure out how many ppl would normally be in there.

?

 

I can imagine the contents of any of the Japanese defensive positions sort of depends on the size of the prepared psition -- duh. As far as I know there were standardization of dimentions. And the size also depended upon geography encountered.

I can imagine a bunker size is somewhat dependent on the materials at hand to build them. What is the height of the available coconut palm trees? Surely you could have trained Engineer troops make something large enough to house a "mountain gun" and a HMG and 200 troops in some cave.

 

For most bunkers and pillboxes there were light infantry guns or machine guns.

Infantry guns include the:

Type 11 37 mm Infantry Support Gun
Type 92 Battalion Gun

These were 4 to 5 man weapons and would be in larger bunkers and fortifications, such as caves dug out of hill sides (as the Japanese often did), although Type 11 required 6 men insupport along with the firing crew of 4. They may also have had bunkers for their large mortars, but I'm not sure. As for machine guns they had 3 heavy machine guns, which were higly suitable to bunkers due to their size and about 3 light MGs, which could have been used in much the same way as the British Bren. Most of their heavies were around the size of the Browning 50. cal. and the British Vickers. They include the Type 1, Type 3 and Type 92 Heavy Machine Guns. The Type 1 was the smallest, and the Type 92 the largest. The type 3 had the best range, followed by the Type 1. Most of these would've required a crew of 2 or 3 maybe.

 

Interested in what John Galt needed this info for. Likely a model I presume. Would have liked to see said hypothetical model.

Centurion, thanks for responding to a 6 year old thread, you obviously have some good background in the Japanese bunker area. I'm not sure John Galt will see this, but you added some helpful detailed info and bumped the thread which is why I even saw this.

 

It evolved over the war, and one needs to think about what "type" of pillbox one is referring to - a more ad-hoc log and sand structure built quickly by troops in the field, or concrete and stone?
A good basic overview can be found in Osprey's "Japanese Pacific Island Defenses 1941–45."